Contest I'd like to see...

[thebigidea]

Poe would be really well suited to Super-8 Tri-x/Plus-x, spare narration/voiceover... Svankmajer did some interesting, really offbeat adaptations... tho its really getting away from the original concept, an anthology of small gauge Poe shorts would be quite entertaining.

Somebody go dig up Vincent Price!

[drsanchez]

Beat me to the punch. I was going to suggest Poe.

Here http://www.short-stories.co.uk is a site with some public domain stuff. The ones I had in mind are in horror. Click it, then sort by length. The one- and two-pagers could make some fun projects. Lots of Poe and Ambrose Bierce.

[HTTK]

Thanks for the link drsanchez. Great stuff there.
Yeah I'm thinking a Poe short would be awesome for Tri/Plus-X like you said bigidea. I second about Mr. Price.

[paul]

yeah, certainly a good idea. I proposed in this (?) forum a very long, long, time ago. The problems began with inventing a satisfying script. Hopefully it will work now. I wonder if it should be a script or an idea; idea in the sense of 'controlling idea' in the sense of Robert Mckee.

paul

[sunrise]

Very good idea. Let's do it.

But make it three minute films with about two pages of dialogue with no more than three (main) characters. Both to save production time and screening time.

michael

[richard p. t.]

I'd also like to be in on this one.
My two cents on the story:
- just provide an abstract of the story - not a script. this will allow a wide range of interpretations while keeping to the idea of everyone shooting the same story. Dialogue and other 'flesh' for the story would be up to the film maker.
- Choose a story that doesn't rely on a 'hook' at the end of any kind. The same story have to be sat through by the audience many times, so there shouldn't be anything in the material provided that can't hold up to several treatments.

Seems like there is a lot of support for this. Its Johnnhud's idea, so perhaps he should pick something. Taking that step will then help the potential film makers decide if they still want in.
It would be great to see this happen.
cheers,
Richard

[paul]

I'd also like to be in on this one.
My two cents on the story:
- just provide an abstract of the story - not a script. this will allow a wide range of interpretations while keeping to the idea of everyone shooting the same story. Dialogue and other 'flesh' for the story would be up to the film maker.
- Choose a story that doesn't rely on a 'hook' at the end of any kind. The same story have to be sat through by the audience many times, so there shouldn't be anything in the material provided that can't hold up to several treatments.
Richard

very good!

[johnnhud]

Its Johnnhud's idea, so perhaps he should pick something. Richard

I don't mind organizing this thing together and trying to find a short story, the suggestions so far have been pretty good.

The main question is what to use as a common basis for all of our films. I don't mind there not being any dialog but I would rather have it than not. But, maybe I can just put dialog into my film as a creative "interpretation"

Fables and fairytales could be good, they could be modernized or futurized or reinterpreted 1000 different ways. Plus we all know about most of them.

I don't want to pick a lame story and have people decide not to do it because of that. So let's kick around a story idea that we would all enjoy!

[keagan]

This idea sounds really great, count me in.

I like your idea of doing fairy tales or some kind of legend. I'm studying folklore in Newfoundland and have come across an amazing body of fairylore.

One common way for fairies to cause havock is when the Newfoundlanders went out berry picking on the moores. The fiaries would 'Take you', and you'd be gone for several hours or several days. Nobody who was taken was ever able to remember clearly what happened, but the whole experience was always very dreamlike. They would have been picking along and then suddenly be miles away from where they were and have no idea of how they got there. they were led astray by the fairies. you had to carry bread in your pocket or turn an article of clothing inside out to protect yourself from the fairies.

I can dig up some more tales about fairies if you're interrested - it would be a good framework because that could be interpreted as a period piece or science fiction or modern day teenagers at the mall, what ever you want.

Keagan

[drsanchez]

I'd like to have a contest .....

Why a 'contest?' No matter what we do it will turn into a contest (with posts flying back and forth saying "I like this one" or "I hate this one"). But it's an interesting choice of words. Did you mean for there to be a competition? Or should this be like the timelapse "project?"

[johnnhud]

"Contest" or "Project", call it what you will. I dont really see it as film makers competeing against each other as much as I see it as film makers reinterpreting the same story in different ways. That being said, there would be no "Winner" unless the forum wishes to compete for one.

I say that if you can actually complete a film project through from start to finish than that's a pretty damn good acomplishment!

I'm going to spend this weekend coming up with a good fable or short story and will start a new thread on Monday. Please post an suggestions that you may have and we will see if we can have some type of idea agreed on by this coming Friday!

[MovieStuff]

I don't have a specific story suggestion but here are a few things I think would make it more viable for everyone, regardless of where they are:

1) Make it contemporary

2) No special props that would not be commonly available, i.e., chairs, plates, spoons, a knife or club would be common; calling for a special edition Dirty Harry .44 Magnum would be hard to come by, even for gun colllectors.

3) No special costumes other than street ware, assuming the story calls for clothes at all :oops:

4) Basically, make the story about what people do and think and not so much about what they look like or what the setting is. Obviously we want the story to be compelling and visually interesting but this should be a test of the film maker's skill and ingenuity and not so much about their budget or lack thereof. A level playing field will allow more people to participate and that will make it more fun.

Roger

[DriveIn]

How about a visual script? No audio, no sound at all, some sort of time limit on maximum length of film. Tell the story in images only. :?:

[drsanchez]

"Contest" or "Project", call it what you will. I dont really see it as film makers competeing against each other as much as I see it as film makers reinterpreting the same story in different ways. That being said, there would be no "Winner" unless the forum wishes to compete for one.

I say that if you can actually complete a film project through from start to finish than that's a pretty damn good acomplishment!

I'm going to spend this weekend coming up with a good fable or short story and will start a new thread on Monday. Please post an suggestions that you may have and we will see if we can have some type of idea agreed on by this coming Friday!

I was pretty sure we were on the same page, just wanted to make sure. It's probably just semantics, but I'm more interested in participating in a project than a contest

As far as what to shoot, I like the fable idea. It leaves a lot of room for interpretation and the variety will definitely make it interesting.

It sounds like there's a lot of enthusiasm for this idea.

[CHAS]

How about a visual script? No audio, no sound at all, some sort of time limit on maximum length of film. Tell the story in images only. :?:

I'm all for that. Something that would require different interpretations of a situation. And this is just my two cents worth, but I think it SHOULD be shot on S8. After all, this is a (mostly) S8 forum, right? Maybe each filmmaker could decide on the stock of their choice.