is this an homage or is this just plagiarism

WhiteOpus

WhiteOpus

so i was thinking of doing a three minute film similar to THIS (the action starts at 0:18), but instead of making it a single person running in "attack mode", it's two people running at each other bearing spears, cutting back and forth endlessly until it just cuts to credits.

basically it would go:
-over the shoulder of medieval looking warrior (#1) with spear, looking over the vast landscape
-closeup of #1's eyes scanning, spotting something
-zoom of other medieval warrior (#2) with spear, also scanning and then staring at the camera
-medium 3/4 of #1 furrowing his brow and charging out of the frame
-medium 3/4 of #2 furrowing and charging
-medium/CU 3/4 of #1 charging/yelling/wielding spear
-medium/CU 3/4 of #2 charging/yelling/wielding spear
-repeat last two shots for three minutes, changing every five seconds or so (this is for a particular event that limits submissions to three minutes)
-roll credits

i don't know how stupid this idea is, but i want to do it.
 
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WhiteOpus said:
i don't know how stupid this idea is, but i want to do it.
Click to expand...
Starting at age 13 I made a movie every weekend. When school was
out I made more. Most of the ideas were stupid. A lot of them were
"inspired by" TV shows or scenes in movies I liked. I did it just because
"I want to do it". By the time I was 16 I had enough real, practical
experience to attempt a "real" short film. I won several awards with
it.

If you don't make this "stupid" idea into a movie what will you do
with that time? Sit around waiting until you come up with a brilliant
idea and NOT make a movie?
 
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directorik said:
Starting at age 13 I made a movie every weekend. When school was
out I made more. Most of the ideas were stupid. A lot of them were
"inspired by" TV shows or scenes in movies I liked. I did it just because
"I want to do it". By the time I was 16 I had enough real, practical
experience to attempt a "real" short film. I won several awards with
it.

If you don't make this "stupid" idea into a movie what will you do
with that time? Sit around waiting until you come up with a brilliant
idea and NOT make a movie?
Click to expand...

I am actually editing a short crime thriller script right now, that's where most of my writing time is going. This one will no doubt be created. I shot three different videos (5-15 minutes each, one corporate, one music video and one for the new S.H.A.R.E. Curriculum in northern Nevada & California) in the last two weeks. I'm still editing two and haven't even put together a directory structure for one, so it'll be a bit until they're finished. This is in addition to a 40hr/wk day job, weekly meetings with a think tank NPO and taking on a new PA/grip role at a local production agency on my two days off from the other job.. I am actually shooting stuff, just asking what people might be interested in or entertained by, so as not to waste the little time I have making something that generates no interest.
 
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WhiteOpus said:
so i was thinking of doing a three minute film similar to THIS (the action starts at 0:18), but instead of making it a single person running in "attack mode", it's two people running at each other bearing spears, cutting back and forth endlessly until it just cuts to credits.

basically it would go:
-over the shoulder of medieval looking warrior (#1) with spear, looking over the vast landscape
-closeup of #1's eyes scanning, spotting something
-zoom of other medieval warrior (#2) with spear, also scanning and then staring at the camera
-medium 3/4 of #1 furrowing his brow and charging out of the frame
-medium 3/4 of #2 furrowing and charging
-medium/CU 3/4 of #1 charging/yelling/wielding spear
-medium/CU 3/4 of #2 charging/yelling/wielding spear
-repeat last two shots for three minutes, changing every five seconds or so (this is for a particular event that limits submissions to three minutes)
-roll credits

i don't know how stupid this idea is, but i want to do it.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't say it's stupid. My question would be what's the purpose? It has to be integral to telling the visual side of the story. Not to be critical but seeing to medieval warriors charging at each other isn't a story. There's an expectation that it leads up to something. Maybe if you juxtapose in between the charging and wielding flashbacks (Warrior #1 in bed with Warrior #2's wife or something). It would be good to have a conclusion. One of them walking away. Slow pan back to the other collapsing dead to the ground. Film is about story, whether spoken or not. Just my $0.02.
 
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FantasySciFi said:
I wouldn't say it's stupid. My question would be what's the purpose? It has to be integral to telling the visual side of the story. Not to be critical but seeing to medieval warriors charging at each other isn't a story. There's an expectation that it leads up to something. Maybe if you juxtapose in between the charging and wielding flashbacks (Warrior #1 in bed with Warrior #2's wife or something). It would be good to have a conclusion. One of them walking away. Slow pan back to the other collapsing dead to the ground. Film is about story, whether spoken or not. Just my $0.02.
Click to expand...

I agree 100% that most film is all about telling a (complete) story. The idea is more of a meta-joke; the audience waits for something crazy to happen once the two warriors meet but even after the music gets more intense and their screams grow more passionate, the film just cuts to credits instead of giving you the usual (and predictable) payoff. It's made to work in a 3-minute film environment (we have fest in Reno limited to 3 minutes or less) where there are a multitude of other films with definite, dramatic storylines. I won the jury and audience award for best film last year, and this year I want to create something different; not necessarily worthy of an award but serves as somewhat of a palate-cleansing sorbet between courses (films). It's a service to other filmmakers! Okay, not really but you see what I mean, right?
 
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Okay. In that case, I'd skip the ending but you still need to set up motivation. At one film festival I attended there was something similar. The audience around me were NOT amused. There were a lot of negative comments. You run a risk for a meta-joke. The audience is more tolerant if they can make some sense of what scene is about. Without context and resolution, it can be very confusing. Most viewers don't like to be confused. I'm not questioning your credentials just the assumption that it's palate cleanser. Sounds more like a WTF moment for the audience. Just my take. Good luck.
 
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hahaha, actually just hearing that makes me realize that this is perhaps more of a guilty pleasure than anything else. i'd like to see that WTF face surrounding me. probably also submitting it as my alias Larry Crusterd.
 
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yeah, the confused faces are good, but they only really would work when there's like 1 other dude in the audience laughing his ass off....

...that would be me. depending on execution, but i think you're onto something. there's this really cool film fest that i've been a part of the past two years (http://www.badtheaterfest.com/home/), that this would also succeed in. it's for my dumbest ideas, for my films-made-while-drunk, and it's a blast!

they have such a cool format of wanting dumb gags, weird experiments, failed ideas, etc, but they want them from people who take film seriously in other aspects, despite everything being really dumb, they look for redeeming factors, whether in the writing, technique, gags on technique, they're awesome. there's a write up on the creator somewhere that's a great article, that explains this all better than me, wish i could've found it...

anyway, point is, your idea would probably work for this format, too

here are my previous 2 years:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFTWnUNyTsM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fExkS1bFMj8
and this year's submission:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGrtxV4rIJw
 
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