top 3 film ideas

I've been tossing this idea around in my head for quite some time now, but after a weekend of being absolutely sick of what gets the green light now days, I'm ready to start refining it (warning: consult your physician before watching all the bad movie trailers on iTunes, and if you are pregnant or think you may become pregnant, bad movie trailers are NOT for you.)

Anyways, it all started when coming up with the idea for Classics [remix]. I began to get the feeling that the truly revolutionary stuff wasn't going to come jumping off a big screen near you, but rather the small screen. Also, with the success of open-ended plot driven shows like Lost and Heroes, Americans have stunned everyone by proving we actually have a stomach for complex, intriguing, and hard to follow entertainment and not just VH1 (un)reality garbage.

These two revelations gave birth to the idea for the first truly interactive viewing experience. Right now it's more concept than actual plot (hopefully to be added as the concept is refined):

The viewer would begin with an online sign up and a choice between one of two character-driven subplots. At the end of the first episode, each less than 3 minutes long, the viewer would be given a choice as to what the character does next. Subsequent episodes would be delivered weekly, presenting the viewer with a new set of choices. To experience the whole story all plot lines can be explored, but this shouldn't be crucial to the enjoyment of any single plot line. Also, throughout the course of an entire season small (2-3 episode) plot lines could be injected into the main story.

To help keep the number of possible episodes under control, plot lines and choices can merge together during the season ending with roughly the same number of possible outcomes that it all started out with.

Any thoughts on a potential plot? This would be an immense undertaking for any group of writers, and would require near religious attention to detail to make all the little pieces work.

Since moving to San Francisco two years ago and visiting New York this year, I have been really interested in street art of all kinds. From simple marker tags, to stencils and graffiti. The more I read on it all, the more I have come to respect just how long graffiti has been going on and the influence it has had on societies and culture in general. Check out this article for a quick (holy shit, almost went with "primer") refresher.

In a nutshell, graffiti has been a big part of culture since the first caveman drew on a big rock. But, it didn't reach it's somewhat shady status in society until people started defacing stuff other people, and more importantly the government, actually cared about or built. That's still 1000's of years of history!

The film could take distinct periods in history and craft short character pieces of individual/groups of artists struggling to survive during these eras. The art that these characters produce will combine to tell a larger, more intricate story that culminates in the final piece.

Each era will have a specific art style with top of the line special effects and design. I'm not talking about the typical explosions and dinosaurs crap, but super inventive and creative effects found in smaller budget productions (think A Scanner Darkly and good music videos). These visuals could also contain huge amounts of personal filmforay community art contributions.

Of course the individual character pieces and larger background story need fleshing out, but let me know what you think of the initial idea.

Notes:

• The title 'graffin de siècle' comes from graffiti + the French phrase "fin de siècle" meaning "end of an era" or "end of a century"
• Image 1: 'David' street stencil, by Blek Le Rat, Spring Street NYC
• Image 2: 'Revok', by Revok
• Image 3: A pic from the music video for D.A.N.C.E. by Justice. This video has some really sick animation. All shown on the t-shirts of the two band members (Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay) as they walk around. Here it is below:

The movie begins in a hospital as an old man spends his last moments on earth silently with his remaining family (a daughter, her husband, and their son). The twenty-something son, I'll just call him Jason for now, is pretty upset despite not having much of a relationship with his Grandfather, who was a kind but quite man.

A few days later Jason inherits a small box of personal belongings from his Grandfather. Jason always knew his Grandfather was a creator of pop-up books for children(also called a paper engineer and movable books) and had a small collection of them himself. What he didn't know was that his Grandfather's work also contained a collection of books much more mature and autobiographical in nature. As Jason explores these books he starts to recreate his Grandfather's life in his mind and finds many parallels to his own personality and struggles.

Along with these parallels, Jason also begins to pick up on a secret trail of clues hidden deep within the books that hint at his Grandfather having a much more mysterious existence than once thought....

Notes: Once again, more of an idea/concept than an actual plot. I thought pop-up books where super cool as a kid, and its kind of a shame that more aren't made with adults in mind. These mysterious pop-up books could be a great opportunity for some sick looking special effects as Jason becomes more immersed in the mystery.

• The title is pretty shitty. I also tried: "paper life" and "pop-up daises"(like pushing up daises)
• Image 1: A random pop-up image. Not sure who did it, but cool.
• Image 2: Big Fish - for the Father+Son connection that develops as the dying father's life unfolds. Big ups to director Tim Burton
• Image 3: Memento - one of the best mystery/thriller movies ever.
• I wanted to come up with an idea around pop-up books, and as I researched further I came across a somewhat lame and promotional video for the book Mommy? by Maurice Sendak. Even though its a kid's book and the video is like something from a horrible DVD bonus feature, the elderly author and the actual pop-up art from the book where initial inspirations for this idea.