[Writing] Writing project due and I could use some help.

Hey everyone!

So I'm taking a writing course (writing for Tv, Radio and Film) and my final project is due Thursday morning. It's 12 pages of a screenplay and a film proposal. The proposal part I'm not too worried about, but the screenplay itself has been giving me a case of writers block. I've got a few ideas, but wanted to maybe bounce them off some people first to see if that helps at all.

Idea 1! Magic typewriter.

This is a story that I'd worked on before long ago but since I haven't been writing for a bit, it's fallen on the backburner. Basically it's about a guy who has this lady friend that he has a crush on. She doesn't feel the same way, but they still hang out. It's his birthday and she gives him this nice old fashioned typewriter. He comes to realize that when he writes stories on the typewriter they manifest themselves as dreams for whomever he's writing about. He decides to try and use this power to win over his crush. It doesn't work out though, and he ends up driving her into the arms of another man. The main guy gets jealous and out of anger starts writing nightmares for the couple. This influences the couple more than he'd realized which leads to tragic results.

Idea 2! Sci-fi story

In the distant future, mankind is setting out to colonize our first planet. We've been working for over 100 years to finally get it ready for mass colonization. It's taken so long because it takes us 20 years to actually reach the planet (relativity makes it feel like less time for those going, like in Ender's Game). Few people have gone already and there's still a lot of work to be done. One thing we've come up with is a means of instantly sending data. We use this to essentially scan people and a clone of them is produced on the new planet. Getting cloned comes with monetary intensives along with a ticket to colonize the new planet. New clones are basically woken up on the planet and put to work. A pair of siblings signs up for the program. One is a highly valued engineer or some other kind of scientist and the other is going to join the general work force. Not everything is as it seems though, as worker safety is a low priority since more clones can always be made. The question of if a clone is really a person comes up, if they're slaves because they were produced, not born and so forth. No one really knows whats going to happen to the clones once the colonists reach the planet though. The common rumor is that they clones, being 20 years older, will act as guides and a welcome comity for their younger originals. The truth is though, that due to a lack of resources, the clones are just going to be disposed of. This leads to a revolt and further questions of what to actually do once the originals arrive.

Idea 3! Superhero story

In a world of Super Heroes and Super Villains, just about everyone with powers falls into one of those two categories. Sure there are anti-heroes and reformed villains and the occasional sidekick...but there's also (probably not going to be his real name) Joe. Joe just wants to be left alone for the most part. He's a good guy, and helps out when he can but just doesn't feel that it's his job to stop every purse snatcher, galactic threat and everything in between. He'll help clean up after an alien invasion, but he leaves the fighting to the pros. What happens though, when the league of heroes gets wiped out, and the new generation of heroes has no one to look up to?

Idea 4! Janitor.

This one is kind of my favorite because I think it would fit the assignment well, but I got the idea from a writing prompt from Reddit, so part of me is worried that that's...like cheating or something. I mean I wouldn't use any of the ideas submitted but the basic premise isn't 100% mine.

Basically there's a janitor for an office building that comes in at night and cleans the place up every night. He starts building narratives in his head about each of the people based on what their work spaces are like. He kind of follows the office politics and drama as time goes on based on what changes. Maybe he notices that one of them is really gunning for a promotion but made a mistake on some paper work so the janitor helps him out by correcting it. He kind of feels like he's like a guardian angel. Maybe he finds booze in one of their desks and realizes this person is struggling with alcoholism and wants to try and find a way to help them. Maybe he starts falling for one of them. I'm still not sure where I would go with this one.



Anyway, if anyone has any ideas or input I'd be happy to hear it. I think my main problem is that none of my main ideas feel like I can really establish whats going on in the first 12-15 pages (which is what the assignment is over).
 
I don't mean this in a mean way, but Idea 3 is like the classic hero's journey type story- Star Wars, The Matrix, The Lego Movie, etc-

I think you might get a bad grade or eye rolls for writing about writing in your writing class

edit: also I read through all that text for Idea 2 and couldn't reduce it to a one sentence logline at all, that's kind of a weakness
 
No idea is 100% yours anyways, not to be trite.

I think I'd be most interested in the sci-fi story, I think that's my favourite. But... you may be right about the page limitation. Janitor and Average Joe are the ones where I think you can establish both the concept and story quickly, whereas with the other two, you could set up the story but the larger ideas (the typewriter influences dreams but unintended consequences; the moral questions of clones and mystery of how things are run) will either be crushed in awkwardly or not fleshed out enough to be compelling.

Just my two cents, of course. I've been wrong before.

Just the one time, though.[DOUBLEPOST=1399680629,1399680509][/DOUBLEPOST]In spirit, I think your sci-fi idea is like an origin story for the replicants led by Roy Batty in Blade Runner. That intrigues me.
 
The more I think about it the more in thinking the clone story might be easiest to do avoiding to my professors criteria. I could establish the main premise of the planet in simple exposition or voice over. We'd introduce the main characters pretty quickly, with maybe a conversation they have about their decision to sign up. The antagonist would probably be the head scientist who greets them when they "wake up" on the planet.

I need to double check to see if I need a definite ending ready. The type writer one is the only one where I have an actual ending in mind.
 
Soo...
1: A World of His Own/Word Processor of the Gods
2: Avatar/The Legacy of Heorot
3: Hancock
4: What You Need/Secret Life of Walter Mitty/One for the Books

Of the 4, I think the last one has the most promise. I don't know what the ProfCriteria are, but I think this one has the best chance at being able to quickly capture a reader's interest.

(Note that I do not list the above examples as a sort of "Simpsons did it!" callout, but more to see if they influenced the decision-making or so @phil could avoid having someone think he directly ripped off the idea. I know I've had times where I independently put together a treatment or outline (or invention) and was all set to go diving in to flesh it out only to discover that someone else already did something that was 96% similar. It's disheartening.)

--Patrick
 
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Zappit

Staff member
Interesting idea for number four. Humanity has recovered from a horrific plague, and the survivors are beginning to clean up an abondoned city. Your janitor examines the personal objects left behind in the building and is slowly building up a story about the lives of people who are long gone.
 
Heck, merge 1, 3, and 4 - Joe's superpower is that whatever he writes can influence dreams. He finds a typewriter in the dumpster of the office building where he works as a janitor, and uses it on the office workers, those who need help and those who need a taste of justice. Have you seen the film Ruby Sparks?

Also, as I understand screenplays, they are typically one page per minute of screen time. If that is your assignment, then you might not be needing 12 pages that are full walls of descriptive text and dialogue, some of it may be taken up by stage directions, scene settings, and the like.
 
I've decided to go with the type writer story. I think I have it the most fleshed out in my head. I'm about half way through with the screenplay itself. Hopefully I can knock it out tonight and get the proposal for it done tomorrow. It's going a lot better than I thought it would.

I really appreciate everyone's input as well. It's helping me generate ideas, especially for later when I plan on coming back to some of these.

I'll post what I have later if anyone feels like proof reading.
 
I've decided to go with the type writer story. I think I have it the most fleshed out in my head. I'm about half way through with the screenplay itself. Hopefully I can knock it out tonight and get the proposal for it done tomorrow. It's going a lot better than I thought it would.

I really appreciate everyone's input as well. It's helping me generate ideas, especially for later when I plan on coming back to some of these.

I'll post what I have later if anyone feels like proof reading.
I don't know formatting for screenplays, but I'm excellent with grammar, etc. if you need any assistance on that front.
 
A twelve page screenplay is hella short. That's maybe one scene.
yeah, it's going quicker than I thought it would.

though maybe I should include a part where they get coffee and talk about comics for a while.

Just twenty pages of them coming to the conclusion that they don't know who would win in a fight between Thanos and Darksied.
 
yeah, it's going quicker than I thought it would.

though maybe I should include a part where they get coffee and talk about comics for a while.

Just twenty pages of them coming to the conclusion that they don't know who would win in a fight between Thanos and Darksied.
Who do you think you are, Joss Whedon/Quinten Tarantino?
 
Who do you think you are, Joss Whedon/Quinten Tarantino?
So you're saying I shouldn't have suddenly killed off a main character unceremoniously?

But I digress. Turned it in today on time and everything. I'll have to email her later to really know how I did but all in all Mission Accomplished.

 
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