script tips

[Commander_Cool]

hi everyone, I'm writing this script to a film I'm going to make for a local film festival next year, and I have all the charaters I need, and the setting and the begining and ending. but I need help with the story line. can anyone help me?

the film's about 5 kids in highschool, I'm aiming for a "mallrats" style movie. if anyone can help me with my storyline delema plz help a.s.a.p. /forums/images/icons/grin.gif

[Jack_Sparrow]

Hey dude, presumably if you have written the characters, start and end you require some help with writing the script , not the actual storyline?

If so try this site (http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/lzone/movie/index.htm) it may offer you some guidance, good luck!

[Commander_Cool]

no, no, no, I was wondering if anyone could give me storyline ideas. /forums/images/icons/grin.gif

[jjcourtright]

Isn't the biggest part of writing a story the "writing the story" part? Why are you trying to write something without having an idea about what you want to write? I can't really see having the urge to create something without having the slightest idea what I want to create.

[ILovePapaSmurf]

<font color="purple">Write about blue people living together in a village...oh wait..that has already been done...sorry can't help ya there. /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif </font color>

[DarthMaulRat]

I know what you're thinking. Mallrats was cool and it plays like a page out of my life. I tried the same thing once. But the truth is that it's pretty difficult to write a movie like that, especially one with such casual dialogue. If you want to write a funny movie, just get with a group of people you consider funny and start pitching ideas with each other. Write down the ones that make you laugh the most.

If you want, I'm sure you could pitch a few concepts around this board and we could all chime in with suggestions.

[code6enterprises]

Yea, it's easier to write a movie with more than one person. I wrote a movie that I thought was hilarious but about ten other people thought it was just dull.

[Dave]

If you've got an idea for the beginning and the end but don't know how to get from point A to B, maybe you shouldn't try to be making a feature length movie, but a short. take your strongest idea and just use that, and flesh it out a bit.

good luck, and maybe you should think about sending your movie when its done HERE (http://www.sidewalkfest.com/)

[ratm1966]

Okay, I have the coolest story line anyone could ever think of. You already have the kids. What do kids do in High School? They get in trouble. Hey! Why not a movie about 5 high schoolers who get weekend detention. One can be the rebel type; one a jock; one a little rich girl who likes sushi; you gotta have the geeky guy; and of course a girl who seems to always be depressed and a loner.

Oh yeah, and one of the more despised asswipe teachers in the school can be in charge of the weekend detention.

I think that would be a killer story. Maybe call it 'The Lunch Club' since they are all there for lunch.

[Threadkiller]

"The Lunch Club"? Nobody would watch a movie like that. How asinine. Now, maybe if you had the geeky guy create the perfect woman on his computer. And the asian exchange student gets drunk and says funny things. And maybe the popular guy can skip school and steal's his friend's dad's car and....nah, that wouldn't work either.

[ILovePapaSmurf]

<font color="purple">And besides, lunch time is only like what a half an hour long.... </font color>

[ratm1966]

Yes, the lunch time is short, but you wouldn't be able to call it 'The Dinner Club' or 'The Breakfast Club' because they aren't there for those meals. I mean, come on, those two titles would never be successful movies. Oh, and 'The Detention Club' just doesn't sound right either.

[Matt1]

Maybe instead of one representing each high school clique, they could all be nerds! Nerds who get revenge their on all the jocks. But what would we call it? C'mon, I'm open to suggestions.

[Threadkiller]

Revenge of the Sith?

[ratm1966]

You know, in being nerds, they are smart, so they wouldn't do the fighting themselves. They would probably make a clone army of nerds. You could call it....'Attack of the Clones: Nerds'

[Matt1]

Lame... we want this movie to make money people! We want it to be a massive hit! Can you imagine an international blockbuster with the words, "Attack" and "Clone" in its title? Didn't think so. We want it to be huge.

Hmmmmm... EUREKA! We will call it... Battlefield Howard the Duck! Brilliant!

[DangerSeeker]

I have a great idea about a kid returning from the past. As a matter of fact, I'm calling it "Return From the Past." I just hope the title doesn't give it away. No idea what to change it to.

[ratm1966]

Oh God! I have it! We can do a movie about an Army robotic program gone haywire. It can be a comedy and the little robot can roll around saying stupid funny shit like...."Johnny 5 is alive!"

It would win 'Best Picture' any day of the week. Especially if we had a hot chick who fell in love with it, but just couldn't commit to a relationship for fear she might come home and find it in bed with a toaster.

[Matt1]

His time machine should be a car. A Volkswagen Bus, maybe.

[ratm1966]

Did you see that? I actually referenced two separate movies in making one movie. Nice trick huh?

[Robbo_the_Hood]

If it's going to be a group of spunky kids, why not have them search for pirate treasure, all the while their parents are going through foreclosure and running from fugitives. Then, the fat kid befriends an ugly sloth-like creature. They could have a name for their little clique, and that would be the name of the movie, like "The Backstreet Boys Look for Pirate Treasure."

[Matt1]

Indecisive, mildly retarded, totally derivative ideas... yep, we are well on are way to being big-time Hollywood producers! We'll be rollin' in it soon enough, boys!

[Robbo_the_Hood]

You know, we could get Will Smith, Michael Clark Duncan, or Cuba Gooding Jr. to play a mystical black man that teaches all the white towns folk a lesson about the triumph of the human spirit. I smell Oscar.

[Threadkiller]

He should teach them about golf too, or dog sled racing. And then they should all form a baseball team and go with their washed up manager played by Tom Hanks to Japan for the little league world series. But on their way to Japan they stop at...you got it. Pearl Harbor. Guess what happens next?

[Matt1]

I think that's a great idea, if everybody else does. Could he be retarded as well? And gay? I mean it's just an idea. If you guys disagree, I completely understand. It's one of those ideas that can go either way. Which way do you guys think it should go?

[Robbo_the_Hood]

I think he should be retarted, but everyone misinterprets it as being gay, and he spends the rest of the movie proving how gay he isn't, until he kisses Magnum P.I.

[Droogan_Leader]

straight to hell, but I'll leave that to you guys /forums/images/icons/wink.gif ... Can you do that?

[Omaru]

Yeah that robot army is a good decidsion, but they are all reponding to a supercomputer via sattellite and the only way they stop it is by making it play tic tac toe or connect 4 with itself which causes it to crash in confusion. but talking care. puh-lease, Inspector gadget's was terrible enough.

[ratm1966]

When the computer is finally rebooted, it has discovered that there is a way to travel across the universe just by walking through a gate that can create an artificial wormhole.

The kicker would be, when the first team of scientists and soldiers go through, they end up on a planet of Ewoks. They immediately return to Earth and order a barrage of nukes sent through the gate. When asked for their reason, they have to admit that the whole movie could be ruined just by those stupid creatures being in it.