2 movies, 1 story

dlevanchuk

dlevanchuk

What if you took a movie idea, written as a treatment, gave it to two different filmmakers to make 45 minute movie and throw it together as a "full feature" movie... Same basic story skeleton, but with different characters, different styles... Pretty much something like "City On Fire" and "Reservour Dogs", only compressed version.

Do you think that could work and have something interesting? Are there any filmmakers that done this sort of project?


PS. I thought of this while reading some posts about "I can't tell my movie idea because Im afraid it could get stolen".... :rolleyes:
 
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dlevanchuk said:
Do you think that could work and have something interesting? Are there any filmmakers that done this sort of project?
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It could be interesting, but somewhat odd to the audience.
Lars von Trier did this for Melancholia, story one and story two, one each for two sisters.
Using different directors/production crew sounds more like an anthology attempt. For just two stories that'd be an abortive anthology attempt.
 
Sounds interesting to me, but kind of pointless.

Why make two versions of the same story, at the same time, with the full intention of putting them together to make one movie? As a bit of an experiment... sure, why not? As filmmakers, we may find it interesting to see two different takes of the same idea, but I don't think many people of the general public would be interested in watching a movie like this. Again, why waste 45 minutes more than they have to?

As a kind of anthology film, where perhaps a few characters relay the same story in anecdotal form, but with each one having a slightly different version of events, it may work. But then, that's probaably been done before...
 
The film 'Four Rooms' with Tim Roth (Mr Orange) was written and directed by 4 differant people.

I assume the writers had strict rules to follow to make it work as well as it did,
 
Well, not a screenplay, but a treatment.. Just hitting plot points. I'm just interested to see how to different filmmakers can take same premise for a movie, and how much different its going to be.
Wouldn't it be interesting to see what if Terminator 2 was made by Tim Burton? Or Titanic by Michael Bay?
This is just a thought experiment for everyone who got a shakey d**k to show their screenplay because "Somebody might steal my idea" or worry that their idea has been already made..

It could be interesting, but somewhat odd to the audience.
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Good! Memento was different as well. Imagine what audience thought when they first time saw the movie haha

Why make two versions of the same story, at the same time, with the full intention of putting them together to make one movie?
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Because the movie will not be exactly the same movie, scene by scene. Different directors will interpret each scene differently. Same characters would have different dialogs, showing a completely different side of them that will lead to take different paths to the same outcome, that will have different impact.

I dunno, the idea just sparked my interest. Or maybe I drank too much coffee haha
 
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Ah, I get what you were proposing.
(I was totally off. Thhp!)

You know... instead of two laborious 45 page scripts/films how about posing a short film challenge for this late spring/early summer?
Keep 'em 4-6 minutes.

Think of some general ubiquitous characters, settings, and a situation then let people do their thing and you stitch together multiple interpretations of the source material into a single "Through the lens of many" super short or feature.

Just an idea.
 
Too much coffee? NEVER!! :coffee::coffee::coffee::coffee::coffee:

what about a 10 minute treatment? and get 9 filmmakers?

as you mention, the treatment would be very broad strokes and interpretation and creative license is what it's all about.

I guess it's along the lines of a 48 hour contest (the film must have an ice pick, have three characters, and contain the line "Why are your pants filled with cheese?" more or less...

could be fun.
 
Yea, 4-6 mins is a good length. Some reeeaaaly broad treatment, like "A husband arrives home. He spots extra shoes at the door. A guests sits by his wife and husband storms out of the house". The guest could be anybody the filmmaker wants to be: Wife's secret lover, Husband secret lover,.. or a husband was a psycho killer and the guest turned out to be one of his victims.. or its IRS that came after the husband..
These are all lame examples.. but it gets the point across. Whatever the outcome is - we know act 1 and act 3. Act 2 is pretty loose/
 
What if it's the same events, but told from different perspectives? I'm pretty sure that's been done before, but that doesn't mean you can't do it again, and add your own style. I'm thinking, each new perspective would get us just a little bit closer to solving the mystery, or whatever.
 
Flicker Pictures said:
Great minds?
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Hi-5! You know it! ;)


dlevanchuk said:
Yea, 4-6 mins is a good length. Some reeeaaaly broad treatment, like...

Whatever the outcome is - we know act 1 and act 3. Act 2 is pretty loose/
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Yep. Exactamundo.

I dunno about that "known Act I & III" part.
That actually could be part of the challenge, or an aspect of successive challenges:
- First time you do this have all three Acts pretty well stamped out with almost verbatim dialog and actions.
- Next time you do this have Act I established down pat, while Acts II & III are pretty much wild cards. We'll just see what direction directors let their peeps off the chain in.
- Next time Acts I & II are wild cards but Act II must conclude with a few established lines and actions. We'll see how different people come to the same conclusion.

Something like that.
Could be interesting.
 
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