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need me an idea

W

wheatgrinder

Help me gen up an idea...

I want to write and make a short (5 - 7 mins)

inspirational
supernatural
period about 1800's ( I have access to a pioneer museum indoor location, as well as wagons, coaches etc. no actual horses though, too much of a pain)
I have an ensemble cast of younger attractive people (18 - 22 year olds ), with plenty of stage experience working together. All musically talented too!
Northwest winter coming on, so wet an rainy is the outside world..

let the log lines flow..
 
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When you make your movie, make it a musical..
But this is MY MOVIE.. WAAAA WAAAA WAAAAA

I hate all musicals! With pasion and verve. I was abused by my druken step fathers cab drivers cousin while be subjected to endless replays of Cabre on BETAMAX no less! Oh the humanity...

The world is silly enough without me adding to the noise..

Cmon, whats serious? .. you think a time traveling ghost story is serious? geepers...

Maybe in a far off Navi land called Jokes-a-Lot you can get away with rapant sillyness.. but here in my world... we dont truck no blue skined sillynes..
 
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The modern-day decendents of a Donner Party-esque endeavour have gathered at the historical Pioneer Museum for a weekend of re-enactments, history sharing & general renaissance fair type stuff.

Their goal is to re-enact the last few days of their ancestors lives before they chowed down on each other, at the weekend-long event.

Each of the characters gets "carried back" in a flashback, assuming the roles of the various ancestors as they were back in 18xx - experiencing much of what was suffered through, coming to terms with sounding crazy (with all the talk of modern rescue methods) and no longer having access to it, and realising that they may indeed have become stuck in the past and doomed to live (and die) in their ancestors' shoes.

Is this the ever-to-be-repeated curse passed down to generations to come? Or is it more of a Ghosts of Christmas Past/Present/Future kind of warning for someone in the group?

smiley_ghost.gif
 
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Seriously for a moment, thanks dudes. I appreciate your time and thoughts. I didn't let the thread die, I just went home for the evening, then had to help with homework.. etc..

Lots of fun and great ideas. Thanks again.
 
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What did you decide on? I didn't catch anything put forth solid yet.
(I thought it was only round 1 :no: )

I was laughing thinking about Pioneer Spirit as a title.

I like something inspired by what Steve is kind of saying (in a horror context).
Group gathers at the museum for reenactments. Evil ghost of Lumber Jack is on the prowl all fired up on revenge (for the town letting his wife and kids die of fever). He’s taking people out by one with like a hand auger or something, until he meets up with The Historian who knows some truth that gives old Jack pause (Long enough to be introduced to a modern day chain saw).

The evil pioneer spirit is both funny and an angle I don’t really recall seeing before in horror.

-Thanks-
 
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Thats a sweet idea,

I like the lumberjack character, as this area is KNOW as lumber country.. AXEMEN is filmed here.

I do want to have a POSITIVE, INSPIRATIONAL, feel. I believe straight up horror is not inline with that goal. :)

What is "inspirational?" is a question that naturaly comes to mind..
 
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I don't really know about inspirational stuff I guess. Like it would have an uplifting family value?

Can a family exhibit pioneer teamwork, and fight an evil ghost? (I'm just kidding)

I'm interested in what you suss out. I liked the time thing too, the idea of them walking around in the present looking for a doctor or medicine has some appeal.

-Thanks-
 
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I think triumph of good over evil is classically considered inspirational. So yes, fighting off an evil ghost qualifies. Maybe where you place the emphasis determines the flavor of that inspiration? Emphasis the BATTLE and EVIL and its less inspirational.. emphasis the GOOD and the HEROICS and it becomes more inspirational.. dont know, just thinking..

Maybe along those lines, one family of "traditional minded" ghosts help a derelict drug addict as he holes up in the museum during a winter storm?

You could swap out the drug addict for a materialistic city slicker to good effect..
 
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That could be interesting. Is a drug addict too "harsh"? I mean, would a sick like escaped con or bank robber thinking he is hallucinating from a fever be a softer machine so to speak?

Or does drug addict afford you a greater sense of urgency or social in road?

-Thanks-
 
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Good point that.. harsh isnt the goal..

Maybe the viewers and the interloper don't KNOW that they are ghosts.. Its dark, its rainy, were out on an empty rural highway, the power could be out from the storm, and Mennonites are out and about in the town that the interloper passes through on his way to his meeting with .. .

pretty classic setup that..
 
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...
In a soaking downpour a BMW Coup stutters and spasms to a stop at a wide spot in the road. Though the smeary fading light, the INTERLOPER sees a "quaint" farm house just down a gravel path tucked in among the trees.. with his sport coat pulled over his head, the INTERLOPER and his fancy shoes hustles to the shelter of the covered porch. ...
 
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Ahhh the phantom hosts. That could work with the right interloper character and desire.
(The old buy up the land and build a strip mall thing lol)

It could be cool if outside in the storm it’s 1850, and inside to him it’s 2011, but they are in period garb, and he is all “Geeze you kooks really go all out with the get ups and all, huh?” then maybe when he swerved to avoid something and crashed (In the rain if possible) then went for help, through the woods (of course) he never really did, and at the end the same family in present day attire (Wiz of Oz type device) stop their car and revive him basically, and he is like. “F a strip mall, I’m out of here!” but in a good, change of heart kind of way.

-Thanks-
 
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Buddy Greenfield said:
Ahhh the phantom hosts. That could work with the right interloper character and desire.
(The old buy up the land and build a strip mall thing lol)

It could be cool if outside in the storm it’s 1850, and inside to him it’s 2011, but they are in period garb, and he is all “Geeze you kooks really go all out with the get ups and all, huh?” then maybe when he swerved to avoid something and crashed (In the rain if possible) then went for help, through the woods (of course) he never really did, and at the end the same family in present day attire (Wiz of Oz type device) stop their car and revive him basically, and he is like. “F a strip mall, I’m out of here!” but in a good, change of heart kind of way.

-Thanks-
Click to expand...

lets play with that for a bit..

during the interlopers time traveling\dream, what value changes does he experience? Or rather, what did he learn that would make him NOT want to build a strip mall? A new found respect for historical places?
 
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