• Wondering which camera, gear, computer, or software to buy? Ask in our Gear Guide.

What you do to get ideas?

SquaretheJon

SquaretheJon

Hi guys,

What do you do to get ideas for your next film, documentary etc.? Do you sit by the park and take notes on what happens? You ride inside buses to watch people's interactions? What do you do, what is your "idea-grabber" place/thing that you do to get those ideas. Please share.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
I just sit and think deeply. But a better process I like to do is this:

Identify: Short, Sketch, Full on film, Documentary?
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Action, Thriller, etc. etc.?

With those two in mind, it kind of gets easier to whip up a basic plot. But it's not always easy. Sometimes, stuff like conversations with people or looking at something will spark something in your head. I was in the car with my family today and for no apparent reason, I immediately thought up a short I wanted to do sometime soon.

Sometimes, ya just gotta be patient.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
My stuff is usually a combination of ideas from things that were originally different stories. Things get more interesting and deep that way for me..
Once I have a concept, I try to visualize the opening scene and then the next one, and so on....

I'm sure some of the writers here can tell you that they have watched their movie in their head a few hundred times before the camera is turned on.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I still have...

Scoopicman said:
Most of my film ideas, started off with something that happened in real life. My "trapped astronauts" movie, TERRARIUM was inspired by taking care of a friend's tarantula, for 6 months. I would put the crickets in the terrarium and then I would think to myself, "what if those crickets were people?" The idea was born.

For my movie, ROADKILL, my inspiration came from a fight with an ex-girlfriend. She was yelling at me, so I just got in my Trans am and started backing out. While the car was moving, she scratched my neck and didn't let go, so I gave it some gas. :lol: Anyway, she couldn't hang on, but I thought what if she did? I made the movie around the "What if?"

I also listen to movie soundtracks, so I get lost in that dream mode and think of all sorts of ideas. But,.........and this is a huge "but", nothing inspires me more than watching a no budget indie movie that becomes successful. Specifically, it was a Super 8 movie, called GAME OF SURVIVAL, which was all over the place, when it got released in the 80's. At that time, there was also A POLISH VAMPIRE IN BURBANK, also shot on Super 8, which did huge business. Of course, EL MARIACHI came out and that is the poster child for the indie success story. Still, everytime a BLAIR WITCH, FIREWALL, OPEN WATER or anything along those lines catches fire, I'm totally inspired. I watched Peter Jackson go from BAD TASTE to where he is now. When I get the inpiration, story ideas just flow....

When ideas are dry, I'll drive out to some weird desert locale, put on a soundtrack, or watch something I know nothing about. Sometimes, it takes 10 movies, before you get to the inpiring one, but we're filmmakers, dammit. We should be watching all sorts of unknown material, and not just what the critics and masses say are good.
Click to expand...

My VHS copy of GAME OF SURVIVAL... LOL. Only the sound no longer works...

What all the above have said... What FASCINATES YOU? I can go through a newspaper and probably find at least ONE headline and or story that will cause me to immediately begin developing a story around it. Stories are all around you -- you just have to find them.

Once you do, you use your fascination, passion, and inspiration and of course a lot of WHAT IFs to begin the genesis of a story.

filmy
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Smoke some weed, watch the discovery channel, somehow relate the nature of animals to metaphorically represent society, human action, or ideal.
Yea and read, read, read, watch movies, sit for hours on end watching things.
Observe the world and know your current events.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Keep a small notebook and nubbin of pencil in your pocket. Write down EVERYTHING interesting you dream or see or wonder about or overhear or watch or read. I've had entire scripts come from hearing somebody say something interesting in crowd...I'll remember the line, put the line in the mouth of a character, begin the process of asking questions of this character, create scenes, create conflicts, create worlds...

Become an observer and a grand inquisitor of everything you come across.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Uranium City said:
Keep a small notebook and nubbin of pencil in your pocket. Write down EVERYTHING interesting you dream or see or wonder about or overhear or watch or read. I've had entire scripts come from hearing somebody say something interesting in crowd...I'll remember the line, put the line in the mouth of a character, begin the process of asking questions of this character, create scenes, create conflicts, create worlds...

Become an observer and a grand inquisitor of everything you come across.
Click to expand...

That's a good idea. Thanks. I mean, if the story is yours, you can make anything up.

I have a thing to add. Whatever a situation you may have heard, read or saw, blow it out of proportion and exaggerate on that. Make it a bigger deal that it is....if that makes any sense..
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Geez, all these people smoking weed to get inspired! You know, I once had an idea for a short where a couple kids find out the police are gonna be burning a huge evidence stash at a local crematorium and attach a bong to a broken pipe out back... only they mess up the time and date and end up smoking the remains of a police officer who comes back as a ghost (yes, like ghost dad) and haunts them with 80's public-service-announcement-style (Scruff McGruff) lectures until they smoke the remains of a Colombian Drug Czar so the two can have a ghost battle royale...

Then I was like, holy shit, that would be a GREAT idea if I could ever get a stoner to actually get off the couch and go see a movie like that, LOL..

But I think people get inspiration from anywhere, really. I started off with derivative works- fake trailers (mission impossible 3: mission possible, the 2nd sense (I smell bad odors), the almost but not quite perfect storm, Daft: The British Shaft, etc), Shakespeare (Hamlet: The Original Motion Picture, King Lear 2000, Macbeth 3000: This Time, It's Personal)...

and from there I started doing a lot of collaborate shorts.. for my first short, The Perfect Sandwich, I thought "Damn, I make me some good sammiches" and my girlfriend was watching a show where a chef met women in the grocery stores and would go back to their homes to cook meals for them (despite the husband's groanings)... bingo! Throw in some bad dubbing and a magic color hat...
Then for Bloody Hell, originally I wanted to do something about a satanic killer who needed the blood of the pure for ritual sacrifices... but then as I worked on it, I thought, well, wouldn't it be scarier if the guy was just "normal" and killed only because of some kind of insane jealousy?
Then French Onion came along and I co wrote it with Nique Woodhouse... but it was loosely based off an experience he had!

But the point is, inspiration can come from anywhere- and as long as you are open to let it flow where it will, ideas will evolve with you as you refine them. But I wouldn't sit around and smoke weed to get your juices flowing- get out! talk with people! live life! write about your job, your friends, your enemies!

Life is inspiration, my friend, not a prison sentence.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
is it me... or do you guys get ideas.... think they are brilliant and plan them all out... then after a few days of solid thinking about it decide no its not that great to follow through... even though you know there are a lot of worse stories made, and the idea was probably worth making...

this happens to me... gets kinda annoying, im waiting for that idea to come along and for me to fall in love with it and marry it
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
AshtonNew said:
is it me... or do you guys get ideas.... think they are brilliant and plan them all out... then after a few days of solid thinking about it decide no its not that great to follow through... even though you know there are a lot of worse stories made, and the idea was probably worth making...

this happens to me... gets kinda annoying, im waiting for that idea to come along and for me to fall in love with it and marry it
Click to expand...

i keep a lot of concepts on backburn, develope them as they come along.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ideas for stories come from life and what you believe in.
Is there anything you feel strongly about in life that you want to tell and prove to the rest of the world?

The advice out there is one of two things:
"Your story must have a message."
"No, don't do that, don't preach to the audience."

But the logic in the second statement is fallacious. It's a fallacy.

Every good story has a message.
The only time it seems like preaching is when the writer is not a very good writer.

So, what do you feel strongly about?

Think of a premise.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
One thing I do is use an equation to purposely manifest bad ideas.
The Equation: Highly Unlikely x Completely stupid = Bad Idea.

If you sit down and try to come up with a good idea, it’s easy to create ten bad ones.
If you sit down and try to come up with ten bad ideas you might find a good one.

The “Good ideas” can be dumb, but dumb in a way that you will swear Hollywood uses this equation.
They can also be seemingly dumb, but maybe not and you will swear Hollywood uses this equation.

Here are examples:

“When a busload of nuns team up with the Hells Angels it’s gonna take more than a miracle to kick-start a plausible ending.” - Heaven on wheels.

(Easy to imagine Whoopi Goldberg in this.)


“When an African American flying machine inventor befriends, employees, and falls in love with a blind white woman, racial intolerance is incited in a small mountain town.” - Hope-Jump-Pray

(Easy to imagine Morgan Freeman and Nicole Kidman in this.)


It’s key to not be afraid of the stupid end of the pool. Dive in and entertain yourself, it can unlock creativity:

“A young arsonist teams up with a ghost to save the skate park from acid rain.”

“A retired sea boat captain risks everything to pursue the life long dream of becoming the only one at breakfast without a foot fetish. ”

“Is there a doctor on the mic!? Those whacky thugs are at it again as the most unlikely doctors in the hood! (Snoop Dog) ‘Yo give’em the in-sizz-lin’ or he dead.’ (Gilbet Godfry) ‘Nurse, get my bitch on line two.’ Free Clinic – The hardest part of getting better is the love.”


-Thanks-
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
When I am stuck for ideas I go to the mall, notebook in hand like I'm Sam Spade. I judge every person that walks by. I know mom said never judge a book by its cover but. I judge them as harshly as possible, I decide what their stories are. By judging harshly I come to some pretty wild conclusions. I guess I should mention that I only do this in an exercise in idea formation, its not what I really believe.

Since I saw the Dialogue: interviews with screenwriters series on dvd, every interview they do an exercise called the object. They present each writer with a random object and its the writers task to come up with a story about that object on the spot. That is very fun and interesting to watch, its like an insiders view on to how the greats come up with ideas. I have started using this exercise also, very thought provoking.

If anyone has netflix and is interested in the DVDs I mentioned they are titled

The Dialogue: An interview with screenwriters.

There are 27 dvd's each with one writer and they are around 90minutes long. Best insider look available in my opinion.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I was sitting in class one day, and my friend asked the teacher if underside was a word. They looked it up and it was. My teacher also pointed out that underlying is a word as in the underlying truth. BOOM. I grabbed my notebook and wrote down the name "THE UNDERLYING TRUTH" in all caps. It had inspired me to write a script about a boy being kidnapped and his mother's pursuit for him.

If I see something that would be a really good movie while I go through the day, I jot it down. I take stuff from my everyday life and come home and actually make it sound interesting as in adding action and well excitement.

Look around. What do you see in your life that would look amazing enhanced into a movie?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I won't give away my current ideas, so I'll tell you how I got the idea for GT. (NOT trying to pimp my film out, just using it for an example.)

My friends own a realistic western town on their property. After last years ice storm, it was trashed. The young man who has CP and is in a wheelchair wanted to be in a movie. The neighbor had a huge Appalachian horse and I had a 1987 K-5 Blazer at the time.

All of these things were available to me at one time. So I took what I had and utilized it into a story.


Thus, GT was born.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
How do you not get them? They are all over the place!

I did a class on ideas in London a couple of months back, on the way to the class a bus passed in front of me with the destination sign "Dulwich Library" - and I use that in the class. What if there was a library where dull witches could learn to become more exciting and charismatic? What do you do if you're a wallflower witch?

Look at the Odd News section of Yahoo News... then let your imagination run free!

- Bill
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
My ideas just come to me. I'm merely a conduit. It's difficult for me to actively try to sit and think about things, anything I write then comes off as forced. Then again, I'm also terrible about constantly editing while I write, so there's that.

However, I have found that deconstructing others' writing to boil them down to their essentials has helped me focus my insights.

Other than that,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnO5bKvYYMk
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top