Idea for new movie, would it work?
Screen Writing Idea development Idea for new movie, would it work?
Alright, I'm just throwing around some ideas for my next movie, and I was hoping to get some suggestions and input for this one idea I've come up with.
OK, before I explain what I have so far of the plot, there's something I have to say. With my last movie, 'Urban Nightmare', it turned out well, but it wasn't nearly as much fun to make as my previous movie, 'Catastrophe' was. I think this is because I just had way too much on my mind, and the movie was far too ambitious and hectic with far too many locations, complications, scenes, etc, and I didn't really concentrate on just relaxing and enjoying the whole experience. So I took a step back and examined what I really wanted to make, rather than what other people wanted me to do, and this is what I've come up with. Minimal characters, minimal reliance on special effects, as few sets as possible (read: one), a genuinely original plot, maximum emphasis on atmosphere and more time spent developing the characters. I really need it to be deep, almost like a puzzle that unravels as the movie progresses, with as little B movie type action heroic cheesiness crap as possible. Essentially it's more character based than anything I've ever done. Additionally I examined all of the locations I have access to, and I've decided that I want it to take place at a high school.
The plot is kind of like 'Cube' meets 'The Breakfast Club' meets 'The Sixth Sense', if you can imagine that. One quick thing, the stairwell I have in mind for the shoot is pretty much boarded up, maybe still used for maintenance, spans three floors with two doors, one at the top and one at the bottom, and no windows, it's very, very spooky. Onto the plot... Four friends (15 or 16 years old) are leaving at the end of a day to go home or wherever and they take a closed off staircase from their last class on the top floor (shortcut) in order to get to the doors on the lower floor (that sounds kind of cheap, maybe there'll be another reason). Anyways, once reaching the bottom floor they try opening the door, and its locked, so, angry, they walk back up planning to take the usual staircase. This door is locked too, and this is when they start to worry.
Anyways, this is all I've come up with so far, but I think it could act as a good base for a movie to be built up around if there is more... I really like the whole supernatural aspect, not for cheap shocks but for pure wonder, so I'd like to throw in some of that, and I really don't like happy Hollywood-esque endings, it needs to be real. I'm really looking forward to shooting a movie like this, but the thing is I need a good, deep plot to build a script around.
Thanks for any input
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You are nothing! If you were in my toilet I wouldn't bother flushing it. My bathmat means more to me than you!- Buddy Ackerman, 'Swimming With Sharks'
http://www.urbannightmare.com
[This message has been edited by millennia (edited 01-08-2001).]
[This message has been edited by millennia (edited 01-08-2001).]
hmmm, sounds interesting, millenia. i see it having great possiblities (i sound like a critic now..
) really though, if developed properly and not "cheezy" it would be good.maybe they go back up, the top doors locked too, and while previously there was sounds from busy High-school people walking around in the hallways, now there's no sound at all coming from anywhere. They find the only door that does open is one in the middle, that leads into a narrow passageway that runs parallel to the main hallway, but enclosed. (does that make sense?) so they go through thinking it'll lead to another way out and then they take a few turns and keep going around in circles, never getting back where they started.
Probably the most key thing is showing beforehand the possible conflicts that could arise in this situation (i.e. one person is known to be claustrophobic, and of course there's lots of small nooks and rooms and passages where they go). Creating known conflict within the characters will be revealed when they go ... wherever.
so maybe they discover some file cabinets or something with secrets about the history of the founders of the school, or something. So this whole wing or something has been closed off and they find out something they don't know how to deal with.
sounds like a complicated task (kind of an X-files type of thing, huh?) just making it not seem cheezy or overdone could be hard (like you want it to seem like a big deal, really spooky, but you don't want it to look like it's trying to be a big deal but isn't. does that make sense?)
and i'm not real into supernatural stuff, but that's just me...
anyway, it sounds like a neat idea. i hope it goes well for you!
Oh wow! Those are some really great ideas, DigiteyeZ. I especially like the suggestion of the entire hallway, staircase, etc being closed off. I just thought up a way to connect the whole abandoned wing idea with the supernatural aspect. Possibly the school was opened in the 1950s (it actually was), with the extra wing that the four are in now, but there were a series of mysterious deaths in this wing just after the school opened, so the entire thing was shut down... then the spirits of the students killed could return.
That sounds a bit cheesy, like a slasher flick or something, but if it was kept very subtle and slow moving (the way I envision this project), it could work. I don't want a kind of horror movie here, more drama than anything else.
Love the ideas
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You are nothing! If you were in my toilet I wouldn't bother flushing it. My bathmat means more to me than you!- Buddy Ackerman, 'Swimming With Sharks'
http://www.urbannightmare.com
It could also be that they are not friends. The main character could have just seen the other person in the halls or something (and maybe even think he was spooky). They both meet on that floor when all the doors are suddenly locked, and that's how they end up together for the rest of the film. Then you can have this guy be like a guide (but the other dosen't notice it, kind like in The Sixth Sense that Bruce Willis dosen't know he's dead). And this guy basically leads him through this hidden wing (but making it look like he is just trying to find a way out). Through the journey they figure out what happened to the wing and why it was closed. Maybe the wing was the old school and then there was an epidemic or somthing that wiped them all out. Then they just borded up that old part of the school and just made the rest new. Maybe at the end the spooky guy (guide) can end up beign one of the students killed in the epidemic.
Well, there are endless options!
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MAKING A MOVIE: Make a movie that you would buy a ticket to see, and then pray millions of people agree with you
I just had a weird thought. It you wanted to have the school built in the 50's then part of it closed off, you could have had that part of the building been segregated, and when brown vs. board of ed (desegregation) came in there were some mysterious deaths of some of the black students. To kind of cover this up they might have closed off that part of the school.
If you went with that dead guide thing, the kid could have been one of the kids killed, and you can kind of relate it to modern day if there are beginning to be racial tensions in the school during modern day. The modern day kids can see where it is going and change there ways or something.
just a thought.
In every high school there are the "Stories" , In mine, it was that a pool was located on the roof. Freshmen were sent up there and locked in. This could be four or five freshmen who are duped, (The stairwell could be haunted, the scene of some horrible incident, you've had good ideas given to develop) Now they have to unite and find a way out, or will you have tragedy strike again.
And remember, One of the characters should be one of the older kids who accidentally gets locked in as well.
In the end however, like in the breakfast club, remember that they all went back to their original social groups and back to ignoring eachother.
Human nature may not be pretty, but people don't change much in a peer enviroment like school.
Anyway, just my opinions, hope they help some.
Fastlou had the idea I was trying to remember. Racism, social politics, and a solution offered (If not fully taken or understood by your characters) can give your film a sense of moral relavance or Gravitas (HAH! I have been dying to use "Gravitas" in a sentance since the stupid elections and voila!... Oh, wait, did I misspell it?)
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The gene pool could use a little chlorine.
how about they go down 3 flights,into the door, but it's not the exit some alternate world something happens, they go out and up 5 flights - no end in sight the go down again and every 3 flights there is a door!
a door to an alternate reality muuuuhahahahahah
I like thie whole racial thing. maybe the secret is that the school is really old and all the black kids were locked in one half of the school for privat teaching, and one day there was a fire and they all got locked in a burned. one of the kids sruck in the stair well could be black and it turns out he is somehow connected to one of the spirits and they come afte rhim cause he is the offspring of the only ones who escaped. something like that. the fire thing is scary, imagine being locked in a burning building.
WAit, better idea. one of the kids is the son/daughter of the former principal who had the doors locked on purpose.
who knows?
good luck bud, let me know how it goes
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