Outside influences

Capt Quirk

Capt Quirk

Veteran
Ok, here's the scenario- You get an idea for a story. As you get started on it and you think you are doing pretty well, it dawns on you that this all came about after watching a movie with similar elements. I'm not talking about plagiarism, outright ripping them off, but just elements that resemble the other movie. This wasn't done consciously, but could certainly be ripped apart. Do you:
A, Continue as you were, because it had a good flow to it
B, Go out of your way to make sure it isn't anything like said movie and risk your story
C, Do you drop it?
 
I won't bother with the overly-cliched "there-are-no-original-ideas" bit (oops, damn!)...nor will I make mention of a certain analogy involving certain chimps, certain typewriters and the works of a certain cat named Shakespeare (oh ****.)

It happens to all us scribes, the "oh ****, I'm just writing _________(fill in movie title)!"
This is doubly true of genre-specific stuff like sci-fi or fantasy (where the cosmos which contains the collective consciousness is especially narrow in diameter and capacity.

Just keep chugging along...who knows what unique creature will come out of that seemingly-predictable womb when all is said and done.
 
The movie in question was Shawn of the Dead. After watching it again for like the 5th time, a while had passed and I wasn't thinking about it at all. Out of nowhere, I started working on a zombie comedy. The story just sort of came to me in bits and not as a whole. But as I'm working some scenes out, I started thinking about Shawn of the Dead. Like I said, I wasn't doing this to rip them off, but I had to wonder how much of it is influenced by that movie.

My story does things that aren't in there, and most certainly are immoral and shouldn't be done, but I still have to wonder if I'll be hearing that I just stole my ideas.
 
Thing is, if your script was about a bunch of Brits hanging in a pub while zombies took over the country, then WHAT"S THE POINT IN WRITING IT?

Someone in the biz will read your logline and think: SHAUN OF THE DEAD ALREADY DID THIS, AND WELL - MIGHT I ADD!

So if your script is simply zombies with comedy, then heck, who hasn't done that already?

EJ
 
*No British Pubs will be harmed during the course of this story*

My mind just took a sick little romp through what might happen when zombies started appearing.
 
I always pull my hair out on the fact that a lot of ideas my brother and I think of have similar traits to other movies... not exact but similar and I always want to start over and come up with a truly original idea... but that is easier said then done and some could say this day and age... impossible to do.

What kinda sucks is, any comedy with zombies that will be made in the next five years or so will of course be compared to Shaun of the Dead. Like any movie with a shark in it is a rip off of Jaws, or any movie with an angry Alien in it is compared to Alien(s).

What I'm getting at is that most people will compare your idea to Shaun of the Dead (a fantastic movie by the way) because people inherently want to compare one thing to another, for familiarity sake if anything. But, maybe it's not a bad thing, especially if you plan for a straight to DVD project (which the distributor will most likely slap a sticker on your DVD that says, "For Fans of Shaun of the Dead" anyhow.) People that are fans of that movie will take a look because they want to watch more movies like it... but on the other hand some people (like us Film Nerds) will look at it and not want to watch it because they think it will be a rip off. Hmmm, conundrum to say the least.

I say keep going and hopefully by the end there is enough to set you apart from Shaun but maybe you do need to put a little “spin” on it.
 
most zombie movie is the same

People is infected.
Small Band of people have to avoid be killed.
Zombie either win or the group lives.

That y we all love Zombie movies.
All we want to see is who fool get killed next!!
 
EJ Pennypacker said:
Someone in the biz will read your logline and think: SHAUN OF THE DEAD ALREADY DID THIS, AND WELL - MIGHT I ADD!

EJ
Click to expand...


Or, equally likely...

...someone will read your logline, and think SHAUN OF THE DEAD ALREADY DID THIS, AND WELL - MIGHT I ADD! AND THEY MADE SHITELOADS OF $$$! LETS RIP THEM OFF SO WE CAN COLLECT SHITELOADS OF $$$, TOO!
 
I guarantee the logline won't make anyone think of Shawn of the Dead. Mostly what I'm noticing, is the way there are a lot of scenes using many cuts, like in SotD. It was one of the things I really liked about the way it was edited.

You could always bite the bullet, and volunteer to read the first act.
 
Capt Quirk said:
I guarantee the logline won't make anyone think of Shawn of the Dead. Mostly what I'm noticing, is the way there are a lot of scenes using many cuts, like in SotD. It was one of the things I really liked about the way it was edited.
Click to expand...

So you're writing editing decisions into the script?

I say don't worry about the similarity. Write it, hone it, perfect it. Then see if you can get investors interested in it. If you can, then make the movie. If not, try something else.

A zombie movie is a zombie movie is a zombie movie, in my mind. Unless you went and did a zombie western. (Has that been done?) Or a zombie Jane Austen story. Or a zombie war movie. Hmmm...what else? A zombie 'buddies on a road trip' movie? Zombie musical? (I'm not a fan of zombie movies, so for all I know all of these have already been done. But so what?)

Have fun with it!
 
I'm not talking so much about writing in editing decisions, although I try to make it clear by the cut to scenes, that is the way it should be put together.

And you are right about zombie flicks, which is why I never thought about doing one. But when the idea hits you, what are you going to do? Write it down, give it a go, and see what happens to it. And I'm going for Zombie: A love story ;)
 
I always thought it would be fun to make a zombie movie where people are turning into zombies...and nobody wants to acknowledge it's happening. So you have people trying to live their day-to-day lives, interspersed with zombietude...
 
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