Looking to write something surreal... Help?

Semiazas

Semiazas

This may seem like an odd question, but I wanna write something surreal, maybe a feature, maybe a short, perhaps with a teenage cast as that'll be easier for me to film
It'd be surreal in a Lynchian style, creating nightmares and surrealism from some mundane and some very human things like the simplistic story of Eraserhead or the way things in Mulholland Drive work (I know it doesn't have a simple story)
Can someone please help me out with a plot and stuff? :)
 
with surealism ... its not so much about a plot that has to be seen...

atleast not in a style at which i would make one...

if you want surealism... you need a moral... or a reason for this escape from reality...

so lets say some one has a drug addiction... but it stead of them chasing after drugs... they are chasing after something else... chasing after something that has a hidden meaning... something that makes no sense... but then when its done... makes total since...

something that is related to the person or people going threw the surealism

try and twist the two together... alice in wonderland is a very sureal example... but with out that dark look you are asking for... but its got such a basic look as to what things could mean... it doesnt really have to have a hidden meaning... but when watching a surealistic movie or looking at a painting of the same...

the best ones seem like they have a special meaning to who ever sees it...

does any of that help... if not let me know...
 
licenseless said:
with surealism ... its not so much about a plot that has to be seen...

atleast not in a style at which i would make one...

if you want surealism... you need a moral... or a reason for this escape from reality...

so lets say some one has a drug addiction... but it stead of them chasing after drugs... they are chasing after something else... chasing after something that has a hidden meaning... something that makes no sense... but then when its done... makes total since...

something that is related to the person or people going threw the surealism

try and twist the two together... alice in wonderland is a very sureal example... but with out that dark look you are asking for... but its got such a basic look as to what things could mean... it doesnt really have to have a hidden meaning... but when watching a surealistic movie or looking at a painting of the same...

the best ones seem like they have a special meaning to who ever sees it...

does any of that help... if not let me know...
Click to expand...

I have the idea of using theatre and the stage as a way of escapism and trying to tie that in so that the mundane becomes menacing as various things... Crop up.
I'm struggling to phrase my train of thought right now, but I have the idea of the characters being theatre studios and, to avoid copyright issues I'll be using public domain plays (although the only I can think of offhand are Shakespeare which is... Quite bad xD) and having bits from plays, key phrases from stuff in, like Macbeth ("full of sound and fury... Signifying nothing etc.) appearing as arc phrases.
But I need a plot to go with my escapism so that I can create something that doesn't just seem like being pretentious for the sake of it.
I need something that I can create a narrative (although not necessarily a linear one) out of it, preferably with an ambiguous or bleak ending.

Thoughts/Ideas/Help?
:)
 
Semiazas said:
I have the idea of using theatre and the stage as a way of escapism and trying to tie that in so that the mundane becomes menacing as various things... Crop up.
I'm struggling to phrase my train of thought right now, but I have the idea of the characters being theatre studios and, to avoid copyright issues I'll be using public domain plays (although the only I can think of offhand are Shakespeare which is... Quite bad xD) and having bits from plays, key phrases from stuff in, like Macbeth ("full of sound and fury... Signifying nothing etc.) appearing as arc phrases.
But I need a plot to go with my escapism so that I can create something that doesn't just seem like being pretentious for the sake of it.
I need something that I can create a narrative (although not necessarily a linear one) out of it, preferably with an ambiguous or bleak ending.

Thoughts/Ideas/Help?
:)
Click to expand...

correct me if im wrong... your saying you would use the stage as the escape... but the normalness off the stage becomes confusing...and surreal

if so... man... write a skript for the stage that allows the charactor to describe what is happening around him...

in other words...

lets say the movie starts off with a guy who cant quite cope with every day life... and goes threw life clumsy un happy and un accepted... then his day starts only when he gets to the stage at a run down theater... with a few people in the audience... maybe its half full... and hes clumsely gets his lines started... and audience isnt to interested... and as he gets starts he sounds rough... but more and more he gets into it... and everything starts to seem like its finally getting good... now after each act or scene ... he has to go back stage...

and the more he goes back stage as this story goes on... the more things changes when he comes out... subtle at first... like the same sand bags that were in a scene before... become rice bags... then later as the show goes on...t hey become straight up weights...

and the people in the audience are never in the same spots... but only gradually move farther away from there spots...
and then change completely... or are in masks...

(i know at this point this is starting to gain a large budget... but i always think big and then go home small hahahaha)

and you can have the play it self not be a normal play that you think of... the play is about him struggling... and him having to deal with the struggle... but he doesnt struggle...

for example...
the other actors are similar to what happened at the begining of the film... they are now the clumsy ones though... and he is not... and things seem to always work out for him on stage...

and the things that happen on the stage are other things that some one who stuggles in life (some one who is depressed or handy capped or anything that makes life diffcult) has to deal with... and instead of him actually dealing with it with them... he hurts them with it... and takes what he wants out of it...

and ok if i give you more i might as while write it for ya... hahahahaha does that help though
 
Whatever you decide I´d start very small 3-4 mins to get more of a ´feel´for what you´re trying to acheive - all the best, Jim.
 
@licenseless I like where your going, I dont go in for art house stuff but that sounds pretty good.

Something more doable on low budget, but essentially the same, we start back stage and the guys steps from behind the curtain into a real life situation, though he doesn't know it. When were behind him it looks like he is on a stage, but when we see him from the front hes just a guy in a real world situation acting like hes, well, acting.. ..ok, its not anything like what you suggested.... doh! All the worlds a stage and we are merely players...
 
Playing off of what you and licenseless and wheatgrinder have suggested (and -trying- to think in terms of low-budget, etc), what if it's some small/micro, experimental community stage company whatever. You're shooting a low production value film of a low production value theater troope. So you have your lead who's acting in this low budget play. You have the small turn out of an audience.

You show us clearly the audience members during the opening scene or act, as in close-ups, etc. Your lead does his/her thing, then exits backstage.

He has to rush to the restroom, I think. Show us this prosaic, slice of ordinary life so it can be a sort of transition or segue. You got whatever backstage stuff going on around him as he moves about for ambiance...maybe a little, slight weirdness, already.

Your lead gets his cue and comes back onstage for his next scene or act or whatever. But the previous actors are gone (at least for now). Those audience members you've previously shown as audience members are now the stage hands and the actors in costume, etc.

Subtlely switched.

You show us that the theater seats are now in fact empty. Your lead may or may not notice, depending on how you want to play it. He may or may not care. I think it would be more surreal and weird if he doesn't appear to notice, for now, at least. Dunno. They do their things. Going with the lynchian thing, maybe you convey -subtley, I think- some menace from the audience-members-converted-into-fellow-actors. Not sure how to do that. I'm thinking mostly by camera choices: things like odd, close-up smiles, or the the like. Anyway, just some subtle oddness.

The scene or act is over. Backstage for your lead, again. Maybe this time he has a costume change. He gets his cue for the next scene.

He gets back on stage. The stage is empty. The backstage is empty, too. All actors and stage hands seem to have disappeared.

We see that the theater seats are still completely empty, as well.

Maybe it ends there with your lead standing there before an empty theater in lonely silence.

Maybe the seats are completely empty save for one person. Perhaps it's a man in a tuxedo who whispers:

MAN IN TUXEDO
Silencio.

MAN IN TUXEDO
Silencio.

In other words, an explicit homage to Mulholland Drive.

Or, maybe it's someone else sitting out there watching your lead. Maybe it's also your lead...watching your lead on stage...petting a white persian cat, or drinking a mug of bear, etc. =)

Or maybe it's someone standing up with his back (strangely) to the stage and your lead. Maybe, your lead says :

LEAD
Hello?

LEAD
Hello?

But the strange stranger says nothing.

There is only the dark theater and silence.

Maybe the entire theater goes dark except for a spot light on your lead. Maybe even the spotlight goes out. (Mmmm, might be a bit heavy handed, though, not sure).

Etc.
 
Last edited:
wheatgrinder said:
@licenseless I like where your going, I dont go in for art house stuff but that sounds pretty good.
Click to expand...

its because im a GENIUSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!! MWUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHA




im also a moron ahhaahhaahhaahah

no really i love surrealism ... i am a huge Salvador Dali fan and all my art work is based on surrealism... but i am scared to do something surrealistic with movies... because it would take a long time... and i dont have enough time... maybe one day i will have time for something like that...

now... if some one wanted some help with a surrealism project... i am down with going into more detail with something like this... or if some one wants to help me start a project later this year when i get back to the states... i will be on the east coast hahahah
 
My thoughts on "surrealism" ...

It doesn't always work.

There's only one David Lynch.

Half of what he tried didn't work.

It's very easy to lose the audience.

It's easier said than done.

If you can't be coherent, at least be done quickly.

Dreams have a logic and thin connections between concepts and images.

I'm currently making a surreal short film myself.
 
polfilmblog said:
My thoughts on "surrealism" ...

It doesn't always work.

There's only one David Lynch.

Half of what he tried didn't work.

It's very easy to lose the audience.

It's easier said than done.

If you can't be coherent, at least be done quickly.

Dreams have a logic and thin connections between concepts and images.

I'm currently making a surreal short film myself.
Click to expand...

so what do you need help with...

i mean you just made it sound like they are stupid hahahaha and useless... thats just how what i gather from reading this...

are you having troubles with your surrealism... if so... whats the issue...

surrealism is about what the audience wants from it... and i dont think that any thing surreal is that hard to do... considering there is a fine line between surreal and real... so you can put a lot of things in the surreal category... that aren't noticeably surreal... like every drug induced scene in any show/movie/animation... were the main charactor figures out were he went wrong...



just my take on it
 
licenseless said:
now... if some one wanted some help with a surrealism project... i am down with going into more detail with something like this... or if some one wants to help me start a project later this year when i get back to the states... i will be on the east coast hahahah
Click to expand...

I'd like some help, but it comes in the medium of scripting it. I'd like some help writing this idea but I'm struggling to get it off the ground.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top