6 Dynamic Ways to Brainstorm Multiple Ideas for Your Short Film

Coming up with multiple ideas for your next film can be quite difficult. 

It may seem very easy while you play out the idea in your head, but by the time you get around to developing your story-line, your initial ideas are long since forgotten or buried under a mountain of thoughts.

In this article, I’ll take you through easy processes that will inspire you to generate multiple ideas for your short film.

 

1.    Start In a Nonlinear Way

Naturally, you’d want to start from the beginning, to the middle and then the end in a linear fashion.

That could frustrate your creative process. You don’t have to follow a straight method when you can start from any point where you feel certain emotions and build your story or ideas from there.

Since it’s a short movie, it’ll be easier to start from the middle or even the end of your story and articulate your characters, their flaws, location etc. from there.

Taita Waiititi’s response to writer’s block explains it perfectly.

He said – “If you’re having trouble getting started, think about key scenes that will be in your story. Write those scenes first, out of order. Now you’re in the script. It can grow out from the inside, instead of page one.”

2.    Steal like An Artist

Originality is a myth. The major hindrance many creators have when brainstorming ideas is the need to create something new; never been heard or seen before idea.

There are many blockbusters that were “inspired” by other great movies. Does that come off as a shock to you? I’ll list some of these epics and the movies that inspired them.

·         Avengers: According to the co-director; Joe Russo, the avengers movie was inspired by ‘90s heist         movies.   

Here’s what he said – “Structurally, with this first film, avengers 3, we’ve been suing the smash-n-grab ‘90s heist movies, so there’s a real urgency to the film.”

There you have your popular, hit-of-the-century movie being inspired by classics. I have more, keep reading.

 

·         Man of Steel: I’m so sorry to break this to you, but Man of Steel was inspired by Marvel’s “The   Eternals”.

 If you’ve seen this movie, you’d see the correlation between Man of Steel’s “Ikaris” and Marvel’s “Superman”.

The director of Man of Steel; Chloe Zhao also established that “Of all modern interpretations of superman, this is Zack Snyder’s with Man of Steel which inspired me the most because he approached this myth in an authentic and very real way.”

Are you still interested in creating something novel? I have one last example for you.

 

·         Dune: Now, dune is my favorite movie. It is futuristic, insanely interesting and thought provoking. What inspired Dune? Star wars.

Star Wars inspired Dennis Villeneuve to create Dune and his statement about it an emotional one.

It says “When I saw the very first Star Wars in 1977, my favorite scenes were the ones that felt the most natural. The one where we see the droids at the beginning – there was something about the strength of nature.”

If you don’t feel a tug at your heart after reading this, you need help.

In essence, our thoughts, actions and lifestyle – basically everything we do or say or write are inspired by existing things or people and that brings me to my next point.

3.    Look Inward

What’s happening in your life? The answer is – A lot. Look at social media and how people log in daily to talk about the things happening in their lives.

There is something about writing that is cathartic. It helps you release emotional tension and share your experiences with people.

If you are feeling stuck on an idea, take a deep breathe, and think about the bitter, sweet or bitter-sweet events of your life, feel the emotions and start writing immediately.

You could feel uncomfortable about other people watching your experience but think about the movies on real stories and how relatable and educating they were.

Take out pieces of your life, create your characters from them and build your storyline.

4.    Use Your Imagination

The greatest superpower you possess is your imagination. You can do and be anything in that world. You can create happiness or sadness or void… any emotion at all with your imagination.

It is the world where you’re the scriptwriter, director, artist and cinematographer. Why not use it to create groundbreaking ideas for your film?

For instance, as I was writing this article, I looked outside my window and imagined something that’s Goosebumps series worthy.

You could be in an elevator and imagine that you are all trapped with no way out while the world was ending.

As a filmmaker, scriptwriter, director or creator, your imagination is your greatest tool for creating multiple ideas for your film.

5.    Historical Events

What historical event intrigues or fascinates you? Is there any that you’d like to explore or that still reflects today?

If there is, then you should definitely squeeze out ideas from it.

You don’t have to use real names, places or tell the ideal story. You could just build off it. That’s why it’s called fiction.

6.    Read

My favorite movie series at the moment is Bridgeton and it was adapted from a novel series. The goal here is not to adapt any book into a movie but to get ideas from the story-line or the characters in the book.

Reading is a powerful medium of transportation from the present into our world of imagination. If you are finding it difficult to tap into your realm of imagination, pick a book and come back here to leave a “thank you” comment.

Bottom Line   

Creativity is a process that sometimes takes time. It may be frustrating trying to come up with multiple film ideas, it is better than being stuck with a story-line. The trick here is to try all or some of the options listed above till you’re flowing with ideas that can lead you down the path of success as a scriptwriter or filmmaker.