Super Summer Contest!

brennanrobideaux said:
Awesome! This is a great idea! It would be cool if the prizes were like a dslr camera or something. But a 1 year premiere membership would be sweet to.
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That would be cool, care to provide one? :D

Premiere memberships would be great but if that's not possible then I'll think something up, no need to worry. Small incentives can be fun but I'm unlikely to be able to provide something really big I've only got 4 or 5 RED Epics lying about and I kind of like having spares...
 
Did I miss something in my fast reading of this thread? ....


There should be only ONE winner out of the story ideas, and only ONE winner out of the screen plays. That way everyone writing a screen plays starts at the same place, and everyone MAKING the film starts at the same place.

Anything else is chaos and confusion!
 
wheatgrinder said:
Did I miss something in my fast reading of this thread? ....


There should be only ONE winner out of the story ideas, and only ONE winner out of the screen plays. That way everyone writing a screen plays starts at the same place, and everyone MAKING the film starts at the same place.

Anything else is chaos and confusion!
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Oooh, that, sir, is a good idea. Everyone writes the same screenplay/makes the same film. Brilliant :)
 
wheatgrinder said:
Did I miss something in my fast reading of this thread? ....


There should be only ONE winner out of the story ideas, and only ONE winner out of the screen plays. That way everyone writing a screen plays starts at the same place, and everyone MAKING the film starts at the same place.

Anything else is chaos and confusion!
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Nope, you missed nothing.

That was one of the ways I considered but the trouble with that is that I'm guessing that people in committing to the project would want to produce a unique short film, especially if it requires a fair amount of time an effort. So whilst it doesn't much matter at the screenplay stage, I wouldn't really want everyone to be making the same short film at Stage Three. If you're submitting Power Up to festivals then it's not good if there's another film with the exact same script being submitted too.

Whilst this is partly a competition, the cool part of it is that at the end you might get a product that has three different collaborators from this forum. And we might end up with a handful of shorts with a whole bunch of different combinations of members involved. In my opinion that would be really fun even if it's not as neat and tidy as cutting it down stage by stage.

But I am, of course, open to other opinions.
 
NickClapper said:
Nope, you missed nothing.

That was one of the ways I considered but the trouble with that is that I'm guessing that people in committing to the project would want to produce a unique short film, especially if it requires a fair amount of time an effort. So whilst it doesn't much matter at the screenplay stage, I wouldn't really want everyone to be making the same short film at Stage Three. If you're submitting Power Up to festivals then it's not good if there's another film with the exact same script being submitted too.

Whilst this is partly a competition, the cool part of it is that at the end you might get a product that has three different collaborators from this forum. And we might end up with a handful of shorts with a whole bunch of different combinations of members involved. In my opinion that would be really fun even if it's not as neat and tidy as cutting it down stage by stage.

But I am, of course, open to other opinions.
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I think the idea you are using is creative and is fine :) Wheat brings up an interesting idea for maybe a future project: Everyone would vote on ONE story in step one: In step two, that story is divided up into sections and they everyone contributes their own part to that one screen play. Then the screen play gets combined and divided into scenes, which can people can pick, and then everyone contributes a scene (sort of like that long ago lost (which I am starting to run with: "The greatest film never made" (Remember that Wheat? That was a fantastic idea that kind of didn't work out, but I've got some plans for it ;)-it has not died in my computer yet !)

Would be interesting to have one film, through screenplay and shooting, made by number of contributors-but like I said, maybe an idea for a later project :)
 
I get what you're saying, though I don't like the squishy "criteria" for winning.

I think you should focus on contest and not festival aspect of this. The reality is that you will be lucky to have for or five final films submitted, they will vary WILDLY on many aspects, and if you throw STORY and SCREENPLAY into the mix, you'll never be able to have a fair comparison. So the contests will really be a "what everyone likes best" vote, not how good the screen play was realized etc. That by the way is a FINE approach.. for a festival, but not for something that starts out this rigid.

Thanks thats my $0.02. Ill try and do something for each stage by the way..
 
wheatgrinder said:
I get what you're saying, though I don't like the squishy "criteria" for winning.

I think you should focus on contest and not festival aspect of this. The reality is that you will be lucky to have for or five final films submitted, they will vary WILDLY on many aspects, and if you throw STORY and SCREENPLAY into the mix, you'll never be able to have a fair comparison. So the contests will really be a "what everyone likes best" vote, not how good the screen play was realized etc. That by the way is a FINE approach.. for a festival, but not for something that starts out this rigid.

Thanks thats my $0.02. Ill try and do something for each stage by the way..
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You might be right and I get what you're saying.

The reason I've set this up as a competition is as an incentive to participate.

The real reason for do it this way is twofold: 1.) There should be something in at least one of the three stages for every member of the site even if they're not able to make a film and 2.) Working it through step by step should encourage people to get off their butts! I know that I need a little prod sometimes and I suspect that a lot of others do too!

Even if we only have a couple of films made at the end of it then it'll have been a success, not just for the person who made the film but for the person who wrote the screenplay and for the person whose idea it is originally based on. Am I the only one who thinks that would be freakin' cool?
 
Either way, I'll get involved as much as I can. I do think it would be cool if we could end up with a few different movies, all written and produced by different members of this board. But, Wheat is right, if everybody has a go at producing the same script, it'd be a fairer competition. I'll also say though, I'm not too fussed about winning, just getting involved, so whether it's a strictly controlled competition or just an excuse to do something fun, I'm in.

Also, been having a think about this. Should there be any limitations to what we write? I mean, if I did decide I wanted to participate in Stage 3, should the script I end up having to work from be about giant robots fighting dinosaurs, all set on the planet venus, I don't think I could cope with that!
 
How did I miss the beginning of this thread?!

I'm game.

I'd like to bring attention to a point you made in the OP: "... there are some members on here who are vastly more experienced than others in terms of production and post and this means that there's likely to be a big shift in quality between the best and the worst"

In consideration of this I suggest participants in stages one and two be very cognizant of production costs, especially regarding commonly available settings, required props and costumes, SFX, and number of actors the story demands.

More THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT.
Less BATTLE: L.A.

So, please, no giant robots from Uranus fighting dinosaurs with a core cast of dozens amidst hundreds of extras at the state capital.
Please.

mad_hatter said:
But, Wheat is right, if everybody has a go at producing the same script, it'd be a fairer competition.
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Coming from a screenwriting perspective, this is something that I've been long interested in seeing: How different director/producers create different outcomes of the same source material.

The educational benefits are great.
It blatantly demonstrates that there are many ways to achieve solutions to problems.
Not just some pie-in-the-sky "it can be done".
"No. Look! Here's ten examples of "Billy Gets a Beer".
 
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@ray: Of course, people need to bare in mind in Stages One and Two that some poor sucker will hopefully be shooting this movie!

But I also think it will be interesting to see the way that things are adapted, stage by stage. For instance if I write a short story set in London about a soccer player, it's perfectly reasonable that the screenplay adaptation could be set in New York about a basketball player. Things will work themselves out in interesting ways.

I also agree that there's a lot to be learnt from lots of different films of the same short script but I would suggest that people take a look at Nate North's Low Budget Challenge which works like that (and the prize is freakin' awesome).

Hopefully this one will be part educational and part 'get off your ass and make movies'! :)
 
I think I'd like to try stage three. It really depends on the scripts. Cast of 4 + Crew of 4= Doable. Much beyond that and I'd have to act, and nobody wants to look at my big head.

What do you think your maximum timeline would be for production?
 
We could also add a stage 4: post production. i.e. take someone work that they shot and send it off to an editor/sfx person to do the rest.
 
Lowxposure said:
I think I'd like to try stage three. It really depends on the scripts. Cast of 4 + Crew of 4= Doable. Much beyond that and I'd have to act, and nobody wants to look at my big head.

What do you think your maximum timeline would be for production?
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My guess would be that the scripts will all be very filmable. Certainly if I'm participating in Stage Two I'll be doing my level best to make it easy for people to film.

I didn't set a deadline for Stage Three because, by that point, it will be up to the filmmakers. Any deadline that is set will be fairly arbitrary but we'll make sure that there's plenty of time for everyone to finish.

Dreadylocks said:
We could also add a stage 4: post production. i.e. take someone work that they shot and send it off to an editor/sfx person to do the rest.
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That would be coo! Not sure it would be practical but if other people think that it would work then I'd be willing to defer to their better judgement...
 
No stage 4!

you have such a connection with your footage you shot, that you don't want someone else to possibly "ruin" it, because he does something completely different with it than you thought!
 
NickClapper said:
That would be coo! Not sure it would be practical but if other people think that it would work then I'd be willing to defer to their better judgement...
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I dont know abt it being practical either considering how hard it is to pull these little contests off anyway.

But it is definitely a good idea and a fitting one considering the contest.

If you think stage 4 could be pulled off, then i would recommend you do it.

However, feel free to disregard my comment since i dont think ill be participating.
 
Dreadylocks said:
We could also add a stage 4: post production. i.e. take someone work that they shot and send it off to an editor/sfx person to do the rest.
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+1

I thought that the first time I read the post. I love to film, but I hate sitting in front of the computer trying to piece it together.

As for anyone screwing up my footage... I thought the intent for this contest was for every member of the forum to bring their own particular strengths to the table. And part of collaborating is leaning on someone elses strengths to negate your own weaknesses. Seldom on professional productions will you see a director/writer/editor combination.
 
Hmmm... I would be inclined to steer clear of Stage Four.

As Ernest says this contest is already in three different parts, so that's going to be quite a lot of work motivating people to keep going. I think if we add another stage it'll make it even harder. It also wouldn't fit with the other stages because we couldn't simply present the raw footage as part of stage three. Therefore it would be combining and splitting Stages Three and Four. All in all I think it will be very hard to implement.

But I think it's a great idea for a different challenge- perhaps if something like Wheatgrinder's Monthly Challenge comes back then that'd be doable.
 
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