I think you're onto something here. I think that if the story took place in the near future then this would be a little bit more believable. Maybe the company was doing standard research on the meteor, but the scientists investigating it got infected with the virus...one thing leads to another and you have an outbreak.
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- Thread starter gmjames
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I think you're onto something here. I think that if the story took place in the near future then this would be a little bit more believable. Maybe the company was doing standard research on the meteor, but the scientists investigating it got infected with the virus...one thing leads to another and you have an outbreak.
Nektonic
Veteran
That could work. You wouldn't need to set it any more than a decade into the future either. Who knows what kinds of genetic research science will be doing in 5 to 10 years?
It could still work in the present day as well though since the virus is coming from space anyways.
yea that's true...In order to get the doc. style I want though I would need maybe a newscrew to be doing a segment on the meteor, interviewing the scientists, and then cameraman survives when they start turning and eventually ends up with a military unit.
David W. Richardson
Chapelgrove Films
Rather than yet another movie about evil corporate CEOs, why not go the other way? A radical environmental group releases some sort of bug in order to scare the world and wake us up to environmental dangers, but it goes horribly wrong and unleashes a nightmare they never expected.
The doc style would be simple enough to convey via dialogue. If the characters keep looking into the camera and talking to whoever is running it, and his dialogue is always off-screen, that will convey the idea. Also, you could write in a description that includes displaying the date/time onscreen, as well as "REC". These things would communicate to both the audience and the director the intended documentary style.
Good luck!
The doc style would be simple enough to convey via dialogue. If the characters keep looking into the camera and talking to whoever is running it, and his dialogue is always off-screen, that will convey the idea. Also, you could write in a description that includes displaying the date/time onscreen, as well as "REC". These things would communicate to both the audience and the director the intended documentary style.
Good luck!
Ezekiel667
Well-known member
Haha. That sounds like the new Resident Evil animated movie, Degeneration. That's how the zombie virus spreads, sorry for anyone who hasn't seen it that wanted to!
But the radical group, and the Doc. style I think you could have something pretty unique in itself. Your characters need to be like, super dynamic though. Once you get a basic idea of all the plot points, I would focus most of your energy on making your main characters really realistic and whatnot. So the audience can relate with them, feel for them, and cheer when they succeed...or cry when everything blows up in their faces, whatever happens.
David W. Richardson
Chapelgrove Films
Excellent point about the dynamic characters.
An interesting twist might be if the people (environmentalists) who caused the outbreak are the same people who then try to stop it. Has that been done too? Sort of makes them both the 'bad' guys AND the 'good' guys.
Nektonic
Veteran
Excellent point about the dynamic characters.
An interesting twist might be if the people (environmentalists) who caused the outbreak are the same people who then try to stop it. Has that been done too? Sort of makes them both the 'bad' guys AND the 'good' guys.
That sounds interesting. I don't think I've seen that before. And remember, that could be just one story thread intercut with another one focusing on a different character or group.
Haven't seen Degeneration...however I think that this is what the Basic plot is going to be:
-decent sized meteor crashes into semi-rural town
-scientists come to investigate/research it
-company cameraman follows them (for video and still footage)
-some start getting sick, die
-others start showing symptoms that virus has infected them (acting crazy, stronger, faster, you know the deal)
-Eventually as it spreads, military units called in, they find cameraman. the leader of the military unit, being more compassionate then his counterparts, allows him to tag along (even though he is a liability).
...............yea and that's it so far.
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Randall_Oelerich
Veteran
Recently I did quite a bit of library research about prions, infectious protein molecules that cause 100% fatal disease. Well, the little bastards survive just about everything, including incineration, steam sterilization. They may also be spread by viruses. But my point was the little minions survive incineration, that is just plain not good. Not even considered to be living, they are just protein molecules that catalyze our own protein molecules to shift 3D shape and then cause tangles in our brains, leading to dementia, death, mad cow disease, and quite possibly Alzheimer's disease. Mechanism of action a bit like Ice-9 from Kurt Vonnegut's novel.
Ezekiel667
Well-known member
Perhaps you could make the meteor crash, but it's overlooked by the government cause it doesn't do much damage and it's only publicized by the small towns newspaper. But when townspeople start getting sick, killing each other, dying spontaneously, ect., Then the government steps in to research into what could be causing the sickness. But by then the virus has spread throughout the whole town and when the team(s) show up things go straight to hell.
Randall_Oelerich
Veteran
Somewhat reminds of the famous novel/film/TV miniseries: The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton . Except for the documentary POV. This is not necessarily a bad thing; as John Truby and Michael Hauge point out, it is good to have some antecedent stories somewhat along the vein of the one you will want to pitch, because hw is scared sh&^less to go too far out on a limb on anything too original for fear of a box office flop and then somebody getting fired.
Nektonic
Veteran
Let's face it folks, it is nearly impossible to come up with something wholly original. Every freaking time I come up with a new idea that I think has never really been done before, I later find out that it is in some small way similar to a previous piece of work.
Concerning high concept and marketable ideas for films, Hollywood wants something that feels fresh yet familiar at the same time. Once you get too original you start to move away from that target. The films/scripts of Charlie Kaufman, early David Cronenberg stuff, and David Lynch's disturbing dreamscapes come to mind.
As long as you stay away from a tired or cliched trend and write a well structured and entertaining script, you can calm the concerns of whether the initial concept is original enough or not.
David W. Richardson
Chapelgrove Films
You're right. But I think the main concern (for me, anyway) is that the whole "meteor radiation"-"military/government/evil corporation conspiracy" thing has just been done to death. It's gone from 'familiar' to 'cliche'.
Yea, I agree with you. I mainly just want the story to be around the soldiers and their struggles...but right now I am just working out the basic plot.
Nektonic
Veteran
I have to agree with chapel on the meteor thing being kinda cliched.
If you can emphasis the viral research angle and downplay the fact that it originally came from a meteor then I think you would be okay.
As for the corporation, I think it would be really interesting if that story arc starts out with the corp. guys having good intentions. When the whole thing spirals out of control then maybe a higher up guy in the company steps in to do a cover-up, or even a PR guy. If you show the corporation to be made up of different types of people, both good and bad then I think you will not only make it more engaging for the audience, but also more believable.
For example: think Burke in Aliens. The Colonial Marines were arrogant, but were not the bad guys. Burke was though.
Since you are intent on focusing on the soldiers, the meteor becomes backstory in this case. It's not like you're writing Armageddon or Deep Impact here.
If you can emphasis the viral research angle and downplay the fact that it originally came from a meteor then I think you would be okay.
As for the corporation, I think it would be really interesting if that story arc starts out with the corp. guys having good intentions. When the whole thing spirals out of control then maybe a higher up guy in the company steps in to do a cover-up, or even a PR guy. If you show the corporation to be made up of different types of people, both good and bad then I think you will not only make it more engaging for the audience, but also more believable.
For example: think Burke in Aliens. The Colonial Marines were arrogant, but were not the bad guys. Burke was though.
Since you are intent on focusing on the soldiers, the meteor becomes backstory in this case. It's not like you're writing Armageddon or Deep Impact here.
exactly...the meteor is just a way to get to the soldiers, and also a way to create the vampires.