My script has a few things that aren't exactly realistic, but not exactly straight out fantasy, either. One is a character who was cut in half by a magician and never put back together. I know this is usually staged in real life to where the person is just curled up in one end of the box and whatever. I'm assuming in my script that this person is really cut in half and both halves are important to them. Also, the plot of script is based on plot from NaNo, which is this:

"A story dealing with the concept of soulmates. Almost everyone has another person whose life will be forever tied up with theirs, but few people ever meet their soulmate. The few who do, however, are forced to deal with them for the rest of their lives, because even if they despise their soulmate, the fact that they have met means that they will never be able to get rid of the other person. Since you die when your soulmate dies, many people have to come to their soulmate's rescue. In this story, one particular pair of soulmates try to live their own lives apart, despite numerous forces trying to throw them together."

I'm just wondering, if this was ever really made into a movie, would these things be too unbelievable for the audience to stomach, or is it okay to assume that they'll be all right with the slight surrealism of it?

Yeah, so I accidentally hit post instead of preview. There's no way to delete or even edit your topics here, so I'm sorry. I'm not even sure this is the right place...it's kind of confusing about what goes here rather than in Plot Doctoring or Realism Q&A...so sorry about that...

I don't think the surrealism is a problem.

The idea that soulmates might despise one another is an interesting take - usually "soulmate" means exactly the opposite of that. The magician's assistant/soulmate of a sort was covered from a very different angle in "The Prestige", even including some cutting. If you don't know it I won't spoil the plot, but it's well worth a watch.

I think the idea's well worth pursuing. If you did it for NaNo, presumably you have some idea of where it's going.

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SF08: Gethsemane (working title) - Thriller
SF08: Shooting - Comedy

Good luck to you all.

No way is this too unbelievable for an audience. It sounds interesting and different and engaging. I'd pay to see it! Great scope for production design, as well.

If you think you'll have a good time/get something out of it by writing it, do it, write the thing. Good luck :)

~ Anna
Screnzy 2008: planning
NaNo 2007: WIN!
Screnzy 2007: no win
NaNo 2006: no win

Too unbelievable, for Screnzy? Never!

lso, you will find that your script evolves as you write, so that what you have at the end is quite different from what you started with. So never throw an idea away on the basis that it might not exactly the effect in the script you don't want it to. Chances are, what you envision as script now will be miles away from whatever are those 20.000 words.

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Scriptfrenzy 2007: Garf Dealings (with Chorus)
Scriptfrenzy 2008: The Enrollment Handbook

My favorite rule of thumb is that you can invent whatever rules you want for the universe in which your story takes place ... but then you have to obey them to the end.

I think if I were watching a show where a man was cut in half but still survived, I would want one of three things: 1. That it be clear throughout the plot that reality has no bearing here, or 2. A rational explanation, or 3. A supernatural explanation. But then, I'm one of those super-inquisitive people who wants an explanation for everything, so take it with a grain of salt. Good luck! :)

Aletheion is right. There's really no such thing as too unbelievable, as long as the level of believability is internally consistent. If everyone else in your movie thinks it's not believable for a person to be in two halves, then you'll have to explain how it works. If weird stuff like that happens all the time in your world and the other characters think nothing of it, then the audience will probably just accept it.

I agree that nothing is too surreal. I write fantasy books and the reason fantasy works is that you must follow the cardinal law: Make up whatever rules you want in your world (fun part), and then stick to them (hard part). As long as you do that, the audience will stay on the roller coaster.

For example, if in your story world anyone who's physically hurt by a magican lives, then that's all the explanation you need. You won't have to go into why or explain magic because it's common knowledge in your world. So when another character is sliced in half by a maniac chainsaw killer, the audience will understand why that person died (and the other didn't) with no further explanation. But if you have another character die after also being cut in half by a magican, then you'd better have a really, really good reason why you "broke" your world rule, like the magican wasn't actually a magican at all. But you see, in that case, you didn't break the rule at all b/c he wasn't a magican. The audience may not know that yet, but of course your MCs will discover this info and pass it on them. Everyone will go "ohhhh!" and all will be right again. But if you see no other way around a real magican really killing someone, then you need to either get rid of that rule in the story or find another way for the person to die. Audiences will forgive and even delight in delayed explanations, but they'll hate a story with no explanations for its discrepancies.

This is your story, your world, do whatever you want.

As long as you follow your own rules, the audience will believe anything. The moment you break the rules, the audience no longer believes your story.
(unless you can PROVE that the rule was never actually broken to begin with.)

So Write On!

I'm also on the "nothing is too surreal" boat. Write it. Create your world. Develop your rules. Be consistent. Bring others along for the journey.

Considering I have so many favorite films that are SF/Fantasy/whatever, who's to say what's too unbelievable? I just want to be sucked in to the story and lost for a couple hours. If you can do that, I'm with you!

I think the term you're looking for for soulmates who might despise each other is "doppleganger".

Sounds kinda original, but also sounds like Mr Glass.
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