How do you come up with ideas so fast?

Tomas Riuka

Tomas Riuka

Well-known member
I wonder, how all of you come up with ideas and all the details of the movie, you're gonna make for TIMEFEST so fast? topic just been announced and most of creator already have stories, names, actors, jeez... how is that? i'm still trying to find my story :D
 
no actually things just come to mind pretty quickly for me. If I just sit and don't think of anything except for a theme something interesting will pop into my brain and I'll concetrate on that random idea and try to make it work. If it doesn't I just start over and try again.
 
Sometimes in these fests, I have ideas that I've wanted to do for some time, and the theme of the fest just happens to match the idea.

But I am not one of those who hears the fest announced, has a great idea and announces first draft of the script done the next day. I don't get brilliant ideas like that so quickly.

Generally, if I have no ideas and need to generate them from scratch, I start simple with a character in a room. And I give that character something to want, and just start writing. Usually, something comes out of that eventually.
 
I just had an idea come to me last night while walking my dog. It may even supersede my current idea (Devolution). Or I may do both. Too early to tell yet.

It really nails the TIME theme though.
 
Mark Harris said:
Sometimes in these fests, I have ideas that I've wanted to do for some time, and the theme of the fest just happens to match the idea.

But I am not one of those who hears the fest announced, has a great idea and announces first draft of the script done the next day. I don't get brilliant ideas like that so quickly.

Generally, if I have no ideas and need to generate them from scratch, I start simple with a character in a room. And I give that character something to want, and just start writing. Usually, something comes out of that eventually.
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Like Mark says, we have a trunk full of ideas that we keep adding and subtracting from so that when a Fest is announced we usually have something in a bare bones form that we've wanted to shoot. Tim and I are constantly mentioning ideas to each other or writing down dialog from day-to-day encounters that we think may be useful in a film some time. I remember recently we were on the freeway and saw this funky old truck being driven by a neanderthal-type guy and there was a sign in the back window that said "truck for sale" with his phone number. At the same time a very proper looking business man came up the other side while talking on his cell phone. I immediately suggested to Tim that it would be a cool scene if I called the big guy in the truck on my cell and said, "hey asshole, I'm in the Honda in the lane to your right and I just wanted to tell you that nobody in their right mind would pay ten bucks for that p.o.s. you're driving." Then we'd see the big guy start chasing the businessman, who wouldn't have any idea what was going on and it would sort of be a comic version of the film "Duel." So, we threw that in with about fifty other similar scene ideas in a folder we keep.

As far as announcing completion of the First Draft of the script within the first few days of the Fest ... Well, we usually lie about that because its fun to make people think we can turn out a script so quickly. We are, after all, in L. A. and nobody ever shoots straight about the status of their script or their casting! :)
 
I got it :) thanks for your stories guys! i should start collecting ideas as well... we'll see what we come up with for the timefest :)
 
Make a lists. Start with writing words and go right down the page. I just learned this technique, i thought it was lame and didn't want to try it but i did and it works.

or

Ill think of something ive always wanted to try (effect in after effects maybe) then build a story around that.
 
Come up with a seed idea, and just start writing it out in rough form... see where it goes... then change it up based on elements required or a better direction.
 
I have a word document with nothing but story, character, and shot ideas which I re-read through every so often and many time I re-read an idea differently so that it could actually work. Many times though it just finding two okay concepts and putting them together when I find things I'd like to do.

Although the real question is, how do people get their scripts together so fast then still uploading on the last day?
 
I keep a doc open and type in ideas as I get them. After several years it's quite a few megs and has hundreds of story ideas.
 
In fact i didn't come with a story, the story came to a few days before the announcement of the new fest. When the new fest was announced I already had the story. Now I ust have to maake a script.....
 
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