Hrundi V Bakshi
Dr. Fu Manchu
Inspector Clouseau
The inspiration from his iconic character Inspector Clouseau was modeled after a box of matches depicting Captain Matthew Webb , who became the first person to ever swim the English Channel in 1875.
Peters Sellers as Inspector Clouseau in The 1976 film "The Pink Panther Strikes Again"
Never has a Hollywood comedic actor tried so hard at working with weak material to be violently funny. In the end , we were introduced to an iconic character who bumps into things, stumbling blindly over door steps and edges of rugs. He walks into his own bedroom clueless to the fact that the thief is right under his feet. (It so happens to be his wife's lover, Sir Charles Litton, who is calmly waiting there with a couple of glasses of champagne waiting for his cue to exit).
Movie reviewer, Irv Slifkin, said one of the most ever changing comedic talents in the 1960s was Peter Sellers who could" change like a chameleon throughout the era, dazzling audiences".
Dr. Strangelove
Dr. Ahmed El Kabir
Dr. Fritz Fassbender
Actor David Schwimmer is another whose comedic approach was influenced by Sellers stated, "he could do anything from Dr. Strangelove, Inspector Clouseau, Hrundi V Bakshi, to Fu Man Chu". Even Peter Seller's role on the BBC hit show The Goon Show inspired a whole new generation of comedians playing multiple characters from Monty Python, to Spinal Tap, to Sacha Baron Cohen.
Monty Python
Spinal Tap
Sacha Baron's Cohen's various movie characters inspired by the comedic stylings of Peter Sellers
The examples above shows that the power of film is indisputable, captivating audiences when you have a hilarious comedy matched with a brilliant comedic actor working hand in hand. Anything less than that is un-entertaining to the eyes and ears. Once the build up of big media marketing campaigns go into effect, we all want so badly to watch.
The Original Star Wars 1977- One of the big media blockbusters alongside Jaws that started it all.
As Pauline Kael, author of For Keeps: 30 Years at the movies quotes:
“A good movie can take you out of your dull funk and the hopelessness that so often goes with slipping into a theatre; a good movie can make you feel alive again, in contact, not just lost in another city. Good movies make you care, make you believe in possibilities again. If somewhere in the Hollywood-entertainment world someone has managed to break through with something that speaks to you, then it isn't all corruption. The movie doesn't have to be great; it can be stupid and empty and you can still have the joy of a good performance, or the joy in just a good line. An actor’s scowl, a small subversive gesture, a dirty remark that someone tosses off with a mock-innocent face, and the world makes a little bit of sense. Sitting there alone or painfully alone because those with you do not react as you do, you know there must be others perhaps in this very theatre or in this city, surely in other theatres in other cities, now, in the past or future, who react as you do. And because movies are the most total and encompassing art form we have, these reactions can seem the most personal and, maybe the most important, imaginable. The romance of movies is not just in those stories and those people on the screen but in the adolescent dream of meeting others who feel as you do about what you’ve seen. You do meet them, of course, and you know each other at once because you talk less about good movies than about what you love in bad movies.”
Movies are watched by all from your lower to middle class all the way up to your local politicians and The President. No wonder films have their firm grasp on us all. When Howard The Duck debuted in theater's August 1st, 1986 due to it's poor performance at the box office stateside the film's title was changed from "Howard The Duck" to "Howard: A New Breed of Hero" for it's release in non-US territories in the UK and Austria.
Howard: A New Breed of Hero (1986)
Top Gun (1986)
In contrast, riding the wave of Top Gun's skyrocketing box office numbers that very same year, the US Navy set up recruiting booths outside theaters to catch fans of the film leaving the building. As a result, they had the highest number of applications of men and women joining the United States Naval Service service in years.
US Navy 1987 Recruitment video made right after the box office success of Top Gun
If you're reading this, chances are you among the chosen few who wish to join the ranks of the cinema storytellers and write a movie. If you hope to break into the movie business you will need imagination, talent, skill, determination, and persistence. In order to be seen you should produce at least one or more screenplays of outstanding quality. These must be complete screenplays and not just simple story concepts and five page pitches.
Shooting Script for the 1980 film The Blues Brothers
The focus of these screenplay blogs is on writing feature films from 90 to 120 minutes. Now if you're focus is on writing for television , then I suggest consulting other research material. The same holds true f or writing animated films for those particular films are produced in house by a film studio. This particular guide is for those wishing to write a spec screenplay , which is a screenplay that you are writing out of your own creative free will in the hopes that some movie studio or production company will pick it up. Spec is short for "speculation" which is a informal noun to describe an action one does in the hopes of success.
Coming up next
FILM: A VISUAL MEDIUM
"Until next time this is Joe Krueger, of the Filmmakers Studio, and we'll see you at the movies"
- Joe Krueger, Director of the Filmmakers Studio
www.filmmakersstudio.com
CELEBRATING THE SOUNDTRACKS OF MY LIFE: TERMINATOR (1984) - INTRO
