what can I do to make my story more marketable?

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ironpony
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21 Jun 2020, 12:01 pm

oh okay, well I wanted to make the cop a man because I thought it would be more interesting from a man's point of view for this type of plot. But why a woman?



hurtloam
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21 Jun 2020, 12:22 pm

Less backlash. Doesn't trigger people so much to see a woman getting revenge rather than a man "abusing his power".

Possibly sexist. But it would be seen as punching up rather than punching down. She'd still be a cop.

I may be wrong. It's just an idea.



ironpony
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21 Jun 2020, 12:36 pm

Oh okay. It's just I thought that this type of subject matter, would be more interesting from a man's point of view perhaps. But I don't know if I can write it as a woman, just because audiences are more okay with it, because then I might be writing it out of forced sexism on wanting to please the audience, which I don't know how to do therefore, if that makes sense?

But at the same time, I don't want to be stubborn either and want the story to be good. It's just I don't know how to write in a politically correct way, without the story feeling unnatural to me, if I am trying to be politically correct, if that makes sense?



shlaifu
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21 Jun 2020, 6:38 pm

ironpony wrote:
Oh okay. It's just I thought that this type of subject matter, would be more interesting from a man's point of view perhaps. But I don't know if I can write it as a woman, just because audiences are more okay with it, because then I might be writing it out of forced sexism on wanting to please the audience, which I don't know how to do therefore, if that makes sense?

But at the same time, I don't want to be stubborn either and want the story to be good. It's just I don't know how to write in a politically correct way, without the story feeling unnatural to me, if I am trying to be politically correct, if that makes sense?


I agree with you on that. I'd have trouble writing a good female character, too. I'd ask female friends to insert their experiences etc. But still.

But that's basically why there's this fuzz about female writers and directors now, because in the past, male writers would imagine female characters and to the female audiences, those were not believable. Add male cameraman focussing the lens on the secondary sex characteristics, and you get a film that's made by men, for men, with a what men think a woman is or should be.

However, Alien famously was written with Robert Redford in mind, and then he declined and Ridley Scott picked Sigourney Weaver instead, and the film became very popular with feminists, because Weaver portrays a character that is all action, no stereotypical female.

But, to be honest, Alien is so little about the character, and so much about the mood and suspense.

....

The "woman being abused (usually herself) and getting revenge" plot is its own genre. "Rape and revenge".
Films like "I spit on your grave" and actually, Tarantino's Kill Bill (here, we only see the revenge part, and learn that she has been aussalted before the story we get to see sets in).
In "last house on the left", a father takes revenge for the rape and murder of his daughter.
The genre is very much focussed on showing the audience sexual violence first, and gory violence after. It's not exactly a feminist favourite.


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ironpony
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21 Jun 2020, 10:18 pm

Oh okay. I've seen those movies you've mentioned.

Well I feel like I can write female characters okay, depending on the characters. My script has supporting female characters, but I just thought this type of subject matter, would be more interesting if it were told from a male cop's perspective, but that was just the idea I had for it.

But is there a way to make that work, without it coming off as sexist perhaps? Are you saying it's less sexist, if a female were to get revenge on the villains in the end?



hurtloam
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11 Jul 2020, 7:32 am

You asked how is it a trope?

Saw this video posted by a channel I follow. Their breakdowns of tropes in movies are quite good. This isn't the only one they've done



ironpony
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11 Jul 2020, 5:55 pm

Oh okay, but there are movies about male cops where it's not done in a trope way though is there? For example, is Al Pacino in Heat, or Morgan Freeman in Seven a trope cop character?