Sean Reid, Filmmaker: This could be interesting too, this one's more…I think fits in [reads
from card] “Discovers a terrible secret about their own family.”
Film Courage: Does the movie start with character or plot?
Sean: I think it can start with either or I like a movie that starts with character
because plot can be mundane, plot can lack originality or conceit where character can
there's still a chance for a character to be original for a character to be something
you've never seen before where a plot or a storyline is there's only seven of them or
eight you can argue with Shakespeare how many there are but there are only so many opportunities
for a specific plot or turn within each of the storylines if you think about it so if
not you're combining those elements to create something new where within a character there's
still an opportunity especially if as a woman or as a black male we have a chance, we still
have a lot of characteristics where we've seen things they've never seen before.
Being a white male you have a few less but there's always that opportunity.
So that's why I like character starting because it's more opportunity to find something original
in that.
Film Courage: Okay so character it is I know you said you could really be either or but
we'll go with character so we're hoping to play like a little game and we're gonna need
your help that's okay here we go.
So since you chose character we're going to have you pick I guess five cards and after
you've picked the five cards go ahead and read them aloud so maybe it's almost like
a tarot thing where they'll call to you in some sense
and this is from the wonderful game Pitch Storm and they're not a sponsor or anything
but we just thought it was a cool idea.
It's a pretty genius little game there.
Great okay and then go ahead and if you would do us the honor and please read.
Sean: All right interior kitchen a small mouse with a big heart, okay okay exterior of the
garden and aging butler reminiscing about their glory days ,interior top secret facility
the world's first sentient AI, interior arcade a video game character come to life interior
at the club a lifelong bachelor okay so what do I get to pick one of these which one do
you think would make the best movie for me at this point it would be I would be most
interested in an aging butler reminiscing about their glory days really why why that
one because I'm a real big fan of merchant ivory and I haven't seen a lot of American
style Merchant Ivory so I see an opportunity as a producer to make something we haven't
seen before that has a and has a predisposed audience it's there and if we could make it
in that way like the butler or some of those other things I think it would be something
that could still speak to an audience and on a smaller scale as well like it could still
just be a very small scale movie and speak to a large group of people it could be set
in in like the kitchen or someplace or the the pantry where he's continually sort of
going back to regroup for the day or something or it could or it could be that he's has a
grand kid like I think the classic he's got the grandkid and he's trying to justify his
life to him almost like on some level because he's like well you were just a servant you
just served people it's like well no I was more than that I was actually a butler and
a butler actually has something that has a lot more meaning than it used to have and
even explaining that so there could be opportunities for that I just I don't know I just think
about reminiscing about their glory days because their glory days are going to be other people's
days in some level because what glory days so butler has the butler is living through
except for maybe the children maybe his real glories are his children are the births of
his things are his the small things in life so that he's showing it's like in contrast
like yes I was a butler like at the white house or I was a butler for the kennedys or
the roosevelts and they were having all these highs but my greatest victories were you being
born or you going to school or you whatever it was so it could be a lot of things I like
it yeah it's just a nature I just find it more internal more of a feeling type movie
rather than these other ones which I i could see opportunities worlds first and there's
plenty of that there's plenty of opportunity for that and I'm very interested in it video
game character i've had some friends do that already a lifelong bachelor interested that's
actually probably too close to home a small mouse with a with a big heart well I that
one it's a disney movie which is fine I love disney movies but I think that this is the
one that I'm most qualified to make if that makes any sense at all sometimes it's about
what speaks to you that way I guess too that's true of the other four which do you think
would make a bad movie I know you said all of them you would consider but which which
calls to you the least
well a small mouse with a big heart doesn't really say very much it just has so many opportunities
to go in so many different directions that it could be anything so you're this like where
when I look at the description exterior the garden and aging butler reminiscing about
the glory days there's very I mean yes there's some wiggle room but there's not a lot of
wigging room interior kitchen a small mouth with a big heart that could be a superhero
mouse saving other mouses I don't know it could be a lot of different stuff going on
but it not all of it necessarily great not all but bad I mean it could be a very good
mickey mouse movie right mickey mouse is a small mouse with a big heart right sure okay
or tom and jerry thomas jerry he's just so I mean it's like I guess that's one it's just
vague to me like I just see wiggle room like I could spend hours just going oh is it this
is that small mouse could be a small mouse on an alien plane it could be a small big
mouse I mean or with a big head I don't know anyway i'll start making stuff up just because
that's the type of person I am sure it sounds like too with the butler there's more room
for a character arc if they're if they're remembering there's a journey yeah there's
a there's a there's an actual touch point for the character and I like that that's probably
what attracts me more it's like there's a beginning a middle and an end already there
established on some level all you have to do is kind of decide where you want to drop
into that great all right so we'll go with the the butler idea now we have a stack of
the plot cards and we're hoping you can choose three and then we're going to make it very
interesting from there we're going to try to weave together a story all right well there's
take that one and i'll take one off the bottom too how about that and the reason we're only
doing three is because you said character called to you more so plot not as much yeah
let's shuffle them to make be fair this is not rigged okay here we go now we're and we're
ready we're ready yeah okay okay let's see first the first cad get your reaction to it
tries to escape an island full of hungry dinosaurs okay well no that might be interesting though
if he had some very extreme interesting adventures and it was a common it was an extreme comedy
then it could have that opportunity to that if you just like really would start making
up stuff like big fish style then because you get sometimes maybe the kid's too bored
and he just starts making up stuff or going forward and he's like come on grandpa you're
making it up so you may have that anyway or he works for a wealthy family that owns an
island exactly and they would and they would tell him so he wouldn't want to go on vacation
that there were dinosaurs and he believed them at one point or maybe they just had some
mechanical ones they gotten from the other island who knows right he's cleaning the cabana
and then he sees a dinosaur yeah he's got dinosaurs dinosaur maybe it's just yeah maybe
it's a real mechanic maybe it's just a guy drives around like james bond like in dr no
and has the monster on the island that has a red leaves of fire we could have that too
keep them off the island and there's many possibilities with that one there's many possibilities
okay I don't know if that one still all right here we go number two this is why here we
go travels through time to save the world okay interesting okay once again if we go
extreme on this particular character and on the story line like if we make him almost
a walter midi-ish butler who perhaps dreams or is like a cohort like at times where he
was like he is like the sidekick of this person is being dragged along on these things kind
of like some of the famous characters in butlering history okay like albert and ryan albert's
batman's guy right and who else is there we can make some up oh they got a john favreau's
character and an iron man okay right there he's a driver but he kind of gets in he's
got kind of tough so you could have this kind of sidekick thing where he could have had
adventures with certain maybe people that he worked through at certain times perhaps
when he was younger or older where he was employed and had to perform at higher levels
of butlery right and maybe he was the brain when the other person got the credit as he
was a secret butler baby okay so there we go so maybe I don't know once again a little
extreme but here we go last one
this could be interesting too this one's more I think fits in discovers a terrible secret
about their own family oh okay much more merchandiser-ish much more kind of like a little darker a little
more especially if we throw these two and around it then that'll be a dark twisting
movie it's like yes he tries to escape an island full of hungry dinosaurs discovers
a terrible secret about his own family and travels through time to save the world that's
a real butler adventure boy so what do you like about that idea the secret about the
family sounds like that's the favorite here maybe because it has once again I think it
opens up the opportunity to discover something that may not have been there before and can
take you in a completely different direction now it's just the butler the being the butler
is just more context per se or a setting not necessarily what the theme of the story is
anything you don't like about that idea well I mean no not yet because it's like it's going
to that once again until you get specific you're not really locked down so until you
pick one that's when you're going to start to get into what it's really going to push
you in one direction or another right now it's it's pretty open but there's a lot of
terrible secrets you can have yeah I think so yeah what what genre would this be definitely
I may be able to if we if we if it wasn't a movie or maybe if it was a movie a comedy
drama a dark comedy or a dramedy if it was a tv series because I could see it also being
some kind of odd weird tv series especially if you went backwards and did a bbc thing
I don't know or as a tv or as a tv show or as a movie I think it would just be interesting
to just make it as kind of as an actor who will bring some level of comedy to it or humor
to it that maybe wouldn't normally do that kind of part like maybe jim carrey on his
way out so it also has a chance for a really good interesting casting it could be like
it's like almost like a what's that peter sellers movie that was his being there so
there's also the opportunity for something like that and performance wise if you change
those types of things I don't know why I thought of that because that's a very quiet performance
but this could be one too if he's reminiscing he kind of just tells the story but the character
and the present is not really talking that much and you kind of just go through it I
don't know anyway and real quickly how would he find out this family secret how do you
envision this butler well I guess he's telling the story of it and he's finds out and perhaps
he it's through a journal or a diary or a family secret through the fact of the generations
of them serving maybe the same family that's always a good way to do it and that maybe
then creates his getting up and moving is because of discovering that then maybe he's
like actually related to the family yeah but he's a bastard so or whatever it is so something
like that.