the making of a sa movie

[Naptaq]

There's been movies with sa characters in them (Pump Up The Volume, Little Voice, The Village..) but nobody menitions social anxiety. they just describe him/her sa "patheticly" shy
so if we do a sa movie, what would it be? would it be a documentary? Documentaries are normaly not so successful in theaters and a one about sa - - sounds like a flop.. i mean who would want to see that? well besides 7% of the "world" population that has sa right. they'd be glad to see it. and when other people (non-sa) would see this movie it would be quite informal and beneficial to us sa people as fell as for them non-sa people, the beautiful... but..
to inform and entertain.., that my friend we'd need a movie. get actors who know how to act. maybe even well known actors. but hey, what do actors know about sa, right? well we'd just throw a couple of sa books at them and them and say that they have to "read the books before they even open the script". Well aperently that's what the Wachowski brothers did to Keanu and it seemed to work very well in the Matrix.
so we need a story that would mix sa with.. well whatever mainstream media wants to eat so to speak. we want to mash that up good and add vanilla chocolate and chilli.
but yah the script would have to be bombastic, so that the studio would even consider using big names in it.. big promotion campaign.. tv adds. trl apperences.. all that jazz
but what actors to use..?
what would the story be about..?
which director do you feel does have the skills to do this..?
ok, i know that my head's up with the birds, but you know what? everybody has a little Superman in them
c'mon ppl now smile on your brother.. let's discus till we wake up uncle Morty

[NickH]

I've often wondered about this as i'm a big movie buff and thought about how i would write a movie based on what i know about and my life, i.e being shy. The thing is there's no way it could just be about my everyday life coping with shyness as it would be really boring and nothing much would happen. Take movies like eternal sunshine, punch-druck love, donnie darko (to a lesser extent as i'm not sure that was really about shyness), all have characters which suffer from social problems but all those films have a plot which has some interesting twist or has a resolution where everything works out in the end, and like you say that problem is never directly delt with, its just a side issue.

To have a film about someone dealing with shyness but where nothing is overcome (as with my life) and nothing amazing happens would take some very good writing to make a studio even consider it. I think though that with the clever use of visual and audio aids it would be possible to present an idea of how the sa mind works, and i'd make sure the film was kept quite short, afterall who's gonna wanna sit through 2 and half hours of someone sitting at home every friday night watching tv ;D

Having said all that though i think as a main character i would have someone like Rob de Niro who is known to be quite shy in real life but to my knowledge has never played a character which closely reflects this (although he is getting a bit old now). I also like the idea of someone playing against type like Jim Carey and Adam Sandler did in the films mentioned although to really delve into the mind of a shy/sa sufferer i think someone who already understands that problem would be better.

With regards to directors i like the idea of using some offbeat name such as PT Anderson or David O'Russell as i think they could make a quite standard story into something special.

Just a few ideas.

Nick

[strawberrysweetie]

You know, I have actually thought about this before. I've thought it would be awesome to make a movie about social anxiety so that people could get an idea of how painful it can be to live with this.

I thought that maybe it would be better to follow the lives of a few characters...instead of just one. You know, a couple could learn to overcome their shyness or at least learn to live with it, while another one or two never learn to deal with it. They could be followed around while searching for jobs, going to school, getting together with family, trying to talk with others, showing flashbacks of their childhood, then going home and living a lonely life (watching tv or posting forums...always alone at home). And then you could hear what's going on in their mind...maybe not all of the time, but at least sometimes. And then maybe, say like they all post to the same forum...such as this one...and this group of people that have been followed around get together and talk and share experiences.

I don't know if this makes much sense, but oh well. I've just had ideas like this before...ideas that probably won't ever go anywhere. But you know, some actors/actresses might be able to relate some....not necessarily with social anxiety, but at least with shyness, since some have claimed to be painfully shy before. Some say they can only act because they're playing the part of someone else and not themselves, so if you don't like the character they're playing, then it's not exactly them that you don't like. They'll feel anxiety when they have to talk as themselves.

[Naptaq]

Thanks for your reply NickH
ok i just think sa should be an issue in this movie. but it could be the main issue or the side issue..
now the side sa issue with an awsome main story would probobly make the movie a big money maker, meaning a lot of people who don't have sa would go see it.. and if the story was kinda telling you that sa people are not creepy that they are actualy nice, but don't know how to show it, then us sa folks would see some changes in real life..

*a girl walking up to you in school*
"hey i noticed you don't talk much" she says
you look away ..
"you have sa right?" she says. u try to look at her.
"that's ok... hey u wanna hang out with me tonight?"
"no.." you say quietly
she hands you a pen "well then write your phone number on my arm. don't worry i don't bite.."*

lol aww man that would be great. ok i know i was beeing a little unrealistic there but ya know what i mean.
yea well cus of the nature of sa we couldn't do a very long movie only about sa and just show him/her wathing tv everyday, cus it would be probobly boring, unless done in a spectacular fashion. But a story with a twist..
maybe put the character in the time he begins to change and then some weird/funny/dramatic/horrible/wonderful things start happening that would be worth putting on a movie screen.
with that said we couldn't be 100% true to the reality of a sa person.. or could we? but after all most movies are fairy tales, dreamworks.
ok about the actors you mentioned:
-Robert De Niro.. there will be no doubt about his dedication to be true to the sa nature of the character as De Niro is "Known for method acting techniques with his characters by heavily studying their backgrounds" but like u said he's a little 2 old .. dependes what ages we're talkin' about
-Jim Carrey or Adam Sandlers are folks who played a shy character and would be a possible choise... and all other wolks that ever played some kind of a shy characters.
-But maybe even get some real sa people involved..?

Those are 2 very interesting directiors you mentioned.. haven't heard of them b4 but i'm onto them now.. i mean their works

some other actors we could use are George Clooney and Gwyneth Parlow...

Peace

[Naptaq]

Strawberry Sweetie i think that's a wonderful idea. Thanks for your reply
Sa folks meeting thru the internet and then getting together is one option. And maybe follow like 4 or 5 people at the same time. Let's say 2 meet each other and try to deal with sa together and fighting against the world who just dosen't understand lol.
1 would say.. kill himself.. or almost kill himself. we definetly need one who's really down and gets up or falls down completly to show to people how devistating sa can be.
and for the other characters.. we'd think of something. umm. an incredible talent at something but he's unable to show it cus of sa..
to show them wasted chances and dialogs in the head of a sa person that don't make sense to a non-shyperson.
make them wanna cry.. make them wanna help.. make them wanna scream "Now i know what's wrong with my son/doughter/crush/sister/brother/bf/gf!! if i only knew.."
.. yea
peace

[NickH]

Yea, i also like that idea of following seperate people who all have this thing in common and can connect with each other through their problem. It could maybe play out along the lines of something like pulp fiction or magnolia, with all these seperate story lines somehow cleverly intertwined, then you have delt with the main sa/shyness issue while also giving that extra interesting hook for the mainstream. Maybe thats not what you meant but if done well i think that method of linking seperate peoples lives together is very effective an an interesting twist.

[Naptaq]

NickH that's an awsome idea. I love ideas ..mm
Using a little what Quentin made in Pulp Fiction and just mix it up with E.T., Terminator or/and Donnie Darko and we got urselfs a hit lol..
but seriusly tho sometimes u just have to take what's been done and present it in a fresher better way, but not exactly copying. Just u know, be creative with what those fantastic directors did and apreciate it.
ok all we need now is a script..
peace