Contest I'd like to see...

[johnnhud]

I'd like to have a contest where several of us shoot the same 5 minute script and then have a showing to show how each one of us interpreted the same story differently. I think that this would be really interesting.

The key would have to be that the script would need to be interesting yet non committal to a specific time or place. In otherwords, a story that could have taken place anytime and anywhere.

Then several of us would run off and make out 5 minute film of it, to be due on a certiant date. One of us could be responsible for collecting finalized entrys and then have a showing online or at a physical location.

If we get a lot of entrys, then we could vote for the best, say 5 and put them together in a Tarentino kind of way and possibly even submit it into some film fest.

Sounds fun to me!

[Actor]

Who would write the script?

Or do you already have one in mind?

[Nigel]

Does it have to be Super8??

I would consider shooting something like that on the HVX200.

Good Luck

[Andreas Wideroe]

Yeah, sounds like a very interesting idea!

[johnnhud]

I dont have a script, but I could probably come up with one. Maybe someone out there has a small script that we could use? Or maybe just an idea.

I don't supose that it would HAVE to be S8mm but since this IS the small film forum I just figured it would be. I'd say to use whatever tools you have. Make it as professional or as amature as you'd like.

I'm sure that many other forum users will be keen on this idea, so, does anyone have ay ideas for a short 5 minute story?

[CHAS]

I'm sure that many other forum users will be keen on this idea, so, does anyone have ay ideas for a short 5 minute story?

Oh, I have a great idea. And it can be shot silent or sound.

Here goes:

5 filmmakers gather together, agitated over the missing piece of their masterwork -- an all Kodachrome film where each person shot 10 feet of this filmstock on a single cart. These filmmakers have come from all over the country to try and find out what happened to their colleague -- a man mysteriously known only as "Scott" -- who has absconded with this cart. After spending a few minutes trying to find his house, they finally arrive at his doorstep. They ring the door, some are uneasy, some pissed as hell. The door opens and....

EACH FILMMAKER CAN DECIDE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

[johnnhud]

I'm picturing large Batman style "WHAMMO" "POW" and "KER-BLAM"

[BigBeaner]

Keep it simpler and just include like an object or 2 lines of dialogue in the beginning and end that have to be in the movie like the campus movie fest, 48 film competition and others do.

[sooper8fan]

johnnhud, I really like your idea! Sounds like a lot of fun. I wouldn't participate in it though because I can't seem to get my poop in a group over here with my regular job and all. But I would be very interested in seeing everybody's results. Good luck with it and I hope it gets going! If I had a little more time, I'd say COUNT ME IN! Maybe by the time it gets rolling....who knows

[ccortez]

I think it's a great idea. I could check with my friend Hannah about a script idea. She writes short stories and plays and is full of big ideas, small stories, abstraction and not-so-literal writing.

What would you call this contest?

[Evan Kubota]

I'd participate but probably not on super 8 ;)

[Tron X]

This would be one thing I might be able to do on super 8. Let's try to keep the dialogue to a minimum though.

Just giving everyone a short story with no dialogue or camera direction or anything would be really cool, you could really find out a lot about each filmmaker based upon how they interpret the story.

Maybe we could find one that's already published? Something that's public domain like a fable or something like that maybe. Or a nice writer will give us one for free.

[thebigidea]

A public domain short story would be interesting, then you'd get the additional angle of how its adapted and interpreted. Something really vague that can be taken in many different directions...

[Actor]

Here's a adaptation of Mark Twain's Encounter with an Interviewer. It's incomplete and updated. Sorry it't not in screenplay format. It's also (sorry) a talking-heads script. I also think it would run closer to 10 minutes than 5.



INTERVIEWER
I’m with the Daily Thunderstorm. I’ve come to interview you.

MARK
Come to what?

INTERVIEWER
Interview you.

MARK
I see.

Mark grabs a dictionary and begins to fumble through it. The interviewer waits patiently.

MARK
How do you spell it?

INTERVIEWER
How do you spell what?

MARK
Interview.

INTERVIEWER
What do you want to spell it for?

MARK
I want to look it up and see what it means.

INTERVIEWER
Oh...I – N – T – E – R ...

MARK
Oh, it starts with ‘i’?

INTERVIEWER
Uh, yes.

MARK
That’s why I couldn’t find it.

Resumes business with dictionary.

INTERVIEWER
What did you think it started with?

MARK
‘e’ of course. I was hoping to find a picture of it but its a very old edition.

INTERVIEWER
You wouldn’t find a picture of it even in the latest edition.

MARK
Why not?

INTERVIEWER
Because it’s not a ... a ... Look, I can tell you what it means.

MARK
Ah! (reading from dictionary) “to question or converse with especially in order to obtain information or ascertain personal qualities.”

He glares at interviewer.

INTERVIEWER
You’re not very bright are you? ... Sorry, that was completely uncalled for.

MARK
That’s all right. I’ve often been told that I’m quite remarkable in that way, and by people who have no reason to flatter me. ... They always speak of it with rapture.

INTERVIEWER
I can imagine. Look, will you consent to an interview?

MARK
I’d love to.

Mark is fitted with a lapel mike. He looks down at it.

INTERVIEWER
Ready?

MARK(directly into lapel mike)
Ready!

Sound man reacts.

INTERVIEWER
May I call you Mark?

MARK
I think you should call me Sam.

INTERVIEWER
Your name is Mark is it not?

MARK
Well, yes, but I think it would be better if you called me Sam.

INTERVIEWER
Why is that?

MARK
Trademarks, copyright, libel... things like that.

INTERVIEWER
OK. How old are you?

MARK
Nineteen.

INTERVIEWER
Really?

MARK
In June.

INTERVIEWER
You look more like 30. Where were you born?

MARK
In Wisconsin.

INTERVIEWER
And when did you begin filmmaking.

MARK
1936.

INTERVIEWER
How could that be if you are only 19 now?

MARK
I don’t know.

INTERVIEWER
Whom do you consider the most remarkable man you ever met?

MARK
John Wayne.

INTERVIEWER
If you’re only 19 years old you could never have met John Wayne.

MARK
If you know more about it than I do why are you asking me these questions?

INTERVIEWER
Because ... uh ... look, when were you born?

MARK
October 21st, 1824.

INTERVIEWER
Impossible.

MARK
Why?

INTERVIEWER
That would make you ... 180 years old... Look, you said you were 19. That would mean you were born in 1987...

MARK
In June.

INTERVIEWER
... in June. Now you say you were born in 1824. How do you account for that?

MARK
I don’t account for it at all.

INTERVIEWER
It’s an awful discrepancy.

MARK
You noticed that. (shaking hands) I’ve always thought it was a discrepancy but I was never quite sure. You’re a pretty bright fellow to pick up on a thing like that.

INTERVIEWER (sighs)
How did you meet John Wayne?

MARK
I went to his funeral.

INTERVIEWER
Oh?

MARK
Yes, and he asked me to make less noise...

INTERVIEWER
Who asked you to make less noise?

MARK
John Wayne.

INTERVIEWER
Wait a minute. If it was his funeral he must have been dead, and if he was dead he wouldn’t care whether you made any noise.

MARK
I don’t know. He was always a particular kind of man that way.

INTERVIEWER
You say he spoke to you and he was dead.

MARK
I didn’t say he was dead.

INTERVIEWER
Wasn’t he dead?

MARK
Some said he was; some said he wasn’t.

INTERVIEWER
What did you think?

MARK
Oh, it was none of my business. It wasn’t my funeral.

INTERVIEWER
Let’s change the subject. You have a brother ...

MARK
No, I don’t.

INTERVIEWER
I spoke to your mother. She says you have a brother.

MARK
Oh, she means William. Bill we called him. Poor old Bill.

INTERVIEWER
What happened to Bill?

MARK
He... he disappeared.

INTERVIEWER
He disappeared?

MARK
Sort of... we buried him.

INTERVIEWER
He died then?

MARK
I suppose so. We never could tell. There was a great mystery about it.

INTERVIEWER
You buried him without knowing whether he was dead or not?

MARK
Oh, no. Nothing like that. He was dead all right.

INTERVIEWER
Then you knew he was dead.

MARK
No, we only thought he was.

INTERVIEWER
He came to life again?

MARK
I bet he didn’t.

INTERVIEWER
Somebody was dead?

MARK
Right.

INTERVIEWER
That somebody was buried.

MARK
Right.

INTERVIEWER
What’s the mystery.

MARK
Well, we were twins – defunct and I – and we got mixed up in the bathtub when we where only two weeks old and one of us drowned. But we don’t know which one. Some think it was Bill. Some think it was me.

INTERVIEWER
What do you think?

MARK
I try not to. It’s cast a gloom over my whole life. But I’ll tell you a secret. I’ve never revealed this to a living soul. One of us had a large mole on the back of his left hand; that was me. That child was the one that drowned.

INTERVIEWER
I see.

MARK
Do you? Well don’t tell my mother. She’s got enough troubles. She doesn’t need to know that the blundering idiots went and buried the wrong child.

[HTTK]

I have to chime in here and say I really like the idea as well! 8) Another board I belong to did a similar thing in the past but they haven't had one in over a year. If this is going to be a short say 3-5mins then I think Super 8 would be the ideal choice for shooting this on, IMO.

Someone mentioned public domain stories...that's a good idea. You've got some good writings to choose from there like Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, Charles Dickens ect. ect. I'm sure with our collected film spirited minds we can find a story we all agree on.

Again this sounds like fun.