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It's generally a good idea to keep the budget in mind in regard to shorts. However, that's only if you haven't had any made yet. Once you have, then go all out and write whatever you want. It's surprising what can be picked up. My latest short had a budget of £15k which is pretty huge by UK standards, some are attempting features with less.
For me, after failing to come up with a compelling low budget story and running out of time, I threw budget out the window and just focused on a story that fit the challenge. I came into this wanting to write something I could ultimately shoot but something had to give for the parameters or I wouldn't have written anything, so I chose to relax my budget constraints.
When we think of a fish out of water or a stranger in a strange land, whit images invoke the strongest emotions?
A person sitting alone in a cafeteria. A person with no one to play with on a playground. A person who isn't invited to be part of something.
There are dozens more. And none of them were doable due to the 4 person limit.
So people had to concoct extraordinary reasons why there were only 4 people. Many times it didn't feel real and harmed the suspension of disbelief for me. Also, instead of showing how someone was alone, we had to just tell it instead.
Again, any of the parameters by themselves is fine, just not in conjunction. A few of us got saddled with femme fatale without any men which breaks the genre IMO.
Anytime you can challenge yourself to become better is worth it, but conditions that oppose each other really put the writer in a bad spot. Jeff, even you said how many failed to meet the parameters. IMO, that was the reason why.
I freely admit mine was awful. Dave, I am not ragging on anyone else's story, I certainly don't have any right to, especially with the crap I turned in. Honestly, I am shocked people haven't hated on it as much as I did.
Dan
I don't agree, Dan.
I accept it made the challenge harder, in particular it made it harder to show that the person was in a strange place, but there are still many, many stories to tell within the parameters.
Simply put, all you have to do is pick a character... Choose any nationality or any occupation, then stick them in an unusual place, most probably having to deal with the opposite of what they are.
An American atheist invited to meet a weird religious hermit in the Himalayas. An american creationist invited by a reclusive scientist to witness the evolution of life. The modern man forced to live in the wilderness.
It's generally a good idea to keep the budget in mind in regard to shorts. However, that's only if you haven't had any made yet. Once you have, then go all out and write whatever you want. It's surprising what can be picked up. My latest short had a budget of £15k which is pretty huge by UK standards, some are attempting features with less.
I accept it made the challenge harder, in particular it made it harder to show that the person was in a strange place, but there are still many, many stories to tell within the parameters.
Simply put, all you have to do is pick a character... Choose any nationality or any occupation, then stick them in an unusual place, most probably having to deal with the opposite of what they are.
An American atheist invited to meet a weird religious hermit in the Himalayas. An american creationist invited by a reclusive scientist to witness the evolution of life. The modern man forced to live in the wilderness.
You could go on indefinitely.
Funny you should mention these - my first concept was in fact an American atheist accidentally locked in St. Peter's Cathedral.
My account was reopened just as the scripts were being listed, so too late to enter. Budget is something I generally keep in mind though with every script I write.
I'm guessing you wrote something called The Atom and Eve, Dave. Cause that one had "talking" wolves. On the other hand it could be Cam. Or Alex. Okay, I'll keep this entry to the three of you.
I accept it made the challenge harder, in particular it made it harder to show that the person was in a strange place, but there are still many, many stories to tell within the parameters.
Simply put, all you have to do is pick a character... Choose any nationality or any occupation, then stick them in an unusual place, most probably having to deal with the opposite of what they are.
An American atheist invited to meet a weird religious hermit in the Himalayas. An american creationist invited by a reclusive scientist to witness the evolution of life. The modern man forced to live in the wilderness.
You could go on indefinitely.
Exactly! These types of scenarios are exactly what I was hoping for and expecting.
Remember, I made it very clear that animals and creatures were both allowed and would not count against the character count.
Think movies like...
The Descent 47 Meters Down The Abyss The Cave Ravenous Crocodile Dundee Pretty Woman Stripes Private Benjamin Starman The Jerk City Slickers 24 Hours
Obviously, with only 9-12 pages and 4 characters, any of these examples would have to be paired down, but that was exactly what i was after.
I accept it made the challenge harder, in particular it made it harder to show that the person was in a strange place, but there are still many, many stories to tell within the parameters.
Simply put, all you have to do is pick a character... Choose any nationality or any occupation, then stick them in an unusual place, most probably having to deal with the opposite of what they are.
An American atheist invited to meet a weird religious hermit in the Himalayas. An american creationist invited by a reclusive scientist to witness the evolution of life. The modern man forced to live in the wilderness.
You could go on indefinitely.
I would agree, except you forgot that the story had to take place in a real world setting that we were familiar with. So, unless you are familiar with the wilderness, or been to the Himalayan mountains, which I haven't, and watching life again isn't something currently real nor has anyone been there, so I stand by my opinion.
All we could do is tell why the character was a fish out of water or a castoff.
I'm interested in reading animation, horror, sci fy, suspense, fantasy, and anything that is good. I enjoy writing the same. Looking to team with anyone!
It's unclear to me why some would mark a few of these entries as not fitting within the parameters though. I don't know if we can talk about the entries - here we always could as I remember. I'm surprised to see something like "not fitting the theme" for the Shalom Naziboy for example. It's about a Nazi robot, how stranger a character can get?
I would agree, except you forgot that the story had to take place in a real world setting that we were familiar with. So, unless you are familiar with the wilderness, or been to the Himalayan mountains, which I haven't, and watching life again isn't something currently real nor has anyone been there, so I stand by my opinion.
All we could do is tell why the character was a fish out of water or a castoff. Dan
Dan, my friend, not true.
I said very clearly that the setting was key and should be somewhere the writer was familiar with or research should be done.
I don't know if you read my last OWC entry, Perseverance, but I set in a very little known, very exotic locale that I (and few others) have ever been to. But I did a ton of research on the area, including studying various maps, reading reviews, etc. It came off very realistic, I think, and I wrote as descriptively and visually as I could, because I wanted my readers to really be able to see this place.
If you chose to set your script in a cave, under water, in the mountains, in a foreign land, all the info you need is readily available, if not through Google searches, youtube, or the like, what about movies based in these locales?
As I always say, either write about what you know, or do the research so you do know. When you don't, it's so obvious to any astute reader.
It's unclear to me why some would mark a few of these entries as not fitting within the parameters though.
I don't know if we can talk about the entries - here we always could as I remember. I'm surprised to see something like "not fitting the theme" for the Shalom Naziboy for example. It's about a Nazi robot, how stranger a character can get?
You can talk about them here, Khamanna.
Your example isn't a very good one, IMO, First of all, there were no robots in that script. Secondly, even if you remove the VR concept revealed at the very end, it was a simple kidnapping that caused the Neo Nazi to be in a place he was not familiar with.
IMO, kidnapping someone, does not a fish out of water, make.
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