B

Okay, so your protagonist is a 17-year-old orphan and heroin addict living on the streets of Hollywood. She wants to be an actress, convinced that fame will solve all her problems, but what she really needs is just to be loved. Eventually, she ends up in front of the camera on a porn set somewhere in The Valley, and that’s when the real tragedy begins. This is a good start. You have an interesting character, full of flaws (addiction, abandonment, self-absorption), she has a clear goal, gets locked into a complicated situation, and most importantly, you understand the…

No one ever really sets out to create an icon. Be it a film's character, a camera movement, a specific score, or a line of dialogue, there is no formula for creating the everlasting. Those who try to create the iconic, often fail and those who succeed, often didn't intend to. Scorsese's long take in Goodfellas, Han Solo's "I know" from The Empire Strikes Back, and Indy's bringing a gun to a sword fight in Raiders of the Lost Ark were never planned; they were all improvisations, moments born out of their filmmakers' quick thinking brought on by creative or logistical…