This post includes SPOILERS, so if you haven’t watched the movie yet check it out!
I’ve been asked a lot of questions from people about my latest short movie, “Voice Inside”. They were all fairly easy for me to answer with the exception of one. “Where did you get the idea for the movie?” This question seemed simple enough, but the final conclusion that I came to surprised me.
2 years ago I watched Vaughn Juares’ short movie, “Fragile” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkDqmzMgLWw). I really enjoyed it and it opened my eyes to the possibilities of finding talented child actors. The idea of shooting a short starring a young kid sounded fun and challenging. A perfect incentive to start writing!
While trying to come up with the definitive script, I went through many iterations. The first couple of rough drafts seemed to be lacking something. Something that made it worthwhile and meaningful to me. Originally I planned to have the ending much more grim. Basically I was going to have the kidnapper take the kid away from her dad, never to see each other again. This didn’t feel quite right and my wife called me out on it. So I changed it to a positive ending where the dad does get his daughter back. But how?
I’ve learned from the book “Story”, by Robert McKee, that the best and most powerful movie endings are ironic.
How could I make the ending ironic? That’s when I came up with the idea of the drunken dad stumbling out into the woods and tripping on the log. He looks into the sky, thinking about his recently deceased wife, and decides to give up drinking right then and there. As a sign of his change, he smashes all the bottles and starts to smile and laugh for the first time since his wife’s death. This single action, both on purpose and inadvertently, saves his daughters life. On purpose, he decided to give up drinking which would obviously have a positive impact on his daughters life. But also inadvertently, later on, the kidnapper trips on the same log the dad tripped on and slits his throat on the broken bottles; thus saving his daughters life. Great irony!
One of the most surprising takeaways I got from thinking about this question, was how it corresponded to my childhood. First off, no, my dad was not an alcoholic. He took me to WCW and WWF (Before the WWE switch) wrestling events, loads of sporting events and along with my mom pretty much spoiled me (their only child) rotten. Although he did so much for me and obviously loved me, he had a hard time showing it with hugs and actually saying it. In the past couple of years though, I’ve learned that people show their affection in different ways and my dad did it through gifts and taking me places.
There really isn’t a short answer to how I came up with the idea. The idea sprouted out from inspiration and slowly took shape. I kept revising the script until it felt right. So the idea itself changed again and again until the final script.
What a loaded question!
If you want more behind the scenes, here are some images:
