WRITER’S EDGE: Brainstorming Technique – Amateur Blank
The Amateur Blank is another brainstorming technique to help create instant movie ideas… Click here to learn how to use it!
Steve Kaire is a Screenwriter/Pitchman who’s sold 8 projects to the major studios without representation. Follow Steve on Twitter @SteveKaire.
The Amateur Blank is another brainstorming technique to help create instant movie ideas. This one involves the writer substituting a noun in the blank that movie audiences haven't seen before. It usually involves someone pretending to be someone else or impersonating a professional in a different occupation other than his own.
In the film, Let's Be Cops, we have two guys who impersonate policemen. The noun the writers chose to insert in the blank is Cops, making it Amateur Cops.
In the Richard Pryor comedy, Critical Condition, Pryor pretends to be a physician. So this would be an example of Amateur Doctor.
In the Dan Ackroyd comedy, Couch Trip, Ackroyd escapes from a mental institution and passes himself off as a psychiatrist. Here the blank is filled in with the word Shrink.
In another comedy, Trial and Error, Michael Richards fakes it as an attorney.
The entertainment value in all of these films using the Amateur Blank is the complications arising from being something you're not.
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STEVE KAIRE is a Screenwriter/Pitchman who’s sold 8 projects to the major studios without representation. The last project he sold, he’s Co-Producing for Walden Media. A screenwriter for over 30 years, he holds a Masters in Dramatic Writing and has taught writing classes at the American Film Institute. Steve was featured on the Tonight Show’s, “Pitching to America” and was voted a Star Speaker at Screenwriters Expo three years in a row. His top rated CD, High Concept - How to Create, Pitch & Sell to Hollywood is a best seller.
