Screenwriting Research

I am basing my script idea on the film Resevoir Dogs as it is about and undercover cop secretly working in the undercover in a band of criminals.  I am loosely basing my script on this by turning the cop infiltrating a gang of criminals into an undercover cop in a college looking for students harboring drugs.

I also wanted to bring in the inspiration of the film White Chicks so I could put some comedy elements into it.  It is also about undercover cops that pretend to be women so they can protect the actual women from harm.  It has given me some ideas as it has the main characters playing the cops making slip ups all the time which is what I wanted to add into my screenplay.

This is a short film which I have watched to collect more research on the subject matter of my script.  It was made by students but it was helpful to see how their characters reacted and gave me an idea how to develop my own characters.  I liked the amount of energy put into this screenplay and the plot was good too.

This is a second short film I have watched to see how I could develop my characters.  I liked the aggression used in this short film and I also liked how they were young and about the same age my characters would be in my screenplay.  It was also helpful because I saw the "arrest" and how someone else interpreted it in their short film.

I have chosen the name 'Piggs' for the undercover cop because it's normally the slang people use to call police officers and this character is particularly nervous and gets the nickname 'Piggy' to his annoyance.  As the script goes on this character will change from being cowardly and inexperienced to a successful police officer.

I have thought about the theme and location for my screenplay and I want to use a college/school setting based on its simplicity which would mirror how inexperienced the "drug dealing" students are.  Using research I have found out about the types of students who are involved in drug dealing at their college and tried to get a clear image of what my student characters would look like.  I want my screenplay to be mostly filmed outside especially within their conversations because the actors could express their character's emotions more clearly.  Also the bleak weather of the location would add to the main character's (Piggs) mood and how he would be fretting to find a way to arrest people with little experience on his side.

The theme of my screenplay would be an action/comedy.  I thought this would appeal to a wider range of audience because having both these genres would level out the theme of the screenplay and it could have people on the edge of their seats but also laughing at the same time.

Primary research:

To make sure my screenplay would appeal to both genders I had to do some research to make sure it would be successful.  Here are what some people had said about Reservoir Dogs, the first film I was going to base my script on:

Here are some reviews on the film White Chicks, the second movie I would base my script on:

I saw that some men and women (though mostly men) liked these films so I knew that basing my screenplay around these movies would be a good idea.  People seemed to like that fact they watch White Chicks to relax and wind down as it didn't need a lot of thought but also liked Reservoir Dogs because of its simple but effective plot and that it was clever of Quentin Tarantino to make a successful movie about a heist which you don't actually see.