Ideas For Movies

[Miss NWA Whoorider]

Ideas for Movies
Stuck for an idea for your next film??
Yeah? Well this really is a bad situation. Don't worry, read to the bottom of the page and your synapses will be buzzing furiously - ideas for films are easy to come by (unfortunately 'great film ideas' aren't). Sharpen your pencil and by the end of the page we'll have the next Citizen Kane (well, maybe not, but I'm sure we can manage a 'Chain Reaction').
The Idea is Everything
Get the idea, the one spark that gets your script going, and you've got your film. Most films that really grab you can be summed up in one line - this is usually called 'the pitch'. Don't believe me? Try these :
Jaws - 'Man afraid of water pursues killer shark'
Reservoir Dogs - 'Diamond heist goes wrong.'
Independence Day - 'Aliens invade Earth'
Try to create a couple of these by asking yourself 'What if...'
For example 'What if...an alien visitor gets left behind on Earth' (ET), 'What if...toys came to life' (Toy Story), 'What if...a lodger dies leaving behind a suitcase with a million pounds in it' (Shallow Grave).
Write down as many as you can as fast as you can. One might take your fancy. Scribble a couple of notes down around it. At this point don't self-censor - write everything down however dumb it seems. You're mining pure inspiration!
Tell your stories
The great thing about chucking around concepts for films is that you can talk through your ideas with others. Reading scripts takes a lot of effort. Chuck an idea in someone's face and they can immediately get involved. And every time you tell the story to someone it gets refined, you learn to tell the story better, people throw things back at you - 'why doesn't this happen?', 'couldn't she be a suspect', 'I'm not sure about the ending, but if they did escape...' The film starts to evolve. You find yourself thinking out aloud, adding new parts, cutting back on stuff if it gets a bad reception. Its a tradition of oral storytelling. Keep someone's attention in a busy pub for five minutes and you could probably entertain them on film. And the great thing there's no budget to worry about.
Occasionally you meet people who can spot an idea a mile off - 'No, its been done - have you ever seen 'Assault on Precinct 13'. Don't let them worry you. Remember, your idea is your idea. Make the film and it will be different, because its your film. Although I would recommend that you avoid watching the other movie until you've finished it.
Time to create some more ideas.
Have a film pile-up. List a couple of movies, pretend each is a car and start ramming them into each other. Take a look at the wreckage and see if you can make a new movie. So totally randomly here's my attempt.
'The Omen' (horror, the devil etc.) Vs. 'The Money Pit' (Tom Hanks tries to renovate a house with hilarious consequences).
Hmm...OK how about a film about a yuppie couple who move to a house in the country. After a housewarming party a neighbour (well, neighbour in the country means 15 miles away) suggests a local builder that could help them out. The yuppies don't seem to notice that his mobile number has 666 in it, nor do they seem that that worried when the builder starts suggesting a deep red colour scheme throughout the house. It is only when they discover that their bedroom ceiling's plastering resembles a pentangle and the builder's rennovations include digging down through the cellar into an ancient burial ground that they start to worry - but by then it is too late.
OK, so maybe Hollywood won't be knocking at my door just yet, but you get the idea. There's a school of thought that says you shouldn't look for ideas for movies in other movies and that you should do something original. These are the people that hate Tarantino. They've got a point - but its still helpful to start smashing other movies up to kickstart your inspiration. Besides, I've a horrible feeling that this is how some films get made. Imagine, there's this producer chewing on a cigar shouting 'I got it!! 'Die Hard...on a boat!' - before setting cameras to roll on 'Under Seige'.
Ideas come from everywhere
Sitting in an empty room isn't going to inspire you - read a daily newspaper, get out to the theatre or nip down the pub. Don't push trying to get ideas, they'll come. Just get ready for when they do. Scribble as much down as fast and as soon as possible. Consider having some sort of film-makers journal so you can keep everything from getting lost. I've got a book now that's stuffed full of ideas - sometimes I'll come back to it and add things, sometimes ideas mature and start flowing into each other. Keep doing this and you'll start to have a number of projects, ideas that you can work on from time to time. This is exactly what real film-makers do (whoever they are). An idea can lounge around for years before finding that the situation is right to make it. French Director Luc Besson waited years to make 'The Fifth Element' after having the idea as a teenager.
Just because your film has a simple concept it doesn't mean your film has to be one dimensional. Don't think for a minute that simple concepts mean simple movies. All it means is that you know what your movie is really about. Get stuck developing it and you can always get back to its core. Everything in the movie stays relevant to the central story.
What makes a good idea?
What makes a good film? Same thing. If you can imagine your idea on the big screen then its probably going to make a good film. It needs to be visual (so no introspective characters) and like any good story has to have a beginning, middle and an end. You have to fully exploit your idea, so if you've got a great beginning, make something else happen in the middle, then give it a good resolution. The story and the characters have to go somewhere. The audience has to care what happens to the characters. We have to empathize with them.
Boil a film down to its basics and what usually happens is this : A character gets involved in some sort of situation, which gives them an aim. They spend most of the movie struggling to achieve this aim, just before the end it becomes 'make-or-break' time and either they work out how to achieve the aim, or the aim gets more complicated, usually both. Then the story wraps itself up as the character sorts the problem out. Roll credits.
And Finally...
In the end it all comes down to two things. 1) Do you love the idea? You better do because when you are making the film and things go wrong (and they will) being in love with the idea is the only thing that will bring you through. And 2) Will your audience love the idea? Does everyone else you know think its great. Make a movie people want to watch. If you can get them to watch your film without them wanting to walk out, eject the tape or flip channels the idea is worth it.
Finito! End of my thoughts. Now quickly, run for a pencil and start scribbling. Good luck!