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Techniques for Independent Production
The challenges of creating Digital Cinema and other narrative forms.

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Old May 18th, 2005, 08:38 AM   #1
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Eugene Oregon
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please help

Hi everyone,

Now that I have my own camera I have decided to reshoot a film I made while I was in college. The film is an emotional drama about love, jealousy, and suicide. In my original film the characters were all in high school. Chris, a depressed loner high school student ends up spending his summer with one of the most popular girls in school working at her parents ranch. He views their relationship as being something serious where she views it as a simple friendship. When the summer is over and they get back into school he realizes that he didn't mean as much to her as what she meant to him. She becomes involved with another guy which causes chris to become extremily jealous eventually resulting in his suicide. Its a very dark film.

I made alot of mistakes in the production of that movie. It was way too ambitious for my first independent film project, and I did not have enough time to shoot it. I didn't spend enough time in pre-production either. Now seems to be as good of time as any to go back, redo it, and correct my mistakes.

There are some fairly significant changes I am going to make with the movie though. First the characters will no longer be in high school. I don't want to have to get permission to shoot in a school again and deal with all the extras like I did last time. Rather I want the characters to be young adults who are all done with school. The leading female character I also want to change. Before she came from a wealthy family and was popular. I would prefer in this remake to have her be more of the bad girl/goth type. And, instead of having the relationship between the characters grow while working together at the ranch, I want for them to go on a road trip together.

However, there are still some things with the story I need to work out. I figure I will have the two main characters first meet at a laundramat, but I am unsure of how exactly they are going to end up going on a road trip together. Also I don't know what all is going to happen on the road trip to evolve their relationship. I would very much appreciate anyone's ideas or suggestions as to what I should do for these parts of the story. I have some ideas, but I would like to hear what other people think too. Alot of the time I like others ideas better than my own.

So... how should the two characters end up on the road together?

And what events should take place on that road trip to cause a relationship between them to evolve?

Please share any ideas you may have, I will happily give you credit in the film.

Thanks,
Adam
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Old May 18th, 2005, 11:36 PM   #2
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Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Hilliard, Ohio
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Adam,
found you on the PDX-10 board. I'm a fellow shooter here too. If you are in Central Ohio or near it, I have a ton of gear like a Glidecam and a Glidecam 200 crane if it would help...Of course you would have to put up with me as well.

Anyway, on your ideas,
I see her as a loner that has some sort of tragedy that can be left unexplained come up suddenly. She is in the laundry doing one last load before hitting the open road for that 3000 mile trip home to the east coast and to the family she left behind due to their ultra-conservative lives.

She and your protagonist get into a minor discussion about who had what machine or something and end up opening up a bit.

As part of her delima, she only has a certain amount of time to make it home but doesn't have the money (due to her lifestyle) to fly. She must drive. They build a level of trust in the shop and she asks him to share the driving to help her make it on time.

I am thinking there is a death in her family? Maybe a little brother she feels guilt about leaving behind years ago when she gave up on the rest of her family?

You take it from there.

Just ideas to get you going.

Let me know if you need help.

Sean McHenry
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Old May 19th, 2005, 09:07 AM   #3
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Location: Eugene Oregon
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thanks

Sean,

Thanks for the offer to help out with the production, unfortunately I'm not from Ohio. I liked your ideas though for sending the two characters off on the road trip, unfortunately she needs to have a boyfriend at the end of the film (who is not the protagonist) so I don't think that having her be going to a funeral and ending up with a boyfriend is exactly what I want to do. However, I think perhaps having the protagonist undergo some sort of personal tragedy could be a motivating factor for him going on the trip. Its a very good idea though, I think I might use it unless someone else suggests something I like better. Do you mind if I give you credit in the film?
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Old May 19th, 2005, 11:00 AM   #4
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How about this!

You want the guy and girl to meet in a laundromat. What if the guy is a loner, doing laundry by himself, when the girl (Goth chick) comes in and uses the phone. She appears distraught but the guy does recognize her. She's on the phone, trying to part ways from her abusive boyfriend. The guy is not aware of the conversation but is intrigued by the fact that he knows her from before.

She hands up. Guy immediately recognizes her as an old girlfriend that he was in love with years ago, but she had left him to be with someone else.

He introduces himself. They embrace. They talk about themselves. She teels him that she's running away fom her boyfriend. She's leaving town but she immediately remembers how nice the guy was. She convinces the guy to run away with her. He does not want to, but he sees that his life is going nowhere and now he has the opportunity to be with the love of his life once again.

They leave. As much as she wants to please her, she cannot stop thinking about her abusive boyfriend.

She leaves him. He kills himself.
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