Following ONE Idea....

[Absolution_Films]

This is basically just a message to see if there are people in the same boat as me....

Sometimes i feel i have too many ideas for different films/documentaries and promo videos in my head at once, i want to do them all!

Do you experience this as well? How do you choose?

All my ideas are fragments of bigger things, but I can never settle on one to follow because i always wonder if the other would turn out better.

 

[NickClapper]

I think this is a really important skill for anyone working in a creative format.

Everyone has tons of different ideas, the trick is to pick ones that are good and practical and then block out the rest until you've followed through on that one. That's not to say that whilst you're working on pre-production for a short film you can't be thinking about or writing a different film, it's more about making absolutely sure that once you commit to a project you don't get distracted half way.

It's one of those things were there's no solution other than better self regulation. As of today, sit down and pick one idea you have and just see it through. You'll have two things as a result: a finished product and an understanding of how to be more ruthless and committed to your ideas.

Do it

 

[rayw]

Yep. Not only do I have the creativity out the wazzoo part, BUT it also comes sporadically - plus - hand in hand with a terrible memory.

Solution: I have a google docs and gmail account where I have a email saved as a draft of all the bright ideas I have for premises.
I number them, have about sixty of them, begin with a brief description, almost always a title, sometimes I hunt down an image, figure a MPAA rating it'll likely be written for, name the double genre, and then... wait.

In the google docs area I have spreadsheets where I've sorted out which are pie-in-the-sky productions only a studio could produce, those a small studio could pull off, and those that it's theoretically possible that I could eventually produce.

Start hammering out the stories on spread sheets.
Add ideas when they pop up.
Move plot details around.
Come to any random project that pops in your head. Drop them when your fickle muse abandons you.
At some point any given story achieves content critical mass AND MUST BE DONE or written up AND SOLD, or at least put on the meat market.



It is sad
It is sad when someone has a single idea, like a little birthday cake candle, that they alternately brandish ahead of themselves like a guiding beacon and then clutch to their little heart.
"Dude.
You'd better learn to start putting out ideas and concepts like a sturgeon puts out roe.
Not all of your babies are going to survive.
Learn to let go."

A film idea is a commodity like a lump of coal or a piece of gravel.
Here's how the film world sees any of our ideas:

Pick one, or two. Those are yours.



Seriously, there are some film ideas which are more or less practical to produce within a person's resource limitations.
Develop those, not necessarily the most grandiose ideas.

 

[Freestyle]

I write in a lot of mediums and find that it's easier to write prose versions of stories than to make them into movies - I mean, obviously the results aren't as impressive, but anyway. If I have an idea, it's likely going into outline form at least (not a premise, a plot idea etc.), then I can usually write about 2,000 words of a story to 'feel it out.' If I like the results, I'll continue.

And I will say this - even if your prose is horrible TELLING A STORY IN A DIFFERENT MEDIUM MAKES IT EASIER TO TELL IT IN YOUR MEDIUM. Recently I did a stop motion cartoon draft of a story I'm hoping to turn into a comic book and potentially a film, and since I did that little draft it's tons easier writing a script. And that draft is really not that good.

EDIT:

I'd like to add that waiting until the right idea comes along can be worth doing. You don't want to spend too much time on an idea that goes nowhere, so if you have lots of ideas I'd say take each one to the point where you can see if the grass is greener with other stories or not.

Peace

 

[ClockworkNinja]

I have a few processes I like to use to narrow things down.

1. Has this idea been done before? Am I presenting a new take on an old idea or would this make me look like a no-talent hack?

2. Can I afford to do this? How much would it cost?

3. How much time would it take?

4. Check back in 6 weeks. Does it still sound like a good idea or have I lost interest?

This may or may not work for anyone else.