Guests For Hire

Felicia · Puma Joined: 19 Aug 2009 Posts: 85

I have an idea which I think is a Buddy Fleece. I would very much appreciate some help with a short and effective logline for it.

The "road": starting a company and make it work.
The "team": three unemployed, poor actors.
The "prize": giving the hero's son a new dignity in school (he's bullied because his mom can't afford what the other children have).

An unemployed actress starts, along with her two actor friends, an odd agency with workers. Their idea is to, under extremely discrete circumstances, offer their services to act like relatives, bosses, colleagues, best friends and loving partners of rich people who are ashamed of their loneliness. The agency quickly becomes a success, when an unexpected problem occurs: the heroine falls in love with the police superintendent sitting next to her at a dinner party, and finds herself stuck into the role she’s playing as the wife of the host.

If this story already exist, please tell me!

I'm also thinking about if it would be better to expand the team, so it consists of, for example, six totally different members - a taxi driver, a dog psychologist, an ex-CEO and so on? All of them outsiders in society of some kind.
But I thought it would be more believable if they were able to act naturally.

Felicia · Puma Joined: 19 Aug 2009 Posts: 85

Oops! Just to make it clear: "loving partners" has nothing to do with escort services or something like that... The team works only in official situations, like a 40-year birthday party, a reunion dinner with old schoolmates etc. They meet their clients' need to show a perfect life.

"Warm relationships is something money never can buy - until now." ...or something...
Smile

Felicia · Puma Joined: 19 Aug 2009 Posts: 85

Of course I should have checked this out before, I know, but forgive me. I found this - exactly what I talk about:

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1503653.html?menu=news.quirkies.businessquirkies

In my synopsis there are weddings and funerals and everything...

William · Tiger Joined: 28 Feb 2009 Posts: 169

This sounds like the Wedding date.

A lonely woman in her thirties is invited to a wedding back home and wants to look like a success...she hires a man to be her wedding date and lie for her...she falls in love with him

There will be somethin in that film you can use I am sure...

Felicia · Puma Joined: 19 Aug 2009 Posts: 85

Thanks for telling me. Haven't seen it but maybe I should. Sounds like I'd better avoid weddings, it's a bit over-used and there are a lot of more fresh situations...

Rachel T. · Ocelot Joined: 15 Jan 2008 Posts: 768 Location: Michigan

I started writing a post yesterday, and then the stupid computer booted me off! Argh! Evil or Very Mad

So, I'm writing again.

I browsed a British chick-lit book that was very similar to this a while back. But:

I really, really like the idea of the six women all being in it together. It sounds like that could be a really fun take on it. I can see all of them getting into hijinks on the job - raiding peoples' gourmet kitchens, throwing gratuitous pool parties, wreaking havoc with a single guy's kids/dogs/parents/boss, etc. Just anything and everything that a working-class woman could get up to in a rich person's mansion for a few days. It wouldn't even have to be serious relationship stuff. In fact, it might be more fun for you to write, and the audience to watch, if it (mostly) wasn't romance.

And I think it would work really well as a tv show, too. Very Happy

_________________
Don't be afraid to admit that inside you is a seething, fiery core of ambition and lust for success that would appall Napoleon.
-Russell Galen

gc_bevan · Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 10:31 pm Post subject:

Here's a stab at a logline:

After creating an agency that befriends the lonely rich, a (flaw) actress finds her role as a billionaire's trophy wife disrupted by a lowly but charming security guard.

This tweaks the hero's love interest, as it seems much more ironic for a hero surrounded by the rich to fall in love with someone poor. For whatever reason, this direction is more attractive to me than the six friends (though they could still be in the story of course).

I wasn't sure what to list for the hero's flaw, as she isn't unemployed after creating the agency. I hope this helps! Smile

_________________
Just keep writing, baby...

Felicia · Puma Joined: 19 Aug 2009 Posts: 85

Thank you both for great response!

Rachel: Yes, I think you're absolutely right, my thought is that romance (meaning, for example, a nerd showing off his beautiful "wife" in front of his former class mates or something) is just one among several missions they get. Other missions can be to help the rich with about other kinds of loneliness or not so serious problems.

I've thought about a tv show too, because of the episodic structure. I'm going to think about it...

Gc: You're a logline master. Good idea to focus on the love story rather than on the six friends (they can be the B story), I think most viewers would find more emotional engagement and plot movement in love than in friendship.

And yes, I see what you mean by having the love interest for the main character being a poor man. The reason I picked a police superintendent was ironic too, because I was thinking about the agency as an immoral thing, involving lying. And that, I thought, would create pressure on the hero, forcing her to make an ultimate choice in Act 3. (I was thinking there could be some issues within the group of friends regarding immorality as well, for example that one member refuses to accept a job at a funeral, leading to arguments and the agency's down-race in the end.)

But as for the love story, maybe the contrast of immorality/police is not as strong as the contrast of poverty/richness in this story? I mean, they're just not telling the truth, they don't commit any crimes like stealing etc.

Don't know yet, so if anyone have a thought on this I'm happy to get some input!
Anyway, thanks a lot for your feedback!

Felicia · Puma Joined: 19 Aug 2009 Posts: 85

Okay, Rachel, I think I misunderstood... Sorry. Did you mean not having a love story in the film at all? Smile

Well, I think I want one, but I'm not sure yet if it's the A story or the B story.
Maybe if I make it the A story, the film will be a BL and a romantic comedy... and then the unique idea won't be so much in focus...

A bit confused here... Have to do some more thinking.

gc_bevan · Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 3:02 pm Post subject:

I think making the love interest a police chief could work, but in that case I think the hero's sin should be bigger to maximize the irony. The most obvious choice would be for her agency to start or gradually evolve into an escort service, though that isn't the direction you wanted. Instead, maybe the lie could be bigger: the lonely/depressed rich don't know their new friends are fake, as concerned friends/relatives secretly contact the agency.

Maybe the choice of story direction depends on your theme. With the poor man love interest, the theme would involve a choice between love and money. With the police chief approach, the choice would be between his love and virtue and her agency's vice and profit. I don't know which is better.

_________________
Just keep writing, baby...

Felicia · Puma Joined: 19 Aug 2009 Posts: 85

Thanks again, gc. Terrific thoughts. I know this input will help a lot.

Smile

Rachel T. · Ocelot Joined: 15 Jan 2008 Posts: 768 Location: Michigan

Sorry, Felicia, I should have been more clear: Yeah, a romance will work. It's just not what grabs my interest because it's been done: girl hires escort and falls for him; guy hires escort and falls for her.

What grabbed my interest immediately was the friends angle: these six (or however many) women all doing this together. I can see that, I can see how that would work, and it's the "different" aspect of the "same thing only."

If this were a tv show, like, say, "Desperate Housewives," the romance angle could be played out over weeks or months, with long-running consequences, as each episode would probably focus on a different character. As a movie . . . I don't know. The romance angle might be what gets it attention. I just like the friends angle best.

_________________
Don't be afraid to admit that inside you is a seething, fiery core of ambition and lust for success that would appall Napoleon.
-Russell Galen

Felicia · Puma Joined: 19 Aug 2009 Posts: 85

I see what you mean. And I can also see the potential for a tv show... There are a lot of possibilities to dig deep into different characters' lives, for a long or a short time.
But I still think it could work as a movie, too... something like Wedding Crashers but with a totally different story (if that makes sense)...

Anyway, it's nice to hear that you like the concept. I will keep thinking and writing, and see how it turns out.

Thanks! Very Happy

Rachel T. · Ocelot Joined: 15 Jan 2008 Posts: 768 Location: Michigan

You're welcome. Keep us posted! Very Happy

_________________
Don't be afraid to admit that inside you is a seething, fiery core of ambition and lust for success that would appall Napoleon.
-Russell Galen

fletch137 · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 2:27 pm Post subject:

If the story's just going to be "wife for hire", then that's okay, but I'm really intrigued about the basic concept of a small group of people who get to play different roles over the course of the film. That's the hook to the concept, I think, and I'd really play with that if it were me.

For example, the main character is part of a actors group who are *supposed* to be developing their skills together but spend most of their time lamenting how they never get work. Then the main character finds herself spontaneously asked by some hunky guy to pretend to be his girlfriend to get his clingy ex- to leave him alone. $100 later, she realizes there might be a future in this so she gathers her acting friends together and antics ensue as the trio (or however many) get to play all these different roles. I mean, how much fun would it be to have your part-time cab driver/wannabe actor playing a rich uncle with a promise of a large inheritance or your mime-enthusiast portraying a senator to bully some low-level administrators.

When Act II starts and the main character, playing the part of an exec's trophy wife so he can get a promotion, meets that hunky guy again, things start spinning out of control.

Or something like that.

That's where my brain went based on your original concept. I'd think you'd be cheating yourself if you narrowed the concept down to just women or just rent-a-wife.

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