IndieTalk: The Movie (Story Development)

Maybe we do a few stories that contain the pen but there is no connecting story between vignettes -- we just assume the pen got to the other story some how. This makes it easier to switch between genres and visual styles.

Poke
 
I seem to remember elsewhere in the thread, someone (Contempo?) saying that stringing together stories with just a pen seemed too much like a bunch of disconnected shorts. Sorry that I don't have the direct reference here.

Have we lost our "mo" (momentum) on this? Fewer and fewer posts coming across.
 
Right now the ideas are being taken in consideration, and i'll let everybody know soon what comes of this, so the momentum is going, just off the forum part :) Any new ideas are welcome though! Cheers, Kane.
 
Lilith said:
My gut feeling is that if you guys like Dennis' more surreal approach that we should write a whole other 'pen' story to go with it. I see where you're going with it and it has possibilities, but I don't see how we tie the multi-generational and dramatic story line I suggested in with it. If you can see that, please explain it to me further. Thanks.
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The whole idea is that the pen itself is an embodiment of a human characteristic... perhaps endowed with the spirit of a dead guy, perhaps not. But then again, I'm thinking in terms of multiple shorts, not one feature. I think that's the best way to go to spread out the workload and get more people involved; otherwise it becomes an oligarchy, and the whole point of a mass internet collaboration would become lost. The pen is the central character (which I think needs to be humanized)... perhaps the pen can be representative of "hope", and come into play when hope is lost in the plots of the shorts... your idea could be easily done within the confines... eg. the daughter looses the pen after the death of her father, and the pen passes through the other shorts and returns into her life at her moment of hopelessness, and gives her the constitution she needs to heal her family. It would actually work as the central story (perhaps the beginning, middle, and end) and smaller shorts could be following the serendipitous journey of the pen?

What do you think about that?
 
Hmmm. This has possibilities. It would need to be handled very carefully or it will be wildly uneven. Thanks for explaining, Dennis.
 
Lilith said:
...or it will be wildly uneven.
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Who says the movie has to be even? One of the great things about Four Rooms is that things (cinematography, dialogue style, pacing, etc.) drastically change from story to story. I'd like to see something like this approach -- have the film be experimental in a way. Each story is different in tone, genre, pacing, visual style. The central story -- girl loses pen, but finds it in her lowest moment -- is broken in two by the middle stories -- the journey of the pen.

I want to say "The Red Violin" is like this, but I am not sure.

Poke
 
Poke said:
Who says the movie has to be even? One of the great things about Four Rooms is that things (cinematography, dialogue style, pacing, etc.) drastically change from story to story. I'd like to see something like this approach -- have the film be experimental in a way. Each story is different in tone, genre, pacing, visual style. The central story -- girl loses pen, but finds it in her lowest moment -- is broken in two by the middle stories -- the journey of the pen.
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Hey, this isn't a bad idea. Each story, shot by a different director with differing styles is attractive to the indie community.

The same thing could be said for Pulp Fiction. Even with one director, the seperate stories in it is a single continuing journey.
 
Poke said:
Who says the movie has to be even? One of the great things about Four Rooms is that things (cinematography, dialogue style, pacing, etc.) drastically change from story to story. I'd like to see something like this approach -- have the film be experimental in a way. Each story is different in tone, genre, pacing, visual style. The central story -- girl loses pen, but finds it in her lowest moment -- is broken in two by the middle stories -- the journey of the pen.

I want to say "The Red Violin" is like this, but I am not sure.

Poke
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That's what I like too, but one thing that I did think about is what about all the shorts being able to end (or pause I should say) before the finish, and the end of the movie are the last scenes of all the stories. I'm thinking of having the audience laughing at the comedy, crying at the drama, feeling warm and fuzzy for the warm and fuzzy, and being scared out of their wits by the horror all within the 5 minute or 10 minute ending.

Imagine the roller coaster ride that would be!



Chris
 
CVF - I thought you said you posted a summary of our plot on your website. Maybe you did and I cant find it. Can you tell me where to look so I can stay in tuned and put in my two sense. Thanks, Jack
 
Hey, what's the story on the story? There seems to be a lull. Here's a thought I just had.... does anyone have a finsihed script that you'd want to put up for:

a) an IT group review and possible rewrite for use in this project
b) a finished script that would lend itself (in an extreme creative sense) to being shot, scene by scene, by different IT crews around the world? OK, this idea's pretty wacky, but it's never been done before (I'm sure there's a reason for that :lol: )

Just trying to spike some chatter.....
 
Hey MediaHero & all peeps.

I have been talking to a few members about what/where this is going. I have also been looking at other similar projects to see where they went wrong, which all have failed to take off. So this is what we need to do.

The task of writing something together over the net was always going to be really hard, and now probably not going to work, or take a long time. So if you came up with an idea before, and would like it to be done for this project, you are going to have to go and try & write a draft script for it. The thing you have to keep in mind, is the structure of the film is: its going to be filmed in a few different countries, thats the only 'rule'. I have a detailed idea that i'm going to write for this too, which could be filmed by 4 or 5 different crews, which would take the load off of all the crews, making it easier for each of them.

So thats where we are, maybe post up here if you are intending to try this.

Cheers, Kane.
 
The task of writing something together over the net was always going to be really hard, and now probably not going to work, or take a long time. So if you came up with an idea before, and would like it to be done for this project, you are going to have to go and try & write a draft script for it. The thing you have to keep in mind, is the structure of the film is: its going to be filmed in a few different countries, thats the only 'rule'. I have a detailed idea that i'm going to write for this too, which could be filmed by 4 or 5 different crews, which would take the load off of all the crews, making it easier for each of them.
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I read this and my immediate gut feeling is that as producer you've stalled the story development process online because your real agenda is to make your own idea.

That's OK -- it's your project.

As a writer looking at the situation as it stands, I can see very little point in anyone else submitting a script for this project.

I only hope the people who have thrown ideas into this thread feel that that at least they've developed ideas that they can take away and work on for themselves.

I've suspected from the start that this is where this was going -- but I'm bitterly dissappointed to have my suspicions confirmed.

And, on a professional note -- if the idea you are developing is the one you pitched here, it is by far the weakest of the ideas that have come out of this thread.
 
clive said:
I've suspected from the start that this is where this was going -- but I'm bitterly dissappointed to have my suspicions confirmed.

And, on a professional note -- if the idea you are developing is the one you pitched here, it is by far the weakest of the ideas that have come out of this thread.
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Yow, bitter dregs. :(
 
I deduced early on that Kane wasn't 'into' my story idea. That's cool because I did get a great amount of support from others on it and know that it is a viable feature script all on its own. I feel that I gave my all to the thread, and have given everyone plenty of time and input on my idea. It is obvious that whomever the 'other members' are with whom Kane is talking, they are going their own way without our input.

I wish them well and hope they do the same for me. :)
 
That's cool because I did get a great amount of support from others on it and know that it is a viable feature script all on its own.
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I think that the best result that could have come out of this exercise.

I also think that the fact it it is now developed by you yourself also gives it the best chance to having a sucessful conclusion.

Yow, bitter dregs.
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Not really, more of a light wistful sigh. I entered into this thread without any real interest in either writing the script or being involved in the production. What I hoped was that by developing ideas together we could share our experience of the script development process, and by doing that we'd all be better equiped to build our own projects.

I think, all in all, that has been a partical sucess, in that Lilith has really got to grips with her project.

However, I do think it's been a lost opportunity.

What I would have liked to have seen was a staged and managed development process

Stage One -- Brainstorm general concepts

Stage Two -- Producer selects idea for development.

Stage Three -- Discussion and building of character profiles

Stage Four -- Construction of a beat sheet -- based around twelve to fifteen sequences

Stage Five -- An open contest where individual members submitted scripts based on the character profiles and beat sheets.

To develop a twenty minute film collectively going through these stages could have easily been achieved in about three weeks.

Basically we'd be going through scripts now and choosing the best one for production.

Like I said -- this really has been a missed opportunity.
 
I think I got something out of the exercise, too. It was interesting to see the ideas put forth and which were latched onto ... or not... and why. I'm really glad Lilith is moving forward because of what she discovered. Best of all was getting input from Clive, who really knows his sh*t and is very generous with sharing his experience and time. I'm rather new to filmmaking as a writer/producer so I'm grateful to soak it all up. I like to believe that nothing is wasted. There's something positive to glean from every experience. If you choose to look for it.
 
Best of all was getting input from Clive, who really knows his sh*t and is very generous with sharing his experience and time
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:blush:

I can't really take any credit -- like I've said in the past -- All I do is read everything filmy posts here and then do it myself!

That's the reason I'm just a general Gnu rather than a specific one! You could replace me with a parot!

Only thing I'm really any good at off my own back is writing dialogue, going bankrupt; oh, and the use of semi-colons.
 
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clive said:
That's the reason I'm just a general Gnu rather than a specific one! You could replace me with a parot!
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You can't replace a Gnu with a Parrot -- everyone would notice as soon as they saw the feathers.

Personally I don't feel this project is dead in the water. I don't think it's heading in a direction I would take it, but who's to say my way would be the right way?

Poke
 
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