IaU Review - "Captain Fantastic"
Watched the movie "Captain Fantastic" tonight with the family.
A family with 6 children living off the grid go on a cross country road trip out in the real world. Dealing with feeling like freaks and the danger of the way they chose to live.
It deals with issues like feeling abnormal growing up, learning to love yourself and your family, and accepting change as part of the process to better your life.
Overall it was a cute movie and I feel like it delved into some pretty normal concepts despite the abnormality of the way the family lived.
From a writers perspective: It was interesting to watch and think about how they might have developed the plot for the movie.
Writing something like this for me in particular would have been difficult because I would have to use my own imagination as well as research to make sure I got the details right and even then I have never experienced an off the grid life style so I still couldn't be sure it would be accurate. However, Matt Ross the writer and director he grew up and lived an off the grid lifestyle growing up and was able to take from his own experiences to help create the story as accurately as he could.
Some writers put themselves in the places or situations they are writing to better understand their story. If a story is placed out by the sea a writer might spend a week or a month out there to get a better grasp of the place and experience what their character might be feeling.
As a student with a day job and insufficient funds for travel I cannot go to these places that I want to write about so most of my stories take place in nondescript places or places that I can research into and change enough so that I can use past experiences.
Location and experience are something that always trips me up while writing. Every project that has failed was because I was much more focused on researching where my characters were and making sure I got the facts of that place right and I lost interest because the story never developed.
Example: Trying to create a Native American character that travels out to a Native American Reservation to find her roots sounded like something I was very interested in writing. I tried. But I am not Native American, I have never been to a Native American Reservation I was too worried about getting the facts wrong that I gave up on the story.
Something that I have to keep reminding myself is to just keep writing. Get the facts right after the story is written otherwise it will never get finished. In contrast, write what you know. If you live in the middle of cornfields write about living in the middle of a cornfield. If you live in the city, stick your character smack dab in the middle of your city, or any city.
You can even interview people later for the facts and go back and change what needs to be changed, get their take on the situation.
Write first, edit later.
A family with 6 children living off the grid go on a cross country road trip out in the real world. Dealing with feeling like freaks and the danger of the way they chose to live.
It deals with issues like feeling abnormal growing up, learning to love yourself and your family, and accepting change as part of the process to better your life.
Overall it was a cute movie and I feel like it delved into some pretty normal concepts despite the abnormality of the way the family lived.
From a writers perspective: It was interesting to watch and think about how they might have developed the plot for the movie.
Writing something like this for me in particular would have been difficult because I would have to use my own imagination as well as research to make sure I got the details right and even then I have never experienced an off the grid life style so I still couldn't be sure it would be accurate. However, Matt Ross the writer and director he grew up and lived an off the grid lifestyle growing up and was able to take from his own experiences to help create the story as accurately as he could.
Some writers put themselves in the places or situations they are writing to better understand their story. If a story is placed out by the sea a writer might spend a week or a month out there to get a better grasp of the place and experience what their character might be feeling.
As a student with a day job and insufficient funds for travel I cannot go to these places that I want to write about so most of my stories take place in nondescript places or places that I can research into and change enough so that I can use past experiences.
Location and experience are something that always trips me up while writing. Every project that has failed was because I was much more focused on researching where my characters were and making sure I got the facts of that place right and I lost interest because the story never developed.
Example: Trying to create a Native American character that travels out to a Native American Reservation to find her roots sounded like something I was very interested in writing. I tried. But I am not Native American, I have never been to a Native American Reservation I was too worried about getting the facts wrong that I gave up on the story.
Something that I have to keep reminding myself is to just keep writing. Get the facts right after the story is written otherwise it will never get finished. In contrast, write what you know. If you live in the middle of cornfields write about living in the middle of a cornfield. If you live in the city, stick your character smack dab in the middle of your city, or any city.
You can even interview people later for the facts and go back and change what needs to be changed, get their take on the situation.
Write first, edit later.
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