I need help with my story idea for a movie I’m going to make. This is a long read, so if you don’t want to read the whole thing, then it might be better if you don’t answer. I have a really big problem in that I have two different storylines. Neither of them are long enough to make a movie, but if I put the two of them together into the movie, it doesn’t make much sense. However, I really like both.
The first story, the better idea IMO, involves me and my brother (in the movie) being kidnapped for ransom. Our kidnappers put us to sleep. I then have a dream, but the viewer doesn’t know this. In the dream, my and my brother wake up and find that we are in our town, but there are no people. Everyone is gone. The two of us start to go a little insane, since we are the only two people in the world. We then come across a third person. They seem nice, but the secretly tell each of us stuff to turn us against each other. I end up killing my brother, and then realize I was tricked.
2007-03-23 15:53:31 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Entertainment & Music ➔ Movies
The bad guy ends up killing me after a fight. As I fall to the ground dead, I wake up from the dream. This is the first time the viewer knows it was a dream. We wake up, find out the kidnappers were caught, and the movies over. My problem is that I don’t know enough stuff to put in the movie to make it and hour and a half, and the story really seems to have no purpose, therefore no resolution.
The second story is shorter. In a nutshell, we’re captured, the kidnappers kill our parents, and we get revenge by killing the kidnapper. This story seems too generic.
I had an idea in combining the two stories. We follow the first story, but when we wake up from the dream, we find out that our parents were killed while we were asleep. Then we follow story two for the rest of the film. But this presents another problem. If I spend 45 minutes of story time on the dream, it would be weird, because the dream would be completely irrelevant to the second story as well as the movies resolution.
2007-03-23 15:53:56 · update #1
Basically, it would be pointless.
I would really appreciate any advice you could give. Any answers from people who are writers would be especially great. I like the first story the best, as that’s the one I really want to build on. If one story must be eliminated, it would be the second one. Thanks!
2007-03-23 15:54:30 · update #2
This could be a really good film.
You can definately put both ideas in one film. Make the dream sequence the main part of the movie. The part where you get revenge on your parents' murder would be the climax of the movie, and wouldn't have to be any longer than 10 or 15 minutes.
The thing that will really unite the two parts of the movie is figuring out a theme or deeper meaning that lies beneath the plot. It could be about sibling rivalry versus sticking together as a family. The two brothers are forced to work against eachother in the dream, but when they find out about their parents they are reminded of the importance of family and realize they must work together.
I think it will be easier than you think to make the dream sequence long enough. If there are only 3 people in the town, who runs the stores and restaurants? Who makes sure the town is kept up? Maybe there is a lack of food because all of the old food has rotted and no one is aroung to deliver new food. Maybe the town is so empty that wild animals have found it and made it their home. Is the electricity still working? Water still running? Is the town in the desert? Maybe it is hot and no air conditioners work. To stretch the dream out and still make it interesting you will have to try to make everything intense. There must be dramatic tension and suspense. This can be acheived through dramatic situations and cinematography. There should be twists and turns, and the audience should constantly be wondering who they can trust.
And here's an idea. Make the third person (trying to turn the brothers against eachohter) symbolize something. It should be something in real life that turns two people against eachother (like society, religion, power, etc.) You could even have each brother symbolize something to make it even more interesting. Are the two brothers extremely different?
also, you should start the movire out by giving some background on the family before tha kidnapping takes place. It should show something about the character of each brother and any kind of issues that they might have not just with each other, but individually. These issues can possibly be resolved by what the brothers learn in the dream.
And you need to figure out why the kidnappers chose to kidnap YOU. and why they killed your parents. It shouldn't be just random there should be a reason, and that will help tie together the ending. Just make sure the reason is consistent with the theme of the movie.
Ok, I have too many ideas, I could go on like this forever!
I hope this helps though! :)
2007-03-23 20:25:10 · answer #1 · answered by J.C. 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
May I suggest another idea? - along with the dream sequence. When I was in school - we had to watch a movie where the guy was being hanged. They threw the switch and the rope was too long. He then escaped and somehow got back to his wife - as they were running toward each other, he was yanked back...then he hung. The movie was just a daydream in the last few seconds of his life. You could "daydream" that you and your brother escaped - then at the last moment right before freedom - you get "yanked back" into reality and the kidnappers kill you (if that is the way it must end)...
2007-03-23 23:36:13 · answer #2 · answered by snowdrop 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ln the first story, you can add that there are more people running after them and not just one person. lt could be people they know of like a neighbor, a mailman or a school bus driver. They are wondering what made them run after them.
They woke up realizing it was just a dream and put a struggle against the kidnappers and as they were being pursued, the kidnappers fell off a cliff/tall building.
Along the way home, they realized that the same people in their dream are really plotting to kill them as revenge for the grisly murder they have done before.
Too many twists isn't it.
Just my suggestion.
2007-03-23 23:50:02 · answer #3 · answered by ? 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
first of all, start out by narrowing your ideas, which story do you really want to tell? you could just take the kidnapping plot out completely and make the entire movie a dream sequence and end the movie with you waking up. on your dream sequence you could spend some time trying to figure out who the third person is, or what happened to the rest of the world. i believe you could strech it out to a good 2 hours if you really tried to.
2007-03-23 23:02:55 · answer #4 · answered by tamara 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Why not try something a little more simple and closer to home. Skip the kidnapping part altogether. Maybe you guys get broken down in the desert and find a ghost town...The other guy doesn't exist at all. He's just in your head.
2007-03-23 23:03:06 · answer #5 · answered by corbienest 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋