IndieTalk: The Movie (Story Development)

That's an old urban legend, always told from the point of view of the "friend of a friend". According to Jan Harold Brunvard's book Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid: The Book of Scary Urban Legends that story originated in the 1930's, "someone tries to sneak Granny's dead body across the border of some country for burial, but then thieves steal the van (or canoe, or whatever) and all wackiness breaks loose."

This story actually hit Reuters a few years ago and was reported in several newspapers without actually knowing its origin.

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/deadgran.asp

I 'm directing a musical that uses this story - among others.
 
Again, not calling clive a liar, just parlaying what I was told.
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Step outside and say that! :lol:

Actually, I don't think that it matters whether it's true or not -- I still think it's a great short film.

I 'm directing a musical that uses this story - among others.
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Oh, my God, Let's ... nah, on second thoughts that IS going too far!
 
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Originally Posted by Poke
Personally I would like the pen to travel to other people besides family members. I think the idea of telling the journey of a pen would be more interesting if it involved several different set peices. I like the idea of the girl losing the pen and some totally unrelated person finding it -- then we go on to tell his/her story until the pen again passes hands....

FilmJumper said:
Been keeping up with the thread... While I'm not totally convinced about the idea of a pen yet, I do think that no matter what prop you use, it does need to TRAVEL outside a family. Additionally, instead of straight drama all the way through, I think you'll get a lot more mileage if you change it up in every sequence...
filmy
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...I like Lilith's storyline, but I agree with the part about the pen. If it is such an important part of the persons life, I wwould think that they would hate to lose the pen...(just something I was thinking).

But the point is to have a connecting factor, maybe that doesn't have to be a pen. Maybe a phone call, that would get us to where Clive or Contempo are abroad...

...hmm,....trying to connect the stories with something besides a pen....:hmm:

-- spinner :cool:
 
Still confused about the whole pen plot. I love the granny story though Clive. I could actually write a script for that, Just by reading it I had a hour and a half film visualized. Thanks for the great visual, Jack
 
Maybe instead of a pen we could use a shard of Loc-Nar. :)

I really like how many storylines everyone has come up with. I am following all of this with anticipation. If I can contribute to the story at all I will.

But so far the pen story gets my vote.

A thought about the pen: Instead of a single pen, make it a pen type (brand name or specialty pen) also the pen could come from a factory, and we could follow a certain batch of pens. Maybe that have been cursed by someone on the assembly line. That way if a pen gets to much sentimental value you wouldn't have to use that same pen, but the option is always open. Just a thought.
 
With the pen idea, i think to make a film about a pen that goes from family/group/person a to b to c, with no connection, just dropping it and the next picking it up, would be like watching short films stuck together. I think the pen would have to somehow connect the people together, or have more of a significance, or stay in the family, with i'm not sold with it staying in the family.
 
I agree. However, I havent been sold on the pen idea at all. I think there is just alot of movies that sort of take this path, and if I was to sit down and watch a movie about a pen bouncing around I might ask myself for a refund. NOT saying it's a bad idea but not an idea I would like to write about. Jack
 
What if the pen idea got a little more philisophical (and nutzo)...

The film starts with an old man dying and pondering the meaning of life. He relates (perhaps to a loved one) that since matter and energy is never really destroyed, just transfered to another form, that his atoms will always be around. So we see him die, get cremated, then become a gust, the dust lands on the ground, sprouts into a small plant which is eaten by an animal which poops, and over a long time lapse that poop is compounded and turns into oil (ok, so maybe the intro is a period piece and the old man wears a toga). The oil is extracted and refined into ink for a pen... then we follow the pen through a set of stories.. or we could use a prop (or set of props) that would make the transistions easier. You get the drift though- the main concept would be that the prop is the "matter" or "spirit" of a man, and the issue could be the meaning (or lack thereof) of life. That kind of generalizes the pen idea, but it doesn't have to be a pen- it could be be different props or properties (like fire, ashes, a cigarette, etc). I dunno- I like the idea of the pen, but I think it would be better if the prop was symbolic of a human character. In the end of course, the ink could run dry, the pen discarded, it breaks down into oil again, and is manufactured into a condom that bursts... creating a new life. Something cyclical, and although a bit artsy, meaningful.
 
Spatula, thats the "more of a significance" that i was talking about. If we worked it out with a good plot, thats definitly an idea!
 
My gut feeling is there is enough significance in the depths of the human experience, without having to resort to the supernatural in order to find more.

As the story stands you have a halocaust survivor who commits suicide, which tears apart his surviving family -- his eight year old daughter keeps the pen he used to write the suicide note and uses it to develop an artistic career that her family neither likes or understands -- in order to heal the rifts between her and her family she'll have to uncover and confront the real reason she's kept it all along.

There's plenty of conflict, the protagonist has a central question to resolve and you've got death as the antagonist.

I think the main difficulty is that it's a drama -- and that's always been a dangerous genre for "indies."

The script would have to be spectacular in order for it to do well.
 
While I understand the wont you guys have to do something that is twisted or edgy- "indie" by it's current definition, I agree with Clive and thank him for his comments. If surrealism is the route the majority wishes to take, so be it. I think this group will work their guts out for a good film regardless of genre. :)

Clive- the suicide though is the son of the survivor, not the survivor himself (at least in my current draft). It makes the suicide all the more poignant and adds layers to the grandparents' characters in that they'd survived the Holocaust, but are not saints. They've made the mistake of putting security (monetary) above joy and have lived a pale, somewhat grim life. Further proof that money cannot buy happiness, no matter how much you have.

In a strange twist, last weekend, I was in one of the seven remaining brownstones in Cleveland. It would double really well for NYC, even as an exterior. I see the grandparents living somewhere like this- traditional.
 
the suicide though is the son of the survivor, not the survivor himself (at least in my current draft). It makes the suicide all the more poignant and adds layers to the grandparents' characters in that they'd survived the Holocaust, but are not saints. They've made the mistake of putting security (monetary) above joy and have lived a pale, somewhat grim life.
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I think you need to consider the possibility that from the grand parents point of view, putting the security of their family ahead everything else would be a sane reaction to surviving the halocaust. Families that had disposable incomes fled the country ahead of the ghetto clearances, and saved their loved ones from the halocaust. -- If you'd experienced that, you'd be inclinded to see money as survival.

The other thing is that like many people who have survived terrible events, they might decide that not feeling at all is the best strategy -- they may have been distant from their son.

If the eventual reconcilation needs to happen between the woman and her grandparents, then the most likely way through that is for her to realise they aren't monsters, to see them as incredibly vulnerable people.

So that both their redemptions come through forgiveness,

Just thinking out loud -- and also the reason that character development and backstory are so important to plot development.

If surrealism is the route the majority wishes to take, so be it. I think this group will work their guts out for a good film regardless of genre.
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Hmm. :hmm: My gut feeling is that the idea that Lilith is developing is a feature in it's own right and probably not the script this project is looking for.

Not because it wouldn't make a great film -- but more that I sense Lilth has a personal stake in this script.
 
Hmm. My gut feeling is that the idea that Lilith is developing is a feature in it's own right and probably not the script this project is looking for
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Yes. It seems that most of the guys would like something other than a multi-generational drama. I have no problem there. That's what this thread was for, puzzling out what we want to do with the concept of an IndieTalk movie.

Poke, thank you for your inspiration of the 'pen' idea. It was a great springboard for my imagination.

Clive, as to your grandparent comments: I agree completely. They are not at all monstrous people. They believe what they've done was to safeguard the family from harm. I would also like to explore the layers more- How one can get so caught up in amassing wealth that one forgets why they're doing it. Also, I really like the idea of the grandparents just being human. What's coming to pass as I work on the conceptual stuff (treatment, character sketches), is it's apparent that my hardest job will be what to cut once it's all written. I am already in love with all these characters.

For me, this is one of those terrifying experiences: glimpsing greatness and deciding to be brave enough to step up to it. Which is why I must make this film. It scares me to death. :)

So unless the group decides to 'go with' this concept (and that's not what I am feeling from Kane, Jack and Dennis, etal.), I will continue this project on my own. Thank you all for your encouragement.
 
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I would also like to explore the layers more- How one can get so caught up in amassing wealth that one forgets why they're doing it.
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My take is that they never would forget why they were doing it -- they may just be retarded about comminicating that -- so what appears to be coldness and avarice is actually something else.

The danger of having a Jewish family obsessed with amassing wealth is that it plays into exactly the anti-semetic sterotypes that were promoted during the halocaust.

Now, I think that there is space for you to use that ironically. -- The grand daughter accuses the grand parents of giving Juadism a bad name, of being money grabing -- this is the most hurtful thing she can say -- she expects anger -- instead sees that she's wounded them profoundly -- this triggers the revelation of WHY they are the way they are -- the grandmother takes her and shows a file full of plans -- the plans that her grandfather has reworked every year since leaving Belsen, plans to guarantee their not just their exit from the country, but as he's amassed more money his plans have expanded so he can now ensure that thousands of families will escape.

The irony is that in doing this, they've lost the very thing they've fought so hard to save -- thier family.
 
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Lilith said:
So unless the group decides to 'go with' this concept (and that's not what I am feeling from Kane, Jack and Dennis, etal.), I will continue this project on my own. Thank you all for your encouragement.
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I hear you Christine, I like the idea; that kind of drama wouldn't appeal to me because I just don't have the experience to appreciate that kind of concept (yet), but I wouldn't discard it!! If anything, take my ideas at face value; I'm just trying to throw stuff in the pot that could radically change the ingredients and make something wacky. But that's just me. :P
 
Christine, as spatula said, i/we arent discarding your idea, i'm just suggesting some things that i think would make it better.
 
Back on line after being n/a all weekend. Interesting developments. I still like the pen idea, and am excited to see how Lilith is developing it. If we are still looking for ideas, though, something just popped into my head that could be a little edgy??? - a modern-day interpretation/ retelling of Oedipus Rex? Not excactly sure how it would be 'restaged' in today's terms - within a gang? a family business? Or maybe not at all.... :rolleyes:
 
Media Hero, all new ideas are very welcome, but the old ones are being sifted through to see if we shall go forward with one of them, but as i said, all new ideas are welcome until one has been chosen.
Cheers.
 
Thanks for the reassurance Kane and Dennis. I am not taking my ball and going home or anything. :) Life's a bit dicey at the moment as I have to move out of my 3 bedroom, two story home in two weeks to downsize to a 2 bedroom, 1 story apt. (YIKES!)

My gut feeling is that if you guys like Dennis' more surreal approach that we should write a whole other 'pen' story to go with it. I see where you're going with it and it has possibilities, but I don't see how we tie the multi-generational and dramatic story line I suggested in with it. If you can see that, please explain it to me further. Thanks.
 
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