The Community Ideas Hub

What's your favourite logline?

  • The Organ Lottery

    Votes: 8 44.4%

  • The Cure

    Votes: 3 16.7%

  • The Uterine Plague

    Votes: 2 11.1%

  • Survivors

    Votes: 3 16.7%

  • The Geriatrics

    Votes: 1 5.6%

  • Going Viral

    Votes: 1 5.6%
  • Total voters
    18
Well we've had some scripts emerge in the past couple of days and I think it would do us some good to get a firmer outline of things for writers.

What we can see from the scripts shown so far is that we're not going to have a real problem with writers feeling constrained. Already this basic stimulus has shot out in several different defections. So I think, with the benefit of this knowledge, we can afford to more closely define what we need from script.

First things first, I think we should consider getting the TV scripted. The earlier we can get this down the easier it will be for the writers to script around it. I'm still unsure how we're going to produce the broadcast segment of the film- will the whole thing be one remote units task?- but whether or not be go down that path I think it would be prudent to cement that aspect (in writing terms) as early as possible.

I also think we need to decide on length, although this may be dictated by how many people ultimately participate. But, in order to help the Rogers, we should probably settle how many pages/minutes are going to be assigned to each writer/director...
 
Well, I have four pages so far (just over three). But I've only just completed the setup (character introductions, catalyst, allusion to conspiracy). Still have about 6 pages minimum before I can get a completed sequence. I'll post it in a separate thread for feedback on the direction it's taking.

And you're right. Some really wild ideas floating around.
 
My thoughts on the actual mechanism of the lottery and the reasons behind it which I spent time with VPT discussing in an effort to get them to avoid possible plot holes in an effort to make sense to me... in order to avoid the erstwhile problems that have been being raised about the reasons behind the lottery... feel free to beat it up - honest is better, always.

Our society ends up unable to donate organs due to widespread [disease x]. [global corporation y] is able to artificially grow organs at a rate of only so many per year, so they hold a lottery for the unaffected, grown organs.

This removes the need for localized (country-wide in this case as it's a global script writing effort) governmental agencies (which could never have the global reach of a large company - too many differing public opinions/viewpoints that need be assuaged by the various governments).

The length of the overall script minus the "glue" bits, the tv reports or whatever background information needs presenting will get us a total number of pages that need be filled. Divide by the number of production teams to get a page count per team (1page/minute properly formatted).

We should all use Celtx to allow easier combination/ interoperation throughout the process and for consistent formatting.

I'm really excited that this effort has made the transition from concept to development :)
 
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I like it knightly, all good and sound. I would say that I would prefer for global corporation y to be a charitable organisation, just so that we don't have to deal with the question of medical ethics to closely...

But I'm happy with all that. Are we looking for each thread to be of uniform length (roughly) or will some be quite a bit longer and others quite a bit shorter (which is the same thing, I guess)?
 
Length wise, we should all conform to the "One minute per page", as Knightly said. An easy -although not always certain- indication.

However, would it be so tragic if our compilation of films where to form some sort of mini-feature?
 
NickClapper said:
Right, I get that we're going one page per minute- but how many pages/minutes are we talking for each section?
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How are we to know?

The certainty is that this is going to stem anywhere between ten-minutes to the hour, or atleast from the scripts i've read so far, that's what the material suggests. Although drafts will inevitably shorten the majority, most will be prodded, poked and tweaked to land somewhere within the reasonable...

If i where to estimate, I'd suggest a seven-minute cap.
 
Ok, seven minutes sounds a pretty safe guideline. At the moment we've got lots of scripts and great ideas being bandied about, the difficult part is going to be getting people to commit to turning those scripts into film.

I think it's important we don't get stuck in the 50 minute hinterland where the film will have difficulty finding any audience. Either we should go for a proper short or expand to a short feature length. I'd be happy enough with the latter but I worry that not enough people have shown interest in the filming part of the process...
 
NickClapper said:
Ok, seven minutes sounds a pretty safe guideline. At the moment we've got lots of scripts and great ideas being bandied about, the difficult part is going to be getting people to commit to turning those scripts into film.

I think it's important we don't get stuck in the 50 minute hinterland where the film will have difficulty finding any audience. Either we should go for a proper short or expand to a short feature length. I'd be happy enough with the latter but I worry that not enough people have shown interest in the filming part of the process...
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True.

Should we have a "Declare your involvement etc etc" thread, so everyone can state how they wish to be involved?

I know that a few have already said so, but it would be alot clearer in a seperate thread...
 
I think that would be a good idea. I worry that these threads are starting to look like a bit of a club (not in a bad way, but that it's quite difficult to get to the root of what we're discussing) so perhaps a new thread and a recruitment drive...

I just hope people aren't being put off by the prospect of having to read through a couple of hundred posts to understand what's really going on! :D
 
So about 5-8 pages * 5 so far = 25-40 minutes of screen time + the glue bits between bring it to about 50 minutes.

@ NickClapper: I personally don't mind the exploration of the medical ethics of this. My take is that if this ends up as a bunch vignettes of 1 to 2 people talking in a room about this, the casting better be A-List quality - otherwise it's just another 2-shot indie film (2 people in a room talking about something). While that may carry a short, it won't carry an audience through a longer piece.

Allowing the slightest possible constraints on the individual crews allows the greatest range of exploration of a topic. So long as the community overall accepts the pieces being put into the overall production and they fit into the other pieces' worlds. I'm personally interested in the corruption that this would bring out... that aspect of humans that has prevented us from having a true utopia for these million some odd years fascinates me. Greed is an important human trait that deserves representation (IMHO).

While defining Global Corp Y as a charitable organization may make this avoid certain topics, I don't feel they should be avoided... this would suddenly open up the writers to be able to explore governmental reactions to the O-Lotto, the effects of money on the lotto, the effects of research deadlines and lab setbacks, it would breed a familiarity within a HUGE segment of the audience as they understand corporate (allowing for a bit of shorthand within each segment through audience familiarity), whereas charitable orgs always seem too good to be true to many people.

A charitable org would also lack the ability to pay the researchers and lab techs the salaries they would demand to make an effort this large feasible. A charitable org could be funding the Lotto (budget limiting the # of available organs through the lotto, but not overall - the others are just prohibitively expensive), but I don't think they'd be able to pursue the R&D effort, that takes money and expensive talent.

So this rather than just the supply cap could be the reason behind the # of selectees... That would open up a new line of exporation for folks that can afford but throw their hat into the lottery anyway... Or folks who miss signing up for the lotto who set out to beg, cheat or steal a commercially availble, but expensive organ...

thoughts?
 
Ok, I'm happy to have Global Coporation Y exist like that, but I wonder whether there'll be enough time to explain the back story?

Unless someone is tasked with specifically creating a thread that looks at the hows and whys or the lottery then I think it's going to be very difficult to convey this much information without having massive amount of clunky exposition. That's the main reason I'm for keeping it as simple as possible.

We might be able to casually allude to a shortage of organs due to some pandemic or what not, but I just think that it's going to be difficult to full explain the lottery...

UNLESS...

Someone were to write a thread which takes place behind the scenes at the company running the lottery. This could potentially be interesting as it would deal with the company producing the organs, the company distributing the lottery tickets, the company producing the broadcast and the company broadcasting it...etc. There are lots of different places along the line where there could be corruption, but also where there could be personal conflicts...

What if we have a producer for the TV company whose nephew needs a new kidney. He's bought a ticket and been selected for the final 500 but when the producers find out she's called in and told that he can no longer compete because she works for the show. Then she has to go home and tell her nephew that he's been removed from the draw... that would be kind of heart breaking and would potentially link up with a way of explaining the ins and outs of the draw...

Just a thought...
 
This is something of a tangent, but I hope you'll humor me.

Has the number of segments been sketched out yet? Nothing set in stone, but ballpark.

I know it's a community gig we're trying to rumble with here, but could we condense the redundant material, 2-shots for instance, in to one segment? We're big boys and girls here. My feelings wouldn't be hurt.

For example:

Even though I wrote one of those 2-shots mentioned, if the questions raised in mine have been effectively answered/addressed in a solid manner through a similar segment or said segment could use elements of mine (gee, aren't I humble) to get the job done, then I'm all for scraping mine to make way for fresher material.

Knightly brought up the point of greed. How about thinking broadly in terms like that for a defined number of segments?

Greed, humility, ethics, pride...or something like that.

...so perhaps a new thread and a recruitment drive...
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I agree. Just make it concrete: Government Org. Ideas, Television Segment Script Needed, etc.

Boy, that was certainly a lot of words.
 
Ok, I think I get what you're saying here.

I agree that if we have a couple of threads that are very similar in terms of style and tone it would be sensible to work one of them off in a different direction. Ultimately it's up to each remote unit to decide what they want to do but if they were interested in amalgamating factors from another script that would certainly be workable.

I don't think knightly was saying that we can't have any of these 'two-shots' just that if they are all following this basic short film plotting then the film might not work as a whole. Which is a good point and we certainly need to look closely at how we pace the piece.

That's an interesting point about specifying the segments and could possibly be workable. We could base it on something like the Seven Deadly Sins, with each writer using in a different sin. Knightly/VPTs segment looks a lot like greed, mine a little like pride, yours a little like anger, Paper's could be sloth...etc, so that's certainly a possibility that we can look at...
 
NickClapper said:
I just hope people aren't being put off by the prospect of having to read through a couple of hundred posts to understand what's really going on! :D
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Hah, hah. I don't think it's clubby at all, Nick, but I'm at a loss as to where I should start and feel that I've probably missed too much to just jump in. No worries. I plan on reading some of the samples, although I don't know how best to offer feedback for this particular exercise and project.

I'm late to the party and, sadly, not even that fashionable! :bag:

* the few times I checked, early in the thread, it was about zombies? and I'm not much of a zombie fan so I didn't keep checking it.
 
Ok, after hearing that from J I think we definitely need to create a new thread which could entice people to join the project who haven't necessarily been part of the discussion before.

The question is- What do we write in the first post that conveys all the creative limitations we have in place, but also shows how much creative liberty there is? We need to convey what the organ lottery is, how it's run and how the scripts should explore that...

Hmmm... it's tricky... if anyone is reading this who has been wondering for some time what we've been talking about, let me know what you'd like to understand about the project...
 
I steeped back and see that more progress has been made, but I feel that it is too TOP down to be successful. I don't see a framework that empowers remote units. What I see is a command and control system being built.

I presumed you wanted as many people to participate in what ever way they can, but more and more barriers to participation keep going up.

Production value requirements keep going up
Remote units required to have scripts and submit those for review
There is no longer room for the IT member who only has a cell phone for video


Id turn this around. Dont do the TV script until all the other movies are DONE. Then you can cut and edit the final remote unit movies ALONG with the connecting TV show into a tight story. If the remote unit stories are great and somewhat connected then the TV show is a very minor part of the entire story, its just mortar. Mortar in a brick wall is NOT structural its just there to allow you to keep things lined up.
 
I'd wondered where you'd gone Wheat...

I agree with a lot of what your saying but it's difficult to implement on a practical level. I think what we've seen so far with all the scripts that have been showcased shows that we're moving in the right general direction, but of course there's room to improve...

I think it's crucial that we look to get more people involved, particularly on the filming side, so any suggestions that you have as to how we can make the project more user friendly are crucial. I recognise that I'm being a little over protective of the project so I need someone to say 'Hey, let's step back and see how things progress in a more organic way.'

The thing with the TV scene is that that's going to take a lot of time and effort and will probably end up being the responsibility (and a major one at that) of a single remote unit. So it's probably best to at least canvas to see if anyone has a particular interest in exploring that part of the production. I think that the TV show ought to be more than mortar and hopefully we can draw a storyline out of it as well...
 
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