Who wants to help brainstorm? Nobody?

[assyrix]

Sounds a bit like "Resident Evil" to me...

[eddie123456789]

sounds pretty good to me, especially if the protagonists think they know what they are up against, when in fact they dont.
Perhaps it will be quite self aware and tongue in cheek.
Why not make this 'virus' the result of an accident at a Genetics Lab, and make the story relevant to today?
You could cover some interesting groud with it, since you have boiled life down to its absolute basics - food and reproduction. The virus is 'aware' that it needs to reproduce, but sounds like its too stupid, or its too complicated to work out it needs to feed these host bodies. Like most viruses - they blast through their hosts, usually destroying them in order to procreate.

I guess it depends on how much of the science you want to get into.

[FadedNumber]

Hey everyone, thanks for getting back to me.

"Outbreak films are great, but films about germs are pretty uninteresting IMO. What/where is the conflict? Sure, you might want to avoid the disease but the instinct for survival has been done to death."

This won't be a film about germs. The contagion that's killing off the world was just the idea we had when we wanted to think up something that could have such a huge impact on all of these different characters. See, if I had to fill out a little form asking for plot, characters, setting and so on, next to "setting:", I'd write, "Two modern day towns (one is a small, rural town, and the other is a large city) where a disease is spreading and killing off the inhabitants."

?For what you describe you want to make, why concentrate so much on the science of the disease. As you say, your characters won't even figure this out, so why should the audience (or us) give a shit about that??

Because after the movie, when people (you know, the six people who saw it and didn?t take part in the making of the film?) are thinking things over, they?ll go, ?Why did that guy change after only one day, when that other guy took two?? ?Oh, that?s easy ? the speed at which the disease spreads through the body depends on all sorts of things? How much blood he got on him, how long and strong the disease had been in the host when he spread it to him, yadda yadda yadda?? Or they?ll ask, ?Wait, why were some of the infected smarter than others? Why did this guy knows how to climb up onto the balcony, when earlier, that guy just walked past and tried breaking through the door?? And I?ll say, ?Well you see, the longer the disease stays in one part of the brain, the more severely it affects it. So once he lost his mind completely, some parts were more affected than others and they broke down sooner.?

Hey, that just gave me a good idea ? if the first part of the brain to be infected is the first part to go, then there could be some guys lying around lacking motor skills, but making plenty of noise. Sure, they won?t be much of a threat, but I think it?d be a little eerie? I sure wouldn?t want to walk past them. And then there can be others who don?t make a sound at all. Heck, some might not even be able to tell who?s infected and who isn?t, and they?ll just tear into each other. In fact, some guys might even start purposely spreading it before it?s taken complete control. How about a suicide bomber? Boom, blood covers a crowd? at a quarantine facility? I don?t know, just all-around chaos. I just don?t want there to be any huge, unsolvable holes in the disease and how it works so that they focus on the story, not on the disease being unworkable. I hate it when that happens. It?s like when you can?t remember where you?ve seen an actor before, but can?t quit thinking about it.

Basically, we already know how we want the infected people to act ? unpredictably. The way we have it set up now, there are so many variables that we can probably make any infected guy act however we want him to at whatever time we want him to. We want to keep it very open, so I?m trying to figure out if this is a believable (yeah, who needs believability in a film like this, right? Fiction to the max?) explanation for all the inconsistency of the infected peoples? actions.

?Have you thought about how the movie ends??

?Why not make this 'virus' the result of an accident at a Genetics Lab, and make the story relevant to today??

We?ve come up with a few different ideas for endings and are going to keep thinking, but as far as where the disease came from, we don?t really want to figure that out. Don?t get me wrong, we?ve got a few theories (assassination attempt that got out of hand and started unexpectedly spreading, population control, terrorism, and then there?s always the idea that nobody made it, but germs are just learning to get around our medicine and immunities? still thinking? maybe some bums spread it, eating out of the trash and all that?), but we aren?t deciding on anything just yet.

Above, I explained (maybe over-explained) why I want to figure out the science of the disease, whether the characters ever do or not. But I think it would be better to write the movie first, look at everything and then go, ?Okay, where did it/could it/should it have come from?? Otherwise, we might feel limited throughout the writing process. See, the virus will still reach the characters the same way, and since they don?t know what?s going on, they?re going to react the same way no matter where it came from, so I don?t think that?s as important right now. But we definitely do need to know how these infected folks are going to act, and since we already know how we want them to act, I?m just seeing if it works how we have it now so that I?m not bothered by it when we?re really digging into the story.

Since you guys seem so interested in the story, even though I?m only asking about our idea for the disease, I?ll just tell you this:

We don?t have much. So far, we?ve got a huge list of ideas, but they aren?t put together yet. Every time we think of anything, whether it?s a scene, a character concept, maybe a bit of dialogue, a cool-looking shot or whatever, we write it down on the list. As for the story, we?ve probably only worked through the first thirty minutes or so. The infection has already reached the characters (one of them is infected within the first ten minutes or so, but we?ve just gotten to the point where he changes.), and they?ve already had to fend off a couple of crazies. So now things are getting somewhere.

Here are a couple of vague, but story-shaping ideas we have:

1 - There are going to be two main groups we watch. There?s the group in the small town, and the city group. We?re planning on showing how in the small town, everyone knows everyone and they work together pretty much from the beginning. Unfortunately, their being so close and their willingness to help out a stranger will be their ultimate downfall. In the city, however, there?s nothing but anonymity. It?ll be a little tough getting people to trust you as it is, much less after they start figuring out that the world?s going loopy. The city group is going to be made up of already close friends, who already know each other, but have to watch as the people they?ve known for years start wigging out. The rural group isn?t going to know each other as well, but living in a small town, they?re familiar with each other at least. Oooh, imagine the fun when they find out bites don?t infect, blood does, and Zombie Movie Nerd 1 realizes he blew his friends head off just ?cause he saw him get bitten. You could have saved him but you shot him, you fool!

2 - The last person left in the rural group is going to be the one to infect the main-ish character from the city group. For about the last [insert number here] minutes, we watch as the main character falls into madness until he snaps, or dies, or figures he?s been infected and kills himself? whatever. We aren?t sure about the ending yet. But we do want to get uber-creative and really blow some minds with the shit we think up for his descent.

Damn, I talk (type?) a lot, don?t I? Geez?

And an edit to boot:

Why don't you try and make something original, something that will 'shake up the world of outbreak-ish movies'. Why not try and push yourself to do something different and interesting... Sorry if that sounds harsh...

Once again, I think it is going to be original. The disease may be a bit like the diseases/whatever in other movies, but since that's not the primary focus of this movie like it is in those others, I'm not too concerned about it. Come on, how many dramatic comedies are set against a backdrop of bloody freaks killing off the world?

And no, it doesn't sound harsh. It sounds like damn good advice. And even if it was harsh, I'd appreciate it. So don't you worry.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ May 26, 2005 12:57 PM: Message edited by: FadedNumber ]</font>

[reecpj]

This project sounds great - have you thought about how you are going to do the special effects?

[FadedNumber]

Special effects? Short answer: no.

Longer answer ("Oh God, he's winding up again." [img]graemlins/sure.gif[/img] ): I don't want to worry about it just yet. That's another thing I don't want to be limited by when writing the story. But for what we have so far, the only "effect" we'll need is some fake blood. So far. I'm sure it won't take long to add things to the SFX list, but as of right now, there's just a stab wound, a bloody bathroom, red eyes*, and broken nails from clawing at a door. For the broken nails, we were just going to use fake nails lightly glued on or held on with a bit of wax, stick a little fake blood under 'em. Maybe just a little fake flesh hanging off for the extra "ouch" factor.


* Is food coloring to the eyes unhealthy? Hmm... Maybe I should just do that in post... Red where it was white, and an all black iris would look cool, I think.

[curtinparloe]

don't want to sound pessimistic, but it still sounds just like 28 Days Later. The zombies in that weren't zombies, they had been infected by the rage virus...

[FadedNumber]

Maybe the disease is similar in that it spreads by blood and makes the victim all whacked out, but mine spreads a hell of a lot more easily, and everyone who's infected acts uniquely, unpredictably. Maybe I'm just blind, but I don't see how, after all of my explaining, you guys still think I'm making "29 Days Later". Maybe it's just different in my head than the way you're taking it.

Once again... maybe the disease is similar, but that's not what the movie's about. It's just what's going on outside while the story plays through...

I've only received two answer to what I was asking, (miker said "...as a description of the actual disease it works..." and eddie said, "sounds pretty good to me", which qualifies, I think...) and everyone else has either compared my movie to something else without knowing anything about it except that there's a disease involved, or encouraged me to try something else. Look, I appreciate everyone's replies, but we're just trying to get a movie made for <u>us</u>. We've never made a movie... at the very least, it'll be good practice, right?

You all hardly know anything about the story. I mean, we don't know too much about it either, but we've got tons of ideas. I'm going to make a movie that I'd like to see. I've always thought it would be cool if there was a movie with this huge thing going on that seemed like it should be, but isn't the focus of the film.


Edit: This thread wasn't meant to be about my movie, just the disease in the movie and if it works or not. But I guess I should have expected this from you guys - always trying to help out. [img]biggrin.gif[/img] I really do appreciate everything, though.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ May 27, 2005 10:23 AM: Message edited by: FadedNumber ]</font>

[Kigo]

I agree with the fact that if the audience is never gonna find out about it then there?s no point in going to far into it.

Why not cheat?

Have a metoer crash into earth? It?ll be a cool intro to the film. Set the film five years later with the rural town built near to the place where it crashed and have a character from the city being from that town. That way when you play 'rural town help each other' and 'city don?t' then the one in the city can feel more alone and out place than if he was in the small town where he is from.

And because the 'virus' is alien then you can do what you like without having to explain it.

Idea: Have several kids find the metoer and years later they are the ones spreading it without knowing. They then trace the infection back to everyone they have had contact with (in which ever way you want) and realise that they are the ones who must be stopped. All the main characters die, always a good ending!!!

Or not.


Kigo

[Actor]

Originally posted by Kev O.:
For what you describe you want to make, why concentrate so much on the science of the disease. As you say, your characters won't even figure this out, so why should the audience (or us) give a shit about that?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It's called "back story." Check out the extras on the Collateral DVD. There was a whole lot of back story of Vincent and Max that actors Cruise and Fox studied in developing their characters. The audience doesn't need to give a shit about back story. The writer, director and actors do.

[Matty2phatty]

the version of collateral that i rented didn't have any special features [img]frown.gif[/img] i was hoping for a really in depth DVD but just got directors commentary.