How do you get inspired?

[sooper8fan]

I'm always excited to shoot film. I wish I could just go around and shoot film all the time. I love it. But what I want to get out of this topic is how do you all get inspired to create a short film? Maybe a better way of putting it is, how do you guys get ideas for your stories & shorts? I've shot a lot of practice footage that I'm very happy with, and I'm pretty confident in my film shooting and exposing skills. Now the next step is to put my skill into action and get a real project going, something with a purpose. The only problem is I'm having a difficult time thinking of an idea to base my short on. It seems like everybody can come up with something except me! Any thoughts???

[npcoombs]

I'm always excited to shoot film. I wish I could just go around and shoot film all the time. I love it. But what I want to get out of this topic is how do you all get inspired to create a short film?

Ban yourself from the filmshooting.com forum for a few months. Pick up interest in arts, literature, politics...whatever. Don't scramble around in the dark, most films are very directly inspired by other films or literature. And don't try to recreate Hollywood in your first film, the more realistic your goals the more likely you will accomplish or exceed them.

[Evan Kubota]

It has to come from yourself. If you don't have any other interests or hobbies, you'll never be able to generate (synthesize is probably a better word) any ideas. Usually my projects start with an initial concept which comes to me suddenly - for Survival Record, it was "what would life really be like if a low-level nuclear attack irradiated the region but left the environment looking much the same as before?" From there I developed the story.

One piece of advice - it's usually better not to start writing the script until the entire story is reasonably well formulated. It doesn't have to be 100% finished, but otherwise you risk falling into the 'beginning without an ending' trap.

[sooper8fan]

Evan Kubota wrote:

you risk falling into the 'beginning without an ending' trap.

I hear you. That's one thing I don't want to do. Occasionally I'll have some ideas and I have a fat notebook where I write them all down. Although there are several good ideas there, I have to try and build a story around one or more of them. My area of expertise is shooting and editing, and writing is a little more difficult for me. But I agree with what you're saying, Evan.

[steve hyde]

Create a workbook. Start by listing things:

1) The traits I most admire in people

2) The traits I hate in people

3) The things I fear the most in this world

4) What is most important to me

Start by writing on these four things and your themes will emerge....

This was advice I took away from the book: "Crafting Short Films That Connect" The first half of the book is good reading..

http://books.elsevier.com/us/focalbooks ... 3RP6LC63D2

[sooper8fan]

what about the 2nd half of the book?

[steve hyde]

what about the 2nd half of the book?

...It is composed of a bunch of student scripts that aren't all that interesting. I noticed the new version of this book comes with a DVD of the actual films.

Steve

[timdrage]

Getting inspired isn't the problem for me, I have lots, it's just actually focussing it into starting and finishing a specific project that's the difficult bit! :?

[sooper8fan]

npcoombs wrote:

Ban yourself from the filmshooting.com forum for a few months. Pick up interest in arts, literature, politics...whatever.

Easier said than done....I can't stay away from the forum! I admit I am tired of talking about what I want to do, and what would be cool, and shooting practice footage. I've shot enough tests now to know I'm fully capable of shooting awesome footage but It's high time I put my skill to work.
I did decide that maybe I should pick up a book of short stories and see what kind of ideas I can get from there. Does anybody know if it's hard to get the rights to "base" a film on a short story?

npcoombs wrote:

don't try to recreate Hollywood in your first film, the more realistic your goals the more likely you will accomplish or exceed them.

That thought has crossed my mind many, many times, but it's definitely a good point to stress to some filmmakers, especially those of us who are trying to make our first one. A friend of mine is talking about doing this elaborate fight scene with crazy moves and guns and squibs and all this crap and I'm like...Dude! It's our FIRST project....chill out. It's easy to get carried away in your imagination, but that's definitely some of the best advice you can give to a beginner. Thanks for the reminder.

Evan Kubota wrote:

Usually my projects start with an initial concept which comes to me suddenly - for Survival Record, it was "what would life really be like if a low-level nuclear attack irradiated the region but left the environment looking much the same as before?"

I'm curious...how on Earth did that come to you suddenly?

[Evan Kubota]

I guess it looks strange in writing. Anyway, it intrigued me because visually the world would look basically the same, although somewhat lonely and isolated - the radiation increase would eliminate most humans and other animals fairly quickly. I don't have the resources to create sweeping vistas of scorched terrain, so something that could recontextualize existing locations was right up my alley. I actually originally wanted to do something that would be a cross between a nature documentary about that changed world and a loose narrative following a single character. From the concept of the environment and setting I fleshed out a story and developed a script.

[CHAS]

How do I get inspired?

Usually it's by stupid people who piss me off! I try to get in their mindset and from there a film emerges. It's how I did this:

http://www.charlesdoran.com/ennui.php

[steve hyde]

8O I'm so bummin that I missed the silent speed film fest in Seattle. Where can I see your film!!!


What a great description:

ENNUI

Constantly misappropriating Euripides and Foucault, a deadpan, young, unhappily white, female artistic "rebel" known [ironically(?)] only as "the victim" wields camera and eyeglasses to navigate through a chiaroscuro daylight demimonde of an empty Silverlake's mid-1990s post-punk nostalgia. A horrific and comedic pastiche of the pretensions of the art school crowd, white guilt, and the "posthuman condition," Ennui depicts a sort of feminist "restoral of agency" gone dreadfully, cannibalistically awry.

[CHAS]

thanks. drop me a line.

8O I'm so bummin that I missed the silent speed film fest in Seattle. Where can I see your film!!!


What a great description:

ENNUI

Constantly misappropriating Euripides and Foucault, a deadpan, young, unhappily white, female artistic "rebel" known [ironically(?)] only as "the victim" wields camera and eyeglasses to navigate through a chiaroscuro daylight demimonde of an empty Silverlake's mid-1990s post-punk nostalgia. A horrific and comedic pastiche of the pretensions of the art school crowd, white guilt, and the "posthuman condition," Ennui depicts a sort of feminist "restoral of agency" gone dreadfully, cannibalistically awry.

[CHAS]

double post! :oops:

[mathis]

Dreams I find the best source of material. Next in quality are long walks (at least 3 hours).