A Bunch of Story Ideas

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

“The Magnificent River” Posted

I recently finished a short piece based on a writing exercise I did. I made some changes to the original exercise and posted it on my website.

You can read it at: https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/stories/the-magnificent-river/

A couple years ago I joined a script writer’s group. Every time we meet, we do a writing exercise. I thought some of the ones I’ve done could be worth sharing, but this is the first time I followed up on my plan.

The prompt for the exercise was a title: “The Magnificent River”. I always find it interesting how people will take the idea in very different directions.

I may go back and see if I can develop some of my other exercises to the point where I feel I can share them.

 This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Bright Freedom Update 2020 September 27

I started to work on this project as a script in August 2009. Since then I wrote 9 drafts as a script and 26 drafts as a novella. I dropped it several times and now I think I might take it up again.

Recently I listened to a few Perry Mason audiobooks that I found on YouTube. They are very different from the impression I had from what I remember from the old Raymond Burr TV show. My character, Bright Freedom, is also a lawyer with an unconventional approach, so that prompted me to revisit the story.

Story Threads

As it stands now my story has three main threads, which, while separate stories, are linked in a way that I can’t remove one without undermining the others.

The main thread, from my point of view, is the personal issue that Bright Freedom struggles with. I added the other threads as a way to externalize her internal issues.

The second thread is the conflict with corporation that threatens to destroy a community. The community hires Bright to help them fight back. While Bright is a hired gun in this thread, her personal issues drive her to take it on.

The third thread is Bright’s dedication to helping abused women. She takes this on as a personal goal. It leads her to take great personal risks.

Issues I’ve Run Into

• One issue that I struggle with is that the main character is a woman with a different background and life experience than I have. I have some trepidation about being able to create a realistic character. I also worry about how some people might feel about me writing such a character. It is usually this issue that causes me to drop the project.

I told myself that I should just write the story and then ask some people who would identify with Bright to tell me what they think. I assume that I could then manage to fix any problems with out having to make major changes to the story. That is something I am not confident of.  

I have tried to reassure myself by seeing examples, like Ripley in “Alien”, where filmmakers change a character written as a male character into a female. That gives me a bit more confidence about what I want to do.

•  A second issue is just what exactly the corporation is up to. I’ve felt that what exactly they are up to doesn’t matter, so I never make it clear in my previous drafts. I still feel this way, but I have come around to the view that if I had a clear reason for the conflict, that it would be easier to write and develop the story.

Ideally, the reason would connect more clearly to Bright’s internal conflict. I do sort of hint at that now, but it would help if I could make it more explicit. The main reason I have started to think about this is that I feel that it would allow me to add some more twists and turns to the story.  

The first 3 or 4 scenes of the story have a lot of action, but the later parts of the story are much less intense. I think the conflict with the corporation could supply more intensity.

• A third issue is that I wanted to write the story as a straight forward action adventure story. However, the issues that Bright deals with, battered wives and honor killing, are serious issues and I worry that my approach might trivialize them.

In the past I took the view that the story is a wish fulfilment fantasy, where the intrepid heroine defeats these problems. I think of the old cowboy movies where the good guy can kill off hundreds of bad guys with out reloading his six-shot revolver. I still think of the story in that way, but I still worry how people will react to that approach.

Why Do I Keep Trying?

Despite all the problems with the story, I go back to it again and again. There is something about it that I feel I need to express. I think it is the character of Bright Freedom that holds my attention. It is as if she has taken on a life of her own and demands that I write about her.

I had a similar experience with my movie “Line of Taxis”. It too took on a life of its own and demanded that I make it. In that case, it was the support of my collaborators on the film that helped me press ahead. I’ve wondered from time to time if I should try to find someone to collaborate on this story. I can’t think of anyone I know who I feel would be right for the story. I don’t know how I can find someone either.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog