Well, i think i will just think this whole thing through for now and maby put it on hold. Thanks for all the good answers anyways. =)
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMeatballSwede
Before you give it up and put it on hold, may I suggest one more thing. Try to look at your script and figure out why is is bad/predictable/cliché.
As Brian had suggested in his earlier post; your movie may well have zombies chasing humans, and that can create tension. However, you may want to think why does the audience get emotionally involved when some zombie is trying to reach a human? They only do it when that human character has some meaning; when his story is something that audience can recognise and relate to. When Sam runs from something/someone, the audience will cheer for him much more if they know why he is running away. When he does enter the house, you'll have to figure out how to develop the relationship between him and Michael.
The way to write a good story is to make conflict. As the stereotypical "Hero's Journey" goes, your protagonist (the hero) starts from a life in balance; his life is suddenly put out of balance by something (falling in love, being wrongfully arrested, making an impossible bet with a friend, being attacked by a friend/enemy/alien life form, etc). He begins his quest to find the balance again (get the girl, exonerate himself, win the impossible bet, defend his family/town/country/planet from the attackers/invaders, etc). During that quest, he faces obstacles, reaching a point at which the audience believes he has no chance of making it. In the end, he overcomes the greatest obstacle and achieves his life balance. Vast majority of films follows this stereotype, some with greater, some with less of a success.
If you have absolutely no experience with writing stories (or movies), you may want to review your script and find out if the main character has a story line that poses some major challenge for him, if that challenge get more and more serious, and if, towards the end of the script, it looks like he isn't making it, before he finally overcomes it and everything is resolved. Everything and everyone that appears in the movie should serve either has a helper, or as a detractor to the main character.
The point is, you need to look at every line of dialogue and figure out if it is moving the story forward; is it creating another obstacle, or helping overcome an obstacle, or providing important information to the audience. If a line of dialogue doesn't do any of the important things, you'll have to figure out how to eliminate it.
If you have the time (and the will to focus on reading), you can go through the following site:
http://openspace.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/ma-professional-writing/screenwriting-unit
It is an online screenwriting course, which explains many things you may want to know in order to improve your script.
It is very easy to get disillusioned when you're young. Try not to give up so quickly.
quote:
It is very easy to get disillusioned when you're young. Try not to give up so quickly.
Thanks man, but im just trying to figure out what i wanna do with my life right now and im not really sure what to do, thought filmmaking sounded like fun but then you have all these damn trolls saying "why would you wanna do that?" instead of just becoming an ordinary worker for the society, to actually express your creativity in your own way.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMeatballSwede
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMeatballSwede
Why do you listen to what "all these damn trolls" are saying?
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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)
quote:
Originally posted by certified instigator
Why do you listen to what "all these damn trolls" are saying?
Because they are an majority?
Because of very negative influense?
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMeatballSwede
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMeatballSwede
When one is only 17, others (the 'majority') tend to have a strong influence.
You shouldn't be surprised that most (if not all) participants in this forum try to encourage you to be persistent and pursue your filmmaking dream. After all, all of us are on this forum because one way or another, we are passionate about making movies.
Whoever the 'damn trolls' are, you are the only one who should really decide. I will try to suggest here how you may evaluate if you really should pursue it. Try thinking about what are the reasons that you are interested in filmmaking. When you look at great filmmakers, for most of them, it was rather clear early in their life that they will somehow end up in the movie business. When they were young, they were extremely interested in movies. Not just watching them; making up their own stories and imagining those stories as movies. Most of us are familiar with Spielberg's story: when he was a young teenager, he took his father's 8mm film camera, took a bunch of friends to the desert (around his home town in Arizona) and made westerns or war movies. His 'Escape to Nowhere' is probably best known of those: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI3431fetiM .
What I'm suggesting is, think about how exactly do you feel about making movies. If you keep getting these ideas for stories that could make good movies, or if you have this movie script that you wrote that you constantly keep going back to, refining it, imagining it in your head as it plays out like a movie, then you may really be passionate about the filmmaking. On the other hand, if the main reason you wanted to pursue it was because you were intrigued by it because it seemed like it would be fun, you may want to think again.
I'm sure there are many people in the film business who got into it because it is a fun thing to do (certainly more fun than toiling in some office as an "ordinary worker"). However, those that are any good at it were always genuinely passionate about it. Whichever artistic field you try to pursue, you really must meet two main requirements: first, you must be very passionate about it (i.e. think about it all the time, get creative ideas about it all the time) and second, you need to have the talent for it. You can't know for sure if you have the second (it's not exactly something that you can clearly and easily identify right away), but you can easily find out about the first.
So, if you really, really love making up stories and turning them into movies, then we are all rooting for you.
quote:
Originally posted by Vasic
When one is only 17, others (the 'majority') tend to have a strong influence.
Excellent point, Vasic.
I was an unusual 17 year old - I didn't care what other people
said. I had very few friends. I tend to forget how much others
think matters what you are 17.
I see where you're coming from TheMeatballSwede. It's hard
to go your own way when the majority wants you to follow
their path. Looks like you'll have to put off your filmmaking
until you find people who share you interest.
=============================================
The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)
=============================================
The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)
quote:
I see where you're coming from TheMeatballSwede. It's hard
to go your own way when the majority wants you to follow
their path. Looks like you'll have to put off your filmmaking
until you find people who share you interest.
Yep =/, maby after i finish school i'll go to a high school of filmmaking or something, maby could find some ecually minded ppl there.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMeatballSwede
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMeatballSwede
At 17, you'll be changing your mind very often over the next decade. Furthermore, you won't be young forever, so you will have to decide within this ten years what you want to do with your life.
Go ahead and follow your impulses, if you want. But remember also that you may not end up with what you started.
