Simple premise.

Started by w/o horse, May 07, 2005, 03:06:12 PM

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w/o horse

I'm between a rock and a hard place here because tonight I'm supposed to be making a short (4-6 minute) film for my film class and my lead actor just had to bail for play rehearsal.  Now, any cutting remarks about end of the line shooting are 100% right, but I already know all that.  What I need, fast, is a simple premise that we could shoot tonight involving 2-3 people.

If anyone has something lay it down.  Or fuck, just write one out.  I need something at least half-way decent fast.  We're shooting tonight at 8.
Raven haired Linda and her school mate Linnea are studying after school, when their desires take over and they kiss and strip off their clothes. They take turns fingering and licking one another's trimmed pussies on the desks, then fuck each other to intense orgasms with colorful vibrators.

Myxo

Quote from: AwkwardAsIAmI'm between a rock and a hard place here because tonight I'm supposed to be making a short (4-6 minute) film for my film class and my lead actor just had to bail for play rehearsal.  Now, any cutting remarks about end of the line shooting are 100% right, but I already know all that.  What I need, fast, is a simple premise that we could shoot tonight involving 2-3 people.

If anyone has something lay it down.  Or fuck, just write one out.  I need something at least half-way decent fast.  We're shooting tonight at 8.

It sounds like despite your friend going MIA, you weren't terribly happy with the original project to begin with. Why not simply get somebody else to play the lead in this short? It seems like a lot less work than getting your actors to pickup something totally new in a few hours.

w/o horse

The whole thing is kind of falling apart.  Two of the crew members aren't going to be able to make it until midnight.  The lead actor was cast specifically because of how he looks.

It's basically down to me and four other guys trying to put this thing together.  Which is kind of embarassing but I can do it, I know I can do it.  I just need a premise that'll make it work.
Raven haired Linda and her school mate Linnea are studying after school, when their desires take over and they kiss and strip off their clothes. They take turns fingering and licking one another's trimmed pussies on the desks, then fuck each other to intense orgasms with colorful vibrators.

Gamblour.

I know where you're coming from. For me, coming up with that last minute premise sometimes turns out to be better than whatever I had started with. In fact, this happened recently. The key here, i think, is to be as formalistic as possible, and eschew conventional storytelling, because that takes too long. Something with a narration is easy to pull off, and you can use more visuals this way without making sure they work on their own.

As for a premise, I dunno, make something up, or rip off some movie no one's ever seen.
WWPTAD?

Raikus

Shoot something involving microwave popcorn. Just an idea that hit me, but have the character put the popcorn in the microwave, and as soon as it happens have a momentus change in tempo (break in, phone call from lost love, scrambled porn on the TV). The character deals with this new situation while the popcorn is popping and when the microwave dings the resolution is reached. Hell, part of the resolution could be the serving/sharing of the popcorn.

Well, I just reread your post and it said you're shooting at 8, so it may be late. Good luck regardless.
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free, silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands, with all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves, let me forget about today until tomorrow.

Pubrick

three actors sitting or hanging out in a room with props. and each does a bit. and u think they're acting. and they are. but then one of them punches himself in the throat and calls the ambulance, which arrives promptly to pick him up, wheel him off. and the two remaining freaks are left staring at each other blankly for a minute or so.
under the paving stones.

meatball

It's the day after now. How did it go? What premise did you shoot?

w/o horse

We went simple.

Two kids enter a suburban home, one doesn't want to and the other coaxes him.  There is a man in the house.  The kids come into the man's room, he is hiding in the bathroom with a gun, comes out and one kid runs out of the room, man slams door, trapping him and the other kid in the room.  It's been a fuck of a day for this man and he's drunk, on the edge.  He antagonizes the kid, tells the kid to kill him, that he might as well kill him, that no one knows the boy is in house, that it is his gun, that he is drunk, that the boy should kill him.  And somewhere in all of this he shoots himself.  The kid runs out of the room.

Egh.
Raven haired Linda and her school mate Linnea are studying after school, when their desires take over and they kiss and strip off their clothes. They take turns fingering and licking one another's trimmed pussies on the desks, then fuck each other to intense orgasms with colorful vibrators.

w/o horse

I'd say pretentious is overkill.  Forced.  Forced is a good word for what we filmed.
*edit*
Where'd the kid who posted pretentious go?
Raven haired Linda and her school mate Linnea are studying after school, when their desires take over and they kiss and strip off their clothes. They take turns fingering and licking one another's trimmed pussies on the desks, then fuck each other to intense orgasms with colorful vibrators.

Thrindle

Quote from: AwkwardAsIAmI'd say pretentious is overkill.  Forced.  Forced is a good word for what we filmed.
*edit*
Where'd the kid who posted pretentious go?
I felt like a dick for asking if it was pretentious.  It was a comment that seemed nastier than intended, so I axed it.  Sorry dude.
Classic.

w/o horse

No but I can see where you're coming from.  Completely.  It's hard enough to find the balance, but then in film school it seems even harder, you know.  It's only my first year, so I'm working with a group of six people and they want to do stuff like suicides in bathrooms and razor blade days, stuff they think is real deep you know.  I want to exploit the everyday properties of man, the casual epic as it may be, and that sounds boring to them.  Hell, it sounds boring to most people.  So we have to find a line we can all walk.

That was our line.  And doing projets like these proves to me that a film should not be a group effort.
Raven haired Linda and her school mate Linnea are studying after school, when their desires take over and they kiss and strip off their clothes. They take turns fingering and licking one another's trimmed pussies on the desks, then fuck each other to intense orgasms with colorful vibrators.

socketlevel

Quote from: AwkwardAsIAmNo but I can see where you're coming from.  Completely.  It's hard enough to find the balance, but then in film school it seems even harder, you know.  It's only my first year, so I'm working with a group of six people and they want to do stuff like suicides in bathrooms and razor blade days, stuff they think is real deep you know.  I want to exploit the everyday properties of man, the casual epic as it may be, and that sounds boring to them.  Hell, it sounds boring to most people.  So we have to find a line we can all walk.

That was our line.  And doing projets like these proves to me that a film should not be a group effort.

don't worry dude, that's like 95 percent of student filmmaking.  just sift through those self-indulgers, you'll find some others that can look outside the box.  problem is since they're more likely just out of high school they've got nothing to say so they result to PSA style moody films.  they feel comfort in the cliché because they don't know what they think about social issues yet, but still want to be an artist.

i think what you want to make is great, not enough films on that subject!  like Wim Wenders or something, shit i love Paris Texas.  Just write a kick ass script and people will flock to you.

see the thing is, the average film class has 50 or so students.  of those 50 i'd say that 4 or 5 are good filmmakers, and maybe a couple good cinematographers and the same for editors (everyone goes in wanting to be the next tarantino or smith or pta but soon realize they have other strengths).

However, it is very rare if a class of 50 even has one good scriptwriter.  scripts are like 60 percent of a film, and most people can't write anything good for shit.  so if you got a tight script that kicks ass and is about something off the beaten path then your profs will like it and others will come running to the project cause you're original.

best of luck, sometimes i feel the same way about the group aspect of filmmaking but then i meet some people that are really talented and everything changes.

-sl-
the one last hit that spent you...

matt35mm

Yes, the people you surround yourself with makes all the difference.  Most often, the best people to surround yourself with is NOT other filmmakers.  Filmmaking should be a group effort, but it's gotta be a focused one, and everyone's gotta be totally onboard and know who the director is.  A group of filmmakers (by which I mostly mean people who want to direct) will clash, and most of them suck absolute balls, and so there will be pressure that there shouldn't be, and a lack of focus--a messy final product will result.

Just really don't rush into things.  Make sure that you trust and respect all of your collaborators, and then you'll really feel free to actually COLLABORATE with them, instead of clashing with them.  That's filmmaking as it should be.  This is the situation with my current crew, and I feel great about it.  For once, I have absolute faith and there's not a doubt in my mind that they will each make this movie better, and that no one will drop out or be half-assed.  We're all going for the same thing, and they all respect me as a director and leader of the production, and I respect them as collaborators.  So now I really feel like this is OUR movie, in the best way possible, as opposed to just my movie.  In other words, I don't feel alone going into this production.

meatball

I found the opposite to be true. People didn't care enough. Either they're flirting with each other, or they're just slackers. I was steering the boat and although I was in command, I was in charge of people who didn't know left from right.

I got along with those filmmakers you mentioned, because they did have a clear idea of what should be done and how to get it done. They had the drive and the respect to do their alotted roles. And we never clashed because everybody knew that on that project, the director was king. They actually provided me with a lot of good suggestions that improved my projects. But this is two people out of twenty.

Pubrick

seriously tho, how awesome was my premise, it works as a play too.
under the paving stones.