Deciding which story to write and produce into a film.

CharlesPenfold

CharlesPenfold

Member
(as you can see I'm very new to this forum, if I am not meant to be posting this kind of thing here can a mod please movie it to the appropriate sub-forum?)

Story 1 (superhero/action):
A man struggling with bills and debt finds he has the power to control gravity, he goes out and tries to "fight baddies" but gets shot and gets rushed to hospital and he is charged with hospital and medical fees as he hasn't got insurance, he decides (as this power got him into trouble it will get him out) after much deliberation to rob a bank, he succeeds but the security footage of his power goes viral and is all over the media. he is then hunted down by FBI agents, military, scientist and the other "heroes" who lay low and don't use their powers. (I don't know where I am going to go with this one, he could become a fugitive, a hitman, an experiment, a criminal etc). (the comedy would be the realism of being a superhero, such as fashioning a skin tight suit with no sewing experience so he ends up wearing a hooded jumper and mask or walking round looking for "baddies")

Story 2 (sci-fi/thriller/mystery):
In the year 2014 am astronaut is sent out to the space shuttle orbiting earth to replace the old crew with 3 other crew members and himself. On their second week in orbit they lose contact with earth completely, after 2 more weeks they go down to earth as it is dangerous not to have contact, they crash land on earth, our main character wakes up from the crash to see that crew members did not survive, he gets out of the ship and walks around, everyone is gone, everything is still there except humans, like everybody just got up and walked away. after exploring for a few hours he returns to the ship in a state of panic and confusion to see that the corpse of his crew are gone. he is alone, or is he?


Which one would you prefer to watch?
If there is any suggestion to change to make it more realistic or original please go ahead as I don't know much about space travel. If there is anything you think I should add or change please tell me, I need feedback.
Thank you.
 
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welcome to the forum, Charles.

you've got some good ideas.

CharlesPenfold said:
Which one would you prefer to watch?
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the second one sounds more interesting. i liked it because it was more focused than the first. however, be careful not to make a planet of the apes-clone (unless it's really better).

personally, i wouldn't worry too much about specifics now, like '2014' and 'after 2 more weeks', etc. focus on: what kind of story are you telling? is about greed, power, vanity, life, death, the human condition, etc.? some call this the 'controlling idea' or, more famously, 'the moral of the story'. after you know what you're writing about, you can decided what kind of theme, style, and combination of characters best serve your story (and which appeals to a particular audience).

i'm dabbling in writing myself right now, so i'm still learning.

if you don't know too much about space travel, i think it'll be a great learning experience if you develop your second story. as you write the plot, you'll be researching in an effort to keep your story coherent/plausible. however, keep in mind that telling a story with a particular moral isn't limited to one genre or another. the genre just provides the backdrop of the story. it is a container in which a moral is poured into, so to speak.

at least that's my take on it.
 
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Really? You're first produced movie is going to be one that requires a huge budget to pull off right because you add massive amounts of props, costumes, effects, etc. into it?

Maybe before you narrow down your choice between the two, you start over and think about what kind of resources you're going to realistically have to pull it off and then shoot something within your means?

Low-budget means few locations, few costumes, few props, small crew, few (if any) effects, etc. You don't need to make it sci-fi or superhero to show you can write or make a great film. People do it everyday with simpler subjects.

But hey, more power to you, if you can actually pull it off.
 
I liked both, but the second one is more doable. What about something wrong with his (the astronaut) sense of reality? Something about time, for example? About entropy in the big crunch (the collapse of an finite universe) and the undo of everything? I think was Stephen Hawking who propose such event
 
I like the second story better, but see one flaw. If the new crew replaces the old one, then the old crew takes the shuttle back to Earth. How does the new crew then return to Earth? They have no shuttle.

[EDIT] The flaw is easily fixed, and you may have already dealt with it. Just write in that the space station has 'escape pods' to return the crew to Earth in an emergency. One-way trip only, of course.

[EDIT again] Oh wait....now that I look more closely, you said the crew is sent to an orbiting space shuttle to replace the crew already there. Why would they do that? Why wouldn't the orbiting shuttle just return to Earth with its crew, and a replacement shuttle be sent up? I'm a tad confused.

As for the costs, the story could be done without huge effects, for the most part. Granted, it would be WAY more interesting if we could see all of that stuff. But a lot could be done in voiceover narration, I suppose.
 
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A. Don't post your ideas on the internet. Find trusted resources to bounce these things off of.

B. A profitable feature is one done well with an audience that will purchase tickets or copies of your dvd. Which one of those ideas is that? (I didn't read them, sorry. I don't want to be influenced by anyone's ideas, and I certainly don't think you should solicit material like that.)

C. Don't listen to anyone talking about budgets unless they've produced a feature film in the vein of what you're trying to do. And, even then, consider what YOUR resources are versus what THEIRS are. My thirty-thousand dollars looks and feels a lot different than another persons thirty-thousand dollars.

D. Write scripts. Ideas are just ideas. You'll know which one you can or will produce when you have a script and people reading it. Ideas mean nothing without a blueprint. The blueprint will immediately inform you if you've even got anything worth throwing any money at.
 
Seriously?

Seriously?

Kholi said:
I didn't read them, sorry. I don't want to be influenced by anyone's ideas, and I certainly don't think you should solicit material like that.)
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Are you serious? You won't read a description of an idea because you're worried you'll be influence by it? That's exactly WHY you should read it!!!

Using the same logic I conclude that you don't watch movies either? You'll be more heavily influenced by visuals, sounds, and emotions you feel when you watch a movie versus reading a paragraph that describes a rough concept.

So where does that leave you?
 
Snazzy Flapper said:
Are you serious? You won't read a description of an idea because you're worried you'll be influence by it? That's exactly WHY you should read it!!!

Using the same logic I conclude that you don't watch movies either? You'll be more heavily influenced by visuals, sounds, and emotions you feel when you watch a movie versus reading a paragraph that describes a rough concept.

So where does that leave you?
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Got to agree with Snazzy here. We don't create in a vacuum. Some of my best story ideas germinated from a seed planted via another movie, TV show, even a song.
 
Snazzy Flapper said:
Are you serious? You won't read a description of an idea because you're worried you'll be influence by it? That's exactly WHY you should read it!!!

Using the same logic I conclude that you don't watch movies either? You'll be more heavily influenced by visuals, sounds, and emotions you feel when you watch a movie versus reading a paragraph that describes a rough concept.

So where does that leave you?
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Your post is a perfect illustration as to why I suggested to him NOT to post his UNDEVELOPED material in public forum. People with this mentality that cannot separate a fledgling idea that may be good and take it as their own, succeed with the material and never credit you versus an idea that has been fully realized and is set in stone, seeing that anyone who dares to copy it is an outright fool and deserves ridicule.

Watching an actual movie that's been completely realized is a different story.

For his protection, I suggest never to post ideas without proofs of concept, and for my personal tastes, I am not a fan of reading or seeing other material that has not been fully developed, as I have no interest in being influenced in that way.

Decide for yourself what you want to do, I have made my decision. =]
 
chapelgrovefilms said:
Got to agree with Snazzy here. We don't create in a vacuum. Some of my best story ideas germinated from a seed planted via another movie, TV show, even a song.
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All examples that do not include "some guy posting his story ideas on a forum".

Coincides with my point.
 
Kholi said:
All examples that do not include "some guy posting his story ideas on a forum".

Coincides with my point.
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You didn't say you didn't want to be influenced by "some guy posting his story ideas on a forum." What you said was "I don't want to be influenced by anyone's ideas." If true, then why do you watch movies, TV shows, read books, etc? Or do you? If you DO do any of these things, then you are exposed to other people's ideas all the time, so what's the difference? I'm just unclear on your position, that's all.
 
kholi,

do you at least watch ultra low-budget short films? there's a good amount of inspiration out there.
 
Fahad said:
kholi,

do you at least watch ultra low-budget short films? there's a good amount of inspiration out there.
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Rarely. Ultra low budget films tend to be worse than what people harp about in theaters.

Although one of my favorite movies is Primer. I
 
yeah a lot of stuff out there is pretty bad. but still, i think there are plenty of 'diamonds in the rough' that can inspire.
 
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