Pow! Right in the spirits!

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sbryan

Well-known member
What do you do when you see a movie that resembles the short you're about to go into production on?

I was set to do a comedy because it felt right and it was going to be a fresh change of pace. I'm flipping through some of the HD channels this morning and I came across a movie that brought all my ideas to fruition -- in HD even.

The plot and some of the jokes are too close for my comfort. I could pull a screenwriter's defense and say that "I'm attacking it from a new angle", but the truth is, I won't (and neither does the screenwriter who promises to be inventive...)

I know that I can't compete with the production design of this movie -- $500,000 production (estimated) against my $500 budget. Do we just need to know when to pull the plug and not lie to ourselves on what is original and what isn't?
 
Its happened to me before...But lucky for me i was still in the idea phase when i saw the 'knockoff'. The only time it was serious was when i saw something like it in a different short film, however mine could still be considered original as that other short film just laid down the idea - whilst mine was in a completely different scenario and with a completely different storyline
 
It happened to me in a wierd way, too.

If telling your story is what you want to do, then by all means do it.
If you are worried about being called out for it. Make that change.

Leave it up to your heart and your creativity.

I ended up changing my "doomed" story and enjoyed what went on with it. Funny that I would have a problem with "Joe Dirt" of all films. That's ok, there are many stories to be told about the mullet.
 
Happend to me too. Luckily it was a short and I had only just finished the script.

I was reading some examples of good and bad log lines and one of the good ones (score) was the exact same as my premise.

It was too close infact, that I would probably be sued if I were to make the movie.
 
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