Finding film stories from our cross-country trip

We’re finally at our new home in Miami, and I’ve never broken down so many cardboard boxes in my life. Shout out to Roadway Moving for not breaking a single thing across 3k miles, they made a stressful move about as easy as I could hope for. Here’s my referral link if you’re planning a local or long-distance move yourself.

Right now the new place is a mess, but I’ve set up my computer at last and I’m finally back to work. Cable management will have to wait for now.

It struck me in my last email that I forgot to mention a few of the funniest stories and moments from our cross-country road trip. But since this is Friday Film Notes, instead of just telling what happened, I’m going to walk through the thought process of how one of these stories would or would not work as short films.

So put on your writing thong (better than a writing hat IMO), and let’s outline some films based on true events.

OUT OF GAS

What actually happened: As we drove into Texas with our 3 cats in the back seat, I educated Toni on how important it would be to fill up the tank every chance we get, because there will be long stretches in West Texas with no gas stations.

The next morning, I take the first driving shift, and promptly forget to check the gas gauge. 30 miles out – the low gas light came on. FUCK. Toni informs me it’s 54 miles to the next gas station. DOUBLE FUCK.

I slow to a crawl, pull off at the next exit (a country road to nowhere), and we think. There’s another gas station back the way we came, about 25 miles. We might make it…

Well, after an anxiety inducing 30 minutes drive, we see the station on the horizon as we pull into the tiny Texas town of – I shit you not – Iraan, Texas. Not much to see outside the gas stations, except a predictably pristine high school football field.

We lost about an hour of driving time, but we kept our 3 cats cool and comfy, and that’s what’s most important.

Would this make a good film: Despite being a fun little story, I’d never make this into a film as-is.

Why?

The biggest issue to me is that while the Iraan reveal is an amazing and timely coincidence… coincidences don’t make for good films.

For that climax/reveal to work in a satisfying way in a film, I’d need to set up some kind of political or current events theme from the start of the story. Give that town’s name a “point” to exist in the story. Maybe make the whole film an allegory. The cats are the US citizens, Toni and I are the current administration, etc.

And if I DO make it an allegory, even though that sells the ending, it’s not enough. We’d have to also make sure that we could lose the allegory, and the rest of the film would be riveting, because unfortunately intellectual storytelling tools like allegory don’t make people FEEL anything. And if people don’t feel, the film fails.

To accomplish that, we just juice up the meat and potatoes of the story by focusing on the fundamentals: Who are the characters? What do they want? What’s in the way? What are the stakes? Etc.

This stuff doesn’t take long to work out if you’re asking yourself the right questions and know how to connect the dots (which is what I teach in my Instant Short Film Blueprint by the way).

The Big Mistake with True Stories

The biggest trap I see in beginner filmmakers with a story like this is sticking too close to the truth. That’s why I always warn filmmakers not to do autobiographical stories as their first short film. They get tunnel vision and subconsciously try to stick to the real story even when it’s not that strong.

But I say… Who tf cares about the truth? It’s a movie about 2 people running out of gas! We don’t owe the audience a factual account of anything. We only owe them a hell of a time.

So I’d take very big liberties with what actually happened on the road in Texas and likely just use it as a jumping off point.

The Iraan bit would probably be cut out entirely. Even though it’s the best part of the true story, it’s leaving a lot of meat on the bone of what we could do in a short film about running out of gas in the middle of nowhere.

Up Next

Thanks for everyone who submitted their films last week for the new critique video! I’m selecting the film(s) for that video now and will try to get that posted on the channel ahead of Halloween.

It feels weird to make a YouTube video in a different office though. The shade of blue here isn’t the same. I’m going to go full OCD and repaint it the exact navy blue as old office. Part of the brand at this point I reckon.

Miss out on submitting your film? Stick around here for another call for entries in the future (probably a couple months), or book a consultation with me directly for individual constructive feedback.

Let’s make some movies.

-Kent