The writer’s group I joined suggested we come up with ideas we
could pitch. I Decided to share some here on my blog.
The idea is to develop ideas for short “conversation” movies.
I wrote up some of my thoughts about that a while ago: https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/stories/conversational-stories/
The Slow Speed Date
Only two people show up for a speed dating event. They think
they are early, so they sit and wait. They chat while they wait but run out of
things to say because they only expected to chat for 5 minutes at a time. After
some awkward silence, they start to talk again. Their conversation develops and
they start to build a connection. They eventually learn that there was no event
planned. A mutual friend used that as a ruse to get them to meet.
Masks
A man and a woman go on
their first date. They eat in a private room at a restaurant. They are both shy
people and find it hard to make conversation. The room is decorated with
theatre props, including some acting masks. One of them, as a joke, puts on one.
With the mask on they feel freer to open up. The other person puts on a mask.
With the masks on, the two are able to open up to each other and express their
real feelings.
The Misunderstanding
A woman meets a man she admires to talk about work he has done
that fascinates her. The man misreads her interest as romantic, so he tries to
woo her. She rejects his advances. Her rejection leaves him flustered. He
apologizes to her. She talks about the difficulties she has, as a woman, with
men who don’t take her seriously. He struggles to understand how she feels. In
the end, he has an appreciation of her struggles and she gains more respect for
him.
The Collaboration
Two people meet to talk about collaborating on a script. Their
idea is to write a script about two people collaborating on a script about two
people collaborating on a script and so on. They stop talking when they hear
paper ripping. They both look up in fear. The scene cuts to a different room
with the same two people. One of them holds papers they just ripped in half.
They agree that they are getting stuck in a loop and they need a different idea.
The Chess Match
Back in 1972 my brothers, my cousins and I made a short film
on 8mm film inspired by the world chess championship match underway in Iceland
at the time. As I watched it again recently, I felt the urge to remake it. The
story is rather absurd, which appealed to me. I would need to expand it to
justify remaking it.
A Friend in Need
A person approaches a friend to talk about a problem they have.
They are reluctant to talk about it, so they “beat around the bush”. Their
friend doesn’t pick up on it right away. When they do, they find it difficult
to help because they can’t talk openly about it. Despite the difficulty in
communicating, the person with the problem finds a solution. They thank their
friend for their help. Their friend never does understand the problem.
A Story over Coffee
Two people are relaxing over coffee after they finish their
business meeting. One talks about a problem they have. The other tells them a
long story about someone they knew who had a similar problem. The story causes
the first person to reconsider what they really want to accomplish.
A Technical Problem
Two people discuss a technical problem they are working on
together (i.e.: engineering or computer systems) that evolves into a discussion
of the ethical issues related to the problem and how that should affect the
technical solution that they choose.
A Life Story (Pseudo-documentary)
The pseudo-documentary follows the life of a rather
unremarkable person through interviews with their friends, old pictures, and
home movies. The people being interview act oddly antagonistic to the
off-screen interviewer. The climax of the movie comes with the murder of the subject
of the movie. The documentary then reveals that the filmmaker is the person who
murdered them. When the judge learned that the murderer was a filmmaker, she made
it part of their punishment that they had to make a movie about the person they
killed. This is an idea I had many years ago but dropped because of the
negative feed back I got.
Thoughts on Making These Films
The big advantage of this kind of story is that they are
relatively cheap and easy to make. There are very few actors; usually just two.
A filmmaker can shoot in just a few locations, and often just one. What I have
found, though, is that, while easy to make, they are much more difficult to
write.
I like these ideas, but realize that for the most part, they
are story structures which I can then use to give an excuse for a conversation.
The actual conversations that come out of these situations I would need to
develop. This is where I’ve run into problems in the past with this approach.
I recently came across an article and video that discusses
this kind of story that suggested that the filmmaker begin working with the
actors at an early stage of the project. Allowing the actors to contribute to
the development of the characters and dialogue will create a richer story. https://nofilmschool.com/How-to-write-a-conversation
This post is a mirror from my main blog
http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog
