I need help on an Idea

[Zaco32]

The way ideas come to me is through seeing them as clips, as if it is already a movie. I liked this one idea that I got but I wanted to see if you guys could help me build off of it.

Basically, what I have so far is, a boy around the age of 18 is watching a home video with his father in it which died some odd years ago. But in the tape that he finds shows day light which doesn't exist in "his world". The whole time he has been alive, it has been constant night time. I wanted to make a short out of this so it has to be a realistic story. I'm at a loss from there. Help? Ideas? Ideas with anything involving home videos to make a story out of them? I wanted to call it "Play".

[harpsichoid]

You need to think of a reason why there won't be millions of other videos and photographs dating back to when there was daylight.

[Zaco32]

Originally Posted by harpsichoid

You need to think of a reason why there won't be millions of other videos and photographs dating back to when there was daylight.

That's a very good point. I was too focused on how I wanted it to always be night that I didn't even think of that. Well, if I scrapped the whole always night time part, what ideas would work well?

[harpsichoid]

Originally Posted by Zaco32

That's a very good point. I was too focused on how I wanted it to always be night that I didn't even think of that. Well, if I scrapped the whole always night time part, what ideas would work well?

You can't really scrap it, that's whole idea! There must be a way to make it work, let me think.

It can't really be post-apocalyptic- a short isn't enough time to establish that then still have his realisation sing home properly at the end.

What if the reason this boy lives in darkness is something specific to him?

[JoshL]

The boy is the sole survivor in an undeground research facility, having moved there with his father when he was very young (and he doesn't know how to get to the outside, so has grown up with the knowledge that there might not BE an outside)?

The boy and his father were turned into vampires, so he's only awake at night (maybe not even aware of what he is). But, again, they were turned so long ago that he can't remember the sun.

After the event that created the permanant night, the father isolated himself and his son, and destroyed memories of the world they would never have again. Except that one tape that he missed....

Just some thoughts!

[rayw]

It's a short.
There's no money to be made off of it.
So you have to start by thinking in at least one or two terms: Experience + Festivals.

If you're doing this just for experience then a lot of pressure comes off.
If you're thinking of releasing this on the festival circuit then you're DEFINITELY going to have to identify either the festivals you're interested in having your short accepted into - or - the genré you want to craft a story around. But those two are kinda chicken-and-egg sorta things.
You may be open to two or three genres and start hunting down the festivals looking for the shorts you're interested in writing/directing/producing.
Review what those festivals have accepted in the recent past and craft accordingly.

There's not much sense in lumping out pie-in-the-sky ideas now if you have no idea where you're going with this.

Shoes for home and work and walking and sport and hiking are all going to be different.
You gotta identify what you're going to be doing before we can help you select a good shoe "to get there or to do that".

[arrodiii]

So, something like the opposite of Insomnia but not a Rip Van Winkle?

[Zaco32]

I just thought the idea of it always being night would be something kind of different, that's where that came from. It doesn't have to stay though. I feel like the tapes would be easier and tell a better story but I can't really think of story that is different than every other story by having a soild story with a twist, or just being something you didn't expect at all.

[wheatgrinder]

when I have interesting visuals with no story here is what I do...

Get a stack of index cards..
write each interesting visual on its own index card, not much just one partial sentence like..

• 18 year old watching home video
• boy shocked at seeing father in bright light
• ...

Now you have "story\plot points"

Lay the cards out on the table..
move them around until they seem to be in some order.. chronological order makes sense..

Now just start adding cards with more visuals to "connect" the cards you already wrote..

for example:
your first two visuals get surrounded with..

• boys boss makes joke about boy being a "bastard"
• boy gets in fight with boss
• boy gets fired
• boy gets drunk
• boy digs out memory chest from disappeared father..

• "18 year old watching home video"
• "boy shocked at seeing father in bright light"

• boy passes out and has dream of father..

keep adding cards until you have something you like.

repeat, reorder, whatever.. before long you will have a story and ready made shot cads!

convert to script or just go shoot it.

[bluechip.]

In our native film industry, back in 2003, there was a movie released made by a very renowned director. This film titled 'Eekangi' meaning 'All Alone' dealt with the same concept you are talking about. Sadly, the film tanked and it took nearly 8 months for the director to come out of that misery.

In this film, there was no complete night concept, but there was the 'father wanted to isolate his son from the outer world' concept.

Why I'm telling you this is that audience may not find it comfortable to watch it all the way through. If you are so attached to the concept then try adding some elements, characters, back stories etc.,

Practically speaking, audience need something to worry about your story If you are aware of the recent Abraham Lincoln and Vampire thing, then you must change your mind to get rid of the vampire concept.

I'll give it a try, like this. Let the father be a convict, and he cannot go out because if he do then he'll be caught. He is so attached to his little baby that he cannot live without it for a second. So with his baby he goes into hiding. There is one person very close to the father who supply them with food, water, etc., His speeches about the outer world one day inspires the boy (which was the baby) to go out there and see what the daylight looks like. This should be his motivation to even disregard his father to go and see the daylight.

Now we have a conflict here, the father hates daylight, and the son hasn't seen one but wants to see. The father has a brutual criminal record so if he's angered a lot, then the boy's life might be in danger. What next?

You try.

[Zaco32]

Originally Posted by wheatgrinder

when I have interesting visuals with no story here is what I do...

Get a stack of index cards..
write each interesting visual on its own index card, not much just one partial sentence like..

• 18 year old watching home video
• boy shocked at seeing father in bright light
• ...

Now you have "story\plot points"

Lay the cards out on the table..
move them around until they seem to be in some order.. chronological order makes sense..

Now just start adding cards with more visuals to "connect" the cards you already wrote..

for example:
your first two visuals get surrounded with..

• boys boss makes joke about boy being a "bastard"
• boy gets in fight with boss
• boy gets fired
• boy gets drunk
• boy digs out memory chest from disappeared father..

• "18 year old watching home video"
• "boy shocked at seeing father in bright light"

• boy passes out and has dream of father..
  

keep adding cards until you have something you like.

repeat, reorder, whatever.. before long you will have a story and ready made shot cads!

convert to script or just go shoot it.

That is great advice, thank you so much! I will try that way.

Originally Posted by bluechip.

In our native film industry, back in 2003, there was a movie released made by a very renowned director. This film titled 'Eekangi' meaning 'All Alone' dealt with the same concept you are talking about. Sadly, the film tanked and it took nearly 8 months for the director to come out of that misery.

In this film, there was no complete night concept, but there was the 'father wanted to isolate his son from the outer world' concept.

Why I'm telling you this is that audience may not find it comfortable to watch it all the way through. If you are so attached to the concept then try adding some elements, characters, back stories etc.,

Practically speaking, audience need something to worry about your story If you are aware of the recent Abraham Lincoln and Vampire thing, then you must change your mind to get rid of the vampire concept.

I'll give it a try, like this. Let the father be a convict, and he cannot go out because if he do then he'll be caught. He is so attached to his little baby that he cannot live without it for a second. So with his baby he goes into hiding. There is one person very close to the father who supply them with food, water, etc., His speeches about the outer world one day inspires the boy (which was the baby) to go out there and see what the daylight looks like. This should be his motivation to even disregard his father to go and see the daylight.

I like it. It's kind of a gritty version of Tangled. I guess I could build off of that.

Now we have a conflict here, the father hates daylight, and the son hasn't seen one but wants to see. The father has a brutual criminal record so if he's angered a lot, then the boy's life might be in danger. What next?

You try.

Originally Posted by bluechip.

In our native film industry, back in 2003, there was a movie released made by a very renowned director. This film titled 'Eekangi' meaning 'All Alone' dealt with the same concept you are talking about. Sadly, the film tanked and it took nearly 8 months for the director to come out of that misery.

In this film, there was no complete night concept, but there was the 'father wanted to isolate his son from the outer world' concept.

Why I'm telling you this is that audience may not find it comfortable to watch it all the way through. If you are so attached to the concept then try adding some elements, characters, back stories etc.,

Practically speaking, audience need something to worry about your story If you are aware of the recent Abraham Lincoln and Vampire thing, then you must change your mind to get rid of the vampire concept.

I'll give it a try, like this. Let the father be a convict, and he cannot go out because if he do then he'll be caught. He is so attached to his little baby that he cannot live without it for a second. So with his baby he goes into hiding. There is one person very close to the father who supply them with food, water, etc., His speeches about the outer world one day inspires the boy (which was the baby) to go out there and see what the daylight looks like. This should be his motivation to even disregard his father to go and see the daylight.



Now we have a conflict here, the father hates daylight, and the son hasn't seen one but wants to see. The father has a brutual criminal record so if he's angered a lot, then the boy's life might be in danger. What next?

You try.

It's kind of a gritty version of Tangled but it was helpful, I could build off of that.

[Humphrey C.E]

regarding the always night + childhood memory + not remembering sunlight,

u might wanna watch Dark City

it's the matrix's strangely-identical yet underwhelming twin, and covers some of the bases you mentioned