script ideas

C

chris grieder

Well-known member
anyone have any ideas for short? i always have little ideas pop in my head that would be pretty cool, post your ideas in here!
 
Why would they Chris?

Why wouldn't they just write up their ideas instead of sharing them with this community?

This is an odd thread.

EJ
 
I came to this realisation to that I am constantly churning out ideas maybe 1-3 a day. So I am taking the good ones and deciding to film as many as I can.I am seeing it like being in a band and practicing your ass off to get better. To many times (especially in my age group in this proffession) people TALK about ideas. People lose vision that the best way to become more informed is to actually film and complete projects. So write it out and go shoot. Then post them here.
 
JwrFord said:
I came to this realisation to that I am constantly churning out ideas maybe 1-3 a day. So I am taking the good ones and deciding to film as many as I can.I am seeing it like being in a band and practicing your ass off to get better. To many times (especially in my age group in this proffession) people TALK about ideas. People lose vision that the best way to become more informed is to actually film and complete projects. So write it out and go shoot. Then post them here.
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just curious, are your ideas complete stories that pop into your head? I constantly have scenes and shots pop into my head, but i can't say I have full short stories. In fact, that's what gets me frustrated, cuz I don't know where to take it.

Anyway, just thinking out loud
 
I always have short ideas simple things scenes that just stick out in my head and evoke an emotion. Most of times character, others 1/2 of a story arc, more times its just a very small portion IE a scene (like a scene at a cafe). At that point I tell myself I have three options. Write it down in the composition book I keep for ideas, force myself to complete the idea (often involves talking on AIM with my friend and building together, if I do it alone I have some other eccentric things I do to milk my brain), or be happy with what I have and just shoot that to the best I can.

IE) My girlfriend had a headache and we began talking about why the body reacts. Came up with a character that made my stomache churn and just ran with it from there. The ideas kept coming (with the aid of some eccentric behavior) and I put them in there proper places. We shoot next week and don't plan to take more then 12 hours on it. Practice practice practice.
 
Rasquachemedia said:
just curious, are your ideas complete stories that pop into your head? I constantly have scenes and shots pop into my head, but i can't say I have full short stories. In fact, that's what gets me frustrated, cuz I don't know where to take it.

Anyway, just thinking out loud
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same here
 
Most often during writing I will come up with different scene ideas that dont work with what I am doing, they get written out and filed for later use, or sometimes they become a basis of something entirely new.
 
I tend to think up lots of quirky ideas - the stuff that hits me really depends on the situation - if i have nothing that i'm involved in, i sometimes get hit with a nice story arc for a short film. But if i've already got an idea that i'm committed to, the ideas are related to new ways to execute that idea i've already thought up. The most irritating thing i find is indecision - there are so damn many ways to portray something, and many of them are equally effective.

I got this idea for a short that y'all will probably see posted up here in about 3 to 4 weeks, with any luck. Its basically about how an incrimidating typo made by a guy using an instant message client leads to...interesting results. Don't really want to spoil it, but suffice to say i reckon its a pretty funny idea, filed under the category of absurdist comedy.

As for the creative process, it originally started off as how an incrimidating typo snowballs to astronomical proportions, ie: typo->the person reading it got shocked enough that he/she fell off a building, landing on a car carrying a vip, which is seen as an assasination attempt-> leading to a sort of world war-> ending when the guy sees the whole world blowing up before his eyes. Then i realised it'll be quite hard filming that....so it evolved....or rather, devolved, from a technical pov.

(whew, this is a long post)

Next i had another quirky idea thats still aways off from execution about how a messages found in a guy's handphone lead to a mistaken assumption that he's gay. Not to give off too much of the plot, i feel that this one is better as a short film that actually has a message, as opposed to the mindlessness of the former idea.

However, imo, by far the biggest problem i have is the fact that....no one takes me seriously :( I've never made shorts before, and all i've done is a couple of videos for my school(check out some grabs of a trailer i'm doing for a school production in the screengrabs section - its under the new grabs for feature length thread). Its doubly hard to convince anyone to help out in an absurdist comedy. Not to mention the life of a year 10 student is a hectic one, with assignments flying all over the place. I just cant do much. The first idea has been mulling around for about a month and a half before its finally slated to be put on film in 2 weeks time*so excited*

Anyways, thats the end of my post cum rant!

Mal
 
I think that is the nature of ideas. Fleeting, inspiring, they give you lots of energy at the start but fizzle out when it comes time for the work to begin of writing it down into a story. Mine are like this.

Story, scene, dialog, character ideas come from strange places and if I don't record them (usually the memo feature on my cell phone) they're gone within the hour. Eventually I take all these voice memos, notes scribbled on a pad next to my bed, and my moleskin then enter them in the computer, categorized by what they are. I'll share story ideas with my trusted writer's workshop group and it becomes pretty clear which story ideas will blossom and which ones won't.

Then I do that index card trick. I lay in bed and picture my story as a movie. I play it over in my head until I know it's right then I write it down, one scene, one card. Then I pin these cards in order on my wall-o-cork then I write the screenplay.

Story ideas get this treatment for the most part. Dialog, scene and character ideas don't. I just file them away for later use.
 
the reason the ideas start off great is because we aren't involved yet to ruin them. they come from our subconscious and then when we try to 'fit' them into a 'story' we're missing the whole point.

they were never 'stories' to begin with.

they were much more creative than that. they were random, bizarre, and interesting ideas that mashed together.

why not just film that?
 
This is actually a pretty good thread. I really liked R!ff R4ff's notecard idea. I'm always coming up with things when that mood hits me in the evening and they usually become so bastardized by the time I try to script them that they end up looking like stupid ideas. I guess it's probably best to mull an idea over for just a short while and then scribble it down.

On a slightly different tangent: are twist movies completely dead? I'm mulling a story where a mother is being tormented over her son's death but it ends up that the torment is actually her own afterlife. See? Putting pen to paper can show you a bad script before you even invest any time.
 
Im writing on a script right now. I have already wrote 10 pages, but there is still no story. I write about scenes and situation I want shoot and when the first third of the script is done i come up with a conflict. I don't agree that you have to know the end before you start or even do a synopsis. If you just start writing about someting you are gonne find a lot of what if.. in your own text. I also write down a lots of short sentence that I later can put like: Someone has a really funny fetish. Or just short lines like - I like when you cry. This is of course if you are going to shoot it yourself.
 
Markitto said:
Im writing on a script right now. I have already wrote 10 pages, but there is still no story. I write about scenes and situation I want shoot and when the first third of the script is done i come up with a conflict. I don't agree that you have to know the end before you start or even do a synopsis. If you just start writing about someting you are gonne find a lot of what if.. in your own text. I also write down a lots of short sentence that I later can put like: Someone has a really funny fetish. Or just short lines like - I like when you cry. This is of course if you are going to shoot it yourself.
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So what is driving your characters now? Who are they? How do they know how to be themselves? In saying that you could probably churn out some interesting ideas this way....... but I feel you would have to start again.

dont initially get stuck in details, try to see big picture stuff.

A man conflicted in his love for his wife joins the war in vietnam to escape his life .. that kind of thing.

A dog discovers his master is an alien sent to destroy the earth. He enlists the locals animals to save us from doom.

A woman living in a small village in Austria is tired of modern ways. She sets about restoring her culture.

Three men travel across America in search of their lost youth.

conversley

Three boys tired of being kids, set out on a journey to become men.

A young women from a life of torment and abuse can not let go of her dream to become a Doctor, a writer, a >>>>>>>>

A single mother marrys the man of her dreams. Or does she?

An airconditioning repair man is trapped in a vent for three days. Listening to the stories of the apartments below him he learns the secret of life.

A worm has one dream. To become a butterfly. :nads:
 
flipsidekrew said:
make a movie about a person making a horror movie and it comes true
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I had a similar idea mulling about in my head years ago...

Failed horror film director and his long-time DP have "one last shot", gets enough cash for a small film;

He finds a spooky old house in the woods for a teen slasher, get his cast together, buys a ton of film, etc...

And the money guy gets busted, no cash for special effects and the EFX shop pulls out... so, they just put the real chains back on the chainsaws and gore ensues...

But, it turns out there's someone.. or something... living in the spooky old house... more gore ensues, director and DP get theirs (while a camera happens to be rolling)...

Nice epilogue: Maybe the surviving hero saves the film, edits it and wins at Cannes?
 
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