Also, let's keep in mind that a lot of these teams are already experienced filmmakers...active filmmakers always have tons of script ideas already floating around their head...all the time. Are they not allowed to pull from past ideas? That, technically, is breaking the rules right? If I use an idea I came up with last year while taking a poop, and form-fit that to the genre I draw...am I breaking the rules?
Seriously man...filmmakes have a myriad ideas already in their heads...and there is no changing that, and it's almost impossible not to be influenced by those ideas. So what's the difference in brainstorming a little? You're simply choosing which of your past ideas would be most fun to do...it's all the same.
We're clearly in disagreement on this, but actually, I don't think we're THAT far off from each other. I already mentioned, in an earlier post, that I find it impossible to NOT think about it, as I'm sure is true of all of us. And no, of course it's not cheating to use an idea that popped into your head five years ago, while you were taking a poop. In fact, the writers on my team last year did that very thing. They were assigned the prompts; they did some brainstorming; and then they remembered this idea that they had a while back, that would fit the prompt nicely.
Where I think you're crossing the line is if you have an organized group brainstorming session. The stuff you have bouncing around your head, all the time -- well that's just part of being who we are. But sitting down and developing those stories as a group? I don't know how you don't see that as "creative work".
No, I'm not fooling myself. I'm quite aware that lots of teams do this. But you know what? They're not fooling anybody. It's easy to see the difference between an idea that was brainstormed in advance, and one that was created uniquely for the assigned prompts. That doesn't mean you can't make an awesome film. Some of my favorites from last year were quite obviously conceived in advance. But it's clear that they didn't quite get the spirit of the competition, and I'm not surprised that they didn't win. If it was online, I'd post a link, but in absence of being able to do that, let me tell you I'm quite positive that the team that won had a unique concept that was wrapped entirely around the assigned prompts.
I guess I'm done commenting on this. Perhaps we enter the competition for different reasons. To each his own, and I don't intend to say that like a smart ass. For me, it's more fun to follow the rules strictly. Maybe for others, you might interpret the rules in a different way, allowing you to make a better film. I'm not gonna judge you, but that's definitely not my style.
Cheers.
EDIT: Haha. I guess I wasn't done commenting on it, as evidenced by the following two comments. Ok, NOW I'm done commenting on it.
