Hello
This is the last blog about the gangster genre. I will have this short written by this Thursday and then I will move onto the found footage genre. That will be the last genre I write before me and Celine make our way to Las Vegas for a short break. Our first foreign holiday in a while now. So I am really looking forward to that. First long haul flight for both of us too, well...not including the one that my mother was with us for. So we are looking forward to that.
As for today's blog. As mentioned, it's the gangster short.
If you read last week's entry I was brainstorming and figured it would go the route of fantasy. I came up with some loose idea of it set in a medieval type world and would involve illegal crossbow smuggling. I can say as of now that this idea is definitely being let go. I do find it interesting that after some little research into the Sicilian Mafia's origins it seems their origins (as hard to pinpoint as it is) begins around the time that feudalism ended (early 19th century).
I said this blog would look into different criminal organizations in fictional worlds but my research went a bit off track during the week. I started by looking at some of the biggest gangs around the world. MS-13 in El Salvador, Hell's Angels, The Yakuza (although that is a common name for any Japanese criminal organization. Most are actually referred to by their founder’s name, i.e. Yamaguchi group). All very interesting in a horrible and brutal way. My interest was very quickly drawn towards Cosa Nostra which is the Sicilian Mafia. This of course leads me to the American Mafia which was formed around the beginning of the 20th Century. Goodfella's, The Godfather, Boardwalk Empire are fantastic stories involving the American Mafia so I quickly found myself googling more about these people.
Funny fact - I've never actually watched The Sopranos.
Anyway, I was struggling to work out how I could write a story involving the American mafia. Even though I enjoy these stories, I really have no good starting point to begin a mafia inspired story. I looked into any random phrase or fact about the mafia, Murder Inc, The Commission, Made Man, Cement Shoes ,etc.
Anything I could work from and I was struggling. I looked into how you become a Made Man and some of the rules around it.
A Made Man has to sponsor you
Had to be of Italian descent
No connections to law enforcement
Must carry out a contract killing which is referred to as “making your bones"
I decided on writing a story based around someone becoming a Made Man. Now with the mafia, often times different groups will be referred to the region they operate in. So American Mafia, Russian Mafia, Italian Mafia, you get it. So I was happy then when I figured I could create a fictional mafia and keep some of the traits such as someone becoming a Made Man involved in the fictional group.
My mind connected the phrases Cement Shoes and "Sleeping with the fishes" and because I have to keep these shorts as low budget as possible, I thought I could set the short on the side of a lake. One location. The lake is because our characters are committing the contract killing needed for the one character to become a Made Man.
Once I had picked location and a very vague idea for it "cement shoes" I could start dismantling the idea. "Cement Shoes" should really be Concrete Shoes, if you want to throw someone into a lake and make them drown to the bottom of it. It takes concrete between 24 - 48 hours to harden. So this method of killing would be very impractical. You would have to knock the victim out. Pour concrete around their feet. Wait for it to harden. Then throw them into the water. Also keep an eye on the victim because if they are moving his feet enough, then they will cause enough space to form inside in the concrete that it will be easier for them to escape.
(What The Simpsons's should have drawn was the man with his head blown off first)
Now I like this dilemma. My characters are trying to use this method we associate with gangsters in movies but real world problems are affecting it. Now first pushback on the story is: why not shoot the victim? Then throw him into the water?
I had to answer that and it led me to a very, very old story idea that I decided to pull from.
Now my idea turned these characters into vampires and werewolves. The vampire, wants to become a made man in the Vampire Mafia and so must make sure this werewolf sleeps with the fishes. He cannot shoot the victim because he hasn't been given any silver bullets. Regular bullets wouldn't do the victim any harm.
Now at this point in my brainstorming I was pretty happy. An added benefit to moving the story into a world of vampires and werewolves is that I could add a new complication to the story. The victim, the werewolf, is laid out unconscious on the ground as the vampire waits for his "cement shoes" to dry. However, the vampire is worried the clouds will part and the moon will reveal itself turning the victim into a terrifying werewolf.
With this much figured out I went to my fiancée to see did she like this road I was going down. And what happened next turned the story into a very fun, silly, actual argument that I could turn into this short. We went from an actual argument into improvising a scene with a couple arguing over how often a full moon occurs, does a werewolf need a full moon, are there any fish in this lake to actually fish in, why doesn't this vampire have super strength and more.
So now I have a 30 minute long recording of an actual argument to rewrite as a short script about a vampire and his familiar trying to make a werewolf sleep with the fishes.
This is the newest form of outlining. I plan to develop my own Tinder style app for writers to find other writers to fall in love with and improvising conflict heavy comedy shorts.
Thanks for reading
Kevin
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