Oh, for the want of a napkin

First: I apologize for not making any new entries. It got cold up here in the nothern states. When it gets cold (real cold, like -10 below zero F.) my ambition to do anything except eat and sleep goes down. However we seem to be in a spring thaw now so I am making a point to do a post now.



OK, So for a film we need an idea, Fournately I've plenty of those. They usually come unbidden and may posses my thoughts for an instant or for days. The good ones may leave for awhile but they're sure to return wanting only to be transcribed in some form or another. If I am lucky they'll go down into a sketch book or the idea may have been typed into the computer...but most are transfered onto a napkin, post it note or the ever handy work place stationary.



"So what kind of ideas do you have?" I am gladyou asked! Most are nothing more them little snippets or an extended scene that I think would be cool. There are some that are full stories with a begining, middle and end. Some get fleshed into story boards or the very rare typed out shot layout. Some have dialouge but most do not. All are fantastical (is that aword?) dealing with things that I find of intrest.



So here's a short list of the ones that occupy my head the most

"The Call", an extended scence inspired by Lovecraftian mythos

"10:55", another extended scene that stars Batman

"Pulp Wars" An unapolegetic Star Wars extended scene in which a naked Mace Windau (don't ask or maybe you should) fights an evil sith. As a side note, I came up wth this idea long before the movie Eastern Promises ( a good movie which you should go out and rent right now)came out.

"The Bet", an actual short story in the vein of the Twigh Light zone. It deals with a collector , a curator, an angel and a little numbr known as Pi.

Some longer sagas:

"Evolution", working title only, an episodic tale that starts with the Mayan Civilization and ends 500,000 years from now.

"Loki", this one springs from my disappointment after reading "Wicked". As you can guess this tale is told from Loki's point of view

"Steam" A space opera that tales place in Victorian times

Ok, you get the idea, I have plenty of ideas but which one should I use. Everything up to this point has never gotten past the sketch - storyboard phase. One of the reasons is that time always seems be a factor. So in order to get this project done in the projected time frame of one year it should be kept to a low running time. Also, the production should be simple: one character, simple sets etc. Another hurdle for me is not to get bored with the whole thing before it's finished. For me, I love the creative processs but once that's done and the hard work begins... So I need something once again I can complete quickly.

In review I need something that will be quick to complete and simple in execution. In my bag of ideas I have some that fit the description. Right now just to complete something, to see if it will work is the main thing. This is the hard part, to make a commitment to something like this. In just the time it's taken to start this blog (one month) I've changed my mind as to what project to under take a number of times. Another one of my problems is, is that I need to be realistic about my expectations. I always start out simple but then it builds in to this grand scheme (ala George Lucas) and before you know it I've got a project that I couldn't finish in five years with all the free time and all the money I needed. Then when I come to this realization I abandon the project and start on something else. The cyle continues from there into infinity and nothing gets completed.

So for this project I am going to purposely take one of my ideas that I like but for what ever reason has never grown into anything other then an extended scene (if you can even call it that). So small baby steps for me. Next, the chosen project.