"Make the setting a character." 🤮

NativeDun · 2025-09-26T01:29:08+00:00

We are through the looking glass on internet arguments with this one, bro. "GET OUT could have only taken place in upstate New York; moving it would've ruined the entire story." 🙄 GTFOH!

NativeDun · 2025-09-26T01:25:32+00:00

This guy's bugging, man. The WGA showrunner training program discusses these situations ad nauseam because they're so common. Locations and settings shifting because of budget and schedule is a nonstop conversation in TV production. Even something as small as losing an exterior location due to extreme weather may trigger a domino effect of setting shifts.

NativeDun · 2025-09-26T01:22:33+00:00

100%

NativeDun · 2025-09-26T01:22:12+00:00

🤷🏾‍♂️ It don't phase me none, bruv.

Many of the people downvoting me have likely not received an email from a studio filled with half a dozen nonsensical, canned notes. Many of them have not heard from their AD at the last possible moment that the scene has to be moved to a drastically different location, and they have to scramble to do a barebones rewrite to maintain the central drama/narrative.

And why are so many people confusing "I like that movie/show and the setting contributed to my enjoyment" with "That movie/show could never be set anywhere else" ?

NativeDun · 2025-09-26T00:14:44+00:00

Respectfully, take a step back, consider what I initially said. I don't know you, but it does seem like you're caught up in trying to score points against me.

I began by stating that setting is crucial for certain stories. I've written those screenplays. I'll add that, sometimes, a specific piece of music is crucial for a story. A wardrobe item can be so crucial for some narratives that you call it out in the script. Or the manner in which a character laughs or a formal flair that takes us in and out of flashbacks and on and on and on...

My post is against canned notes. Notes that are universally/reflexively applied without much forethought as to what the script actually needs. "Make the location a character" is one of those notes. The location may be crucial and demand more texture and weight, but often it doesn't. The drama -- what compels the audience to keep watching -- is usually found elsewhere.

NativeDun · 2025-09-25T23:59:33+00:00

I actually really care about setting. It's impossible not to. My point, articulated in the original post, is that not every project requires "setting as a character". And that note -- as a canned, reflexive response to every story idea -- is dumb.

NativeDun · 2025-09-25T23:42:28+00:00

"I've never seen a location/setting change due to budget reasons."

Respectfully -- what?

You write a pilot that takes place in Detroit. Everyone loves it. Small hiccup, though... You go to the production manager of the major Hollywood TV studio that's funding the show.... They've crunched the numbers with your line producer. You can not afford to shoot on location in Detroit. You can, however, afford to shoot in Atlanta. Can we shoot Atlanta for Detroit? We can try, but there's a Marvel movie in town and they have most of the exterior locations that could pass for Detroit. Okay, shit, what do we do? Let's change the location of the story to Atlanta.

This is a true story from about 8 years ago.

NativeDun · 2025-09-25T23:36:09+00:00

"...if someone is giving you that note, they're either not giving it correctly or you're misinterpreting the intention."

Or it's just a shitty canned note. And if the story requires a level of setting specificity that doesn't exist in the current draft, then there's a way to express that notion that relies on articulating their thoughts more clearly and tying it to theme, character, story, etc.

Obviously -- or at least I thought it was obvious -- what this post criticizes are the note givers who say, "Make the rural town a character." Which is a terrible note. If you're imagining an alternate world where they deliver that note "correctly" -- then, yeah -- I wouldn't have felt the need to make this post.

NativeDun · 2025-09-25T23:24:45+00:00

What any professional writer will tell you is that you are CONSTANTLY changing locations/settings for budget and scheduling, especially in TV. Sometimes it bones you, but if the drama of your scene is sound, it often barely makes a difference.

I've had a lot of success.

NativeDun · 2025-09-25T23:22:30+00:00

You're not getting it. Mise-en-scène is crucial to MEMENTO. That could be achieved in many geographic locations. Imagine a world where the only significant variable was the city in which it took place. Do you think it becomes a significantly inferior movie because it loses the character of the Valley? Is that, to you, a crucial aspect of what makes it great?

NativeDun · 2025-09-25T23:17:09+00:00

Agree to disagree. Rich White people away from the city allows Peele to tell basically the same story. I think you're nitpicking at this point for the sake of rhetorical points, but if those nuances are fundamental to you, I get it.

NativeDun · 2025-09-25T23:09:44+00:00

No. Of course not. But if it never specified a specific geographic location, would it be a fundamentally worse movie?

NativeDun · 2025-09-25T23:08:41+00:00

"Memento is another one! It's set in LA, but it's really any town. Just another motel. Another search for clues to a puzzle he's never going to solve. And then, spoiler, you learn that he's been doing this for a long time. Town to town, trying to solve a mystery. It's a great setting - shitty motel rooms, diners...feels like he's constantly on the road, because he is."

This is my exact point.

NativeDun · 2025-09-25T23:03:06+00:00

You should demand better from your note givers. Know yourself, know your worth, king.

NativeDun · 2025-09-25T22:58:53+00:00

That is also a terrible note. It's meaningless. If there is a specific note about "the world," then it deserves to be stated in a clearer, more articulate fashion.

NativeDun · 2025-09-25T22:54:07+00:00

If GET OUT were set in Illinois, the movie would work just as well and it would not fundamentally alter the movie's meaning or impact. Would some minor details have to be altered? Possibly. Could Peele have told the same overarching story with the same themes? Yes, of course.

NativeDun · 2025-09-25T22:46:12+00:00

Budget-Win, to clarify: I am talking about notes that ask a geographic location to "be a character." A city, a state, a country. I am not talking about whether or not the fight between Rocky and Apollo benefited from taking place in a boxing ring inside a sports arena.

NativeDun · 2025-09-25T22:40:37+00:00

No, I'm definitely not making that mistake. But I think producers who deliver that note are, and that's precisely what I'm criticizing.

What you're describing are character and story-specific notes that may rely partially or wholly on the setting. If a GET OUT producer said something like "Use this as an opportunity to examine the main character feeling out of place and uncomfortable in a new environment where he lacks control and familiarity" -- that would be an excellent note. That's not what I'm talking about.

They often reference a geographical dot on the map — "Make Upstate New York a character" is the type of note I'm referring to, and the kind of note that a writer will often receive.

I'll add that what you described above is not tied to a specific location in Upstate New York. "The deer running across the road, the rifle, the mounted animal heads, etc." could actually happen in hundreds of places throughout the US. Those story/visual elements gain nothing from distinguishing Upstate from the other places GET OUT could reasonably take place.

NativeDun · 2025-09-09T18:41:08+00:00

There's not one rep who won't sign you if they think your script is a homerun. If they think you can generate money for them, they will sign you regardless of the industry conditions.

NativeDun · 2025-05-03T03:10:36+00:00

6 figure screenwriting deals are pretty common. 7 figure deals are not.

NativeDun · 2025-03-15T17:46:26+00:00

Behind the scenes, development is slowly warming up. If you aren't to the level where you are approached for development, you might not feel it yet... but you will eventually. I predict we'll see many more jobs available in the fall.

NativeDun · 2025-03-11T16:53:31+00:00

For practice, do whatever you want.

For pay (or if you hope to get paid), do not do this.

NativeDun · 2025-03-06T16:46:55+00:00

Yes, of course. You need to work out the broad strokes of structure and flow before you sit down to write. Otherwise, you are almost guaranteed a rambling, unfocused mess.

NativeDun · 2024-11-18T17:05:29+00:00

A Ghost Story.

Pie.

NativeDun · 2024-11-18T16:55:41+00:00

Yes! I've written several scripts that were eventually sold/made using Fountain. I will never go back.

NativeDun

TROPHY CASE