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need me an idea

W

wheatgrinder

Help me gen up an idea...

I want to write and make a short (5 - 7 mins)

inspirational
supernatural
period about 1800's ( I have access to a pioneer museum indoor location, as well as wagons, coaches etc. no actual horses though, too much of a pain)
I have an ensemble cast of younger attractive people (18 - 22 year olds ), with plenty of stage experience working together. All musically talented too!
Northwest winter coming on, so wet an rainy is the outside world..

let the log lines flow..
 
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so the story he tells at the table is about how the fish got away.. of course he relives that and again the fish gets away...
and finally he hooks and lands it after moving into the old place, brings it up on shore.. and lets it go!
 
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Yeah, I like when some Over the Rainbow/Through the looking glass kind of semi surreal stories have that fairytale element.

I will guess not, but did you ever see Battlefield Baseball/Battlefield Stadium?
There is an incidental character (wino type) with his dog that watches the baseball game through out the film and that we see from time to time, at the end the narrator tells us on that day when the unlikely team overcame the greatest odds and went on to win, everyone was so happy that no one noticed the old wino had died of pure joy right there, then it's revealed that the narrator is the dog. It's an easy set-up, but they nail it.
I like that kind of outside looking in thing when it can work.

-Thanks-
 
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That could work too.

Catching a memory, getting a second chance, letting the past go could all be in the mix.
(I was riffing on the seen but unseen kind of element too, as well as kind of fairytale outside looking in, that's why I thought of the name of the company he worked for, something that can make a connection kind of to tie things together, like the family was kin to the founders of the company, and they were forming fate in a way, but for the good of nature. So like a mysterious ways device. It's kind of the same thing as seeing someone in an old photo, but without having to set up as much detailed work. They tell him a story incidentally about someone coming to take their land or something and it's sub-texual to his reason for being there, but then it all makes a kind of sense when we hear the names. That kind of thing is what I was playing with.)

-Thanks-
 
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Is it that the family is in the midst of losing the homestead? So you have a subtextual thing, elements of futher reconsideration on his part, he might in someways be able to help because of his knoweldge, and kind of a current housing crisis parraell all in one, then the company name ties things togther for a mysterious ways thing?

(It moves away from the Family Tie scenario, but maybe that family ties thing has too many paradox elements and Back To The Future echos? This would be all under the umbrella of what I previously described with the crashing and going for help and Wiz Of Oz type unconscious device.)

You figure out the connection between family and the company name, in a way that surprises for not seeing it so obviously, and you have it.

-Thanks-
 
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hang on hang on, museum, attractive people, supernatural, (I agree about forgetting the musical), 5 to 7 mins. (A bit short for a short imo.)

Alright, alright, they have some little get together at the museum after hours, all saying that they're staying over at each other's houses, with the plan to smoke pot, then someone pretends to get "possessed", and someone else freaks out, and accidentally kills them, or themselves. Unless you want it to be a dark comedy, then maybe just serious injury.
 
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I cant quite get my head around the company name thing.. ??

So something like..

Hes going out to the old "Landry place" to sign it over to a commercial developer at a loss for a tax write off.. He answers his phone like "Hi, this is Dave with TLS, I cant come to the phone.. " and finally in the end we see his business card with "Tomas Landry and Sons" ... close?
 
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maralyn said:
hang on hang on, museum, attractive people, supernatural, (I agree about forgetting the musical), 5 to 7 mins. (A bit short for a short imo.)

Alright, alright, they have some little get together at the museum after hours, all saying that they're staying over at each other's houses, with the plan to smoke pot, then someone pretends to get "possessed", and someone else freaks out, and accidentally kills them, or themselves. Unless you want it to be a dark comedy, then maybe just serious injury.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but did you miss the "inspirational" requirement :)
 
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Well something like that yeah, but i would keep him a layer removed to just grabbing up the land, so that his change of heart has a bigger feel in tune with nature and the environment and his new found notions of preserving memories for future kids and their grandfathers, and keep the family's predicament (And I mean the 1800's Through The Looking Glass device family about to lose the homestead) a smaller personal (your drama) one that kind of rhymes with his reasons for being out there.

The company name might be heard when he calls the office "So and so and asscociates" right at just about the end, but should click in our minds like "Ohh, so and so, like the family said they were indebted to for the homested!", but not the same exact names. That is the trick to be turned there. How do you keep it in the open, yet hidden? Initials? or....?

And then right when we put 2 and 2 together with the company name, -BEEP BEEP- "You okay there pal?" (The modern version of the same family stopping to see if he is okay- Wiz Of Oz device), and the fishing line closer, and boom you're out.

-Thanks-
 
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oops, sorry, I missed the inspirational requirement bit.

uhhhhm.... lemme see.......... I know I know, we see them smoking pot from a real ghosts pov, maybe a Native American ghost, uhhhhhm....some warrior hellbent on revenge....... and uhhhhhm .....how much have you got for fx btw, (that will detirmine a lot of the plot from here on in)
 
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So the contemporary family is tying to keep the interlopers company from taking over the family home stead.. which is why HE (the interloper) was sent by the company, he is to try and convince his "estranged" family of rural cousins to sign over the property..


In the past, the 1800's family is fighting with with the neighboring family over land claim issue.. this is the big drama the family is involved with.. maybe a gun shot wound to one of the sons.. interloper was a medic in Iraq and helps to save his great uncles life..

The other son wants to "elope" with the daughter of the feuding family... this is his grand father, and grandmother of course...

The name tie in is that that name of the Interlopers employer is the same as the name of neighboring family that the 1800's are feuding with...

I get that this is just one of the layers..
 
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lol it could work, but I think you have A LOT going on there. A few notches less complex might be the sweet spot, but that is up to you of course. It just reads like the marching band and the guy selling peanuts is on the field with the team. (It's crowded)

-Thanks-
 
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Oh, I caught up on the edits.. yes, fighting for the home stead in both times is easier to keep straight... but I like the "old west" fighting with guns, and the new west fighting with lawyers..

Perhaps in the past the interloper learns that his employers claim to the home stead is BOGUS?

cut the elope angle and just make him save his grandfather

and he sees where his grandmother stashed the official deed and finds it back in the future
 
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5-7 minutes?

I mean, that's like the sum total of ad breaks for a Simpsons episode. Not critisizing the medium at all, but it's not a lot of time. And I don't think there are any rules for short film, at all, but generally short film is considered an "event" rather than a "story".
 
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Yeah 5 to 7 is a flash. It has to be tight, not too much. I don't know, I think I ran it down the road as far as I can take it at the moment. Like I said, let it simmer and see what comes to you. I think alot of good ingridients are there though.

How did you score that location and actors?

-Thanks-
 
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ah, most shorts are too long in my opinion. :)

I know were talking about what seems like a lot of story, but in the end I will distill down to a thread or two, and just hint at the rest of the back story. But having a deep back story that is complete and plausible makes writing the short that much simpler.
 
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I haven't read all the posts yet. But what jumps to my mind is a parallel universe where certain technologies were either never invented, or were abandoned for some reason.

Then you can have a traveler from 'our' reality come in and create some conflict. Maybe (s)he starts sharing technology. Maybe (s)he is persecuted as a witch. If we are looking at something longer you could get some conflict out of a love interest.

Final twist: The 'traveler' is actually a fugitive and just when he is settling down and getting happy, his past catches up with him.


In a total other direction you could have it be a world where time moves backwards, everything starts quickly de-evolving and only the hero is aware of it/immune to it.
 
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Murdock said:
If you want a musical you might be able to make it through...try It Happened on the Way to the Forum. Pretty good.
Click to expand...

*A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum


"Also in this house lives Pseudolus, slave to the son. Pseudolus is probably my favorite character in the piece. A role of enormous variety and nuance, and played by an actor of such... well, let me put it this way... I play the part."
 
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Backstory can be your most deadly weapon. Or the concrete boots that drown you.

But I think it's very healthy to talk about your ideas. Makes them bigger. Helps to see them from different angles, and triggers other ideas.

I personally think it's important to know what you want to give your audience. And then everything else can fall in line with that.
 
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