Be The Power
by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
So this I have this great concept for a scifi movie screenplay. I bounce around a lot creative — in large part because I don’t have a muse to tell me to shutup and write — so my interest in this concept could fade quite quickly, but for the time being this is what I’m interested in.
Anyway, watch the below video. It’s pretty interesting.
by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
In this video, I go into great length about the general movie screenplay concept I’m working on. I am waiting on buying a professional camera and for some reason the muse is active and I’m screwing around with a screenplay. Maybe nothing will come of it, but maybe it will. Anyway, I really encourage you to watch this one. It’s pretty good.
In it, I go into why I like screenwriting, why I think I would do well in Hollywood and the general concepts associated with the screenplay I’m interested in writing. There really hasn’t been a movie that deals specifically with the Trump era and this movie concept does just that. I’m going to throw everything but the kitchen sink at this story as part of fleshing it out.
I am musing about different weird things that could happen to our Hero. One of those weird things would be something like we learn he obsessed over a fashion It Girl like Alexa Chung and that comes back to haunt him. Or something. I like the idea of there being personal consequences to his actions as well. That’s going to be the subplot, at least, how all this affects our Hero on a personal level.
The thing I like about Hollywood is how important networking is. I also like how Hollywood is a town based on story telling. Though I find myself thinking I’m much more of New York City kinda guy, I admire how much of LA is obessed with writing screenplays.
Anyway, no one ever watches any of these videos I do, but this one is really good. It’s really interesting if you’re into telling stories. I am going to try to spend most of the day today fleshing out this screenplay concept, but I am known to say that and then just sleep the day away.
by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
There’s no way to tell the story I want to tell without talking about how Trump has changed America, so I’ve decided to make that the main theme of the story in the first place. But it’s going to be a while before I produce anything. I have to write a short story or novella first.
by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
This screenplay I’m thinking about writing would be a direct indictment of the surreal nature of the Trump Era. There have yet to be any movies produced that do that given the scenario of the movie’s concept, it’s difficult to tell this story without doing just that. But anyway, under more deft hands this story would be a Coen Brothers type of movie, but I’m not nearly that good a writer.
by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
So, below video is me talking at length about the screenplay concept I’m dwelling on. It’s flowing pretty easy right now, so I’m going to try to capture the creative spark while it lasts as quickly as possible. I need to just shut up and write. But I have to psych myself up to do just that and as such, I do a lot of talking before I actually get around to writing anything. I’m not saying I’m that good a writer, but I can definitely come up with good concepts.
by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
Now that I’ve established where the source of the conflict of this screenplay comes from — one man making some enormous decisions for all of humanity — the rest of the concept has begun to fall into place. My goal is to throw everything but the kitchen sink at this concept when it comes to things that are happening in the world right now.
One of the major themes of this concept, should I ever get around to writing it, would be how divided the United States is right now. One thing I’m worried about is if I pretty much just describe what I imagine what would really happen given the scenario I’ve come up with that it would be so surreal that the untended humor of it would drown out some serious issues.
But I’ve only begun to sketch things out. I haven’t really begun to write anything seriously. And I think what I’m going to do is write the story as a short story or a novella first then in a few months buy Final Draft and write the screenplay. Yet, I’ve kind of given myself some conditions. I’m not going to spend all that money on Final Draft unless the concept is strong enough to do it. Or, put another way, I’m not going to buy Final Draft unless I’ve proven to myself that I’m serious about writing a screenplay.
by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
Unlikely writing a novel, screenwriting is a collaborative process. As such the people who do it are much more like me. I love to talk and socialize and the screenwriting community seems like a lot of fun. It seems more my type of community than the novelist community. Screenwriting seems like people have a lot of passion for the subject and enjoy talking about it in a way I haven’t see with the novelist community.
I still have a novel I’m interested in writing, but the screenplay concept I have in my head seems to have picked up some creative steam lately. But, as I keep saying, the urgent need is for me to buy a professional digital camera. But that takes time, so working on a screenplay is something I can do while I wait.
So, I’m not saying anything will come of my sudden renewed interest in screenwriting, but the concept I’ve come up with leans itself to a cinematic representation, so I’m running with it as long and as far as I can. But I just don’t know. I don’t know how long this will last.
I really, really need to just save up the money for a camera and work towards that goal, but I’m in general a creatively restless person so I while I wait for the camera, I have to do something creative. Ideally, I will bounce back and forth between a novel and a screenplay. But we’ll see.
by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
I really enjoy at least attempting to write a screenplay because of its innately collaborative nature. The below video is me talking about that some. I’m struggling to write out a concept that might turn into a screenplay, but it will be months before anything comes of it for various reasons.
by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
As I keep saying, buying a professional digital camera is at the forefront of my mind right now. But I definitely have an interesting concept for a science fiction movie. The screenplay would be a novel approach the concept of First Contact.
But there is much to mull, much to struggle with. I am perfectly horrible with plots and it could take me a while to the point where I’m able to not only write the screenplay but buy Final Draft so I can properly format it. The whole point is to give me something to believe in, something to hope for. I don’t live in LA, so it would be an enormous long-shot even if I wrote a really good screenplay with a strong concept.
Yet, whatever. I really enjoy daydreaming and I have a way of telling stories without even realizing I’m doing it. So, if I’m lucky, I’ll write something pretty much on autopilot. Not to say it won’t be a struggle to write something, it will. But it should be a lot of fun, also.
by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
For years, I’ve been fascinated by First Contact. I’ve dwell deeply and at great length about how one might not only move huge numbers of humans off the planet but how you would organize that group of humans once you did. It’s something of an impossible scenario.
There just is so much to weigh in your mind. I have struggled to figure out how you might unite humanity if you worked on the assumption that — essentially — all human life is valued equally regardless of where you’re from. This is significantly more difficult to figure out than you might think.
Anyway, I may have figured out a strong enough concept to move forward with it. The movie would written with the expectation that it would be a tent-pole summer blockbuster but with smarts and a heart. I like screenplays as an art form because they’re collaborative and as the screenwriter all you have to do is give some guidance to the director as to what is supposed to happen. But, as I keep saying, I am saving my money for a professional camera so it will probably be later this year before I can afford to buy Final Draft so I can actually begin writing the screenplay.
In the meantime, I may sketch the concept out as a short story or novella or even a novel. I guess I want to prove to myself that I’m not only serious about this concept but that it’s strong enough that it’s worth attempting to be serious about in the first place. The camera is the most important thing to buy in the near term because it has a practical way of being able to change my life.
But I’m generally a creative person and I love to tell stories. And just recently I found myself figuring out the outlines of a plot for this concept I’ve been mulling for years. So, we’ll see. Maybe nothing will come of this. I might get bored and move on to the next thing, but if it holds up, I may very well start writing a screenplay about First Contact soon.
The movie concept I have in my head has elements of Contact, Close Encounters of The Third Kind and….in some ways it’s so unique it defies comparison. I’m coming at this problem in a really rather unconventional manner. I find telling stories relaxing just in general, so I may wake up and discover I’ve written a screenplay without realizing.
You must be logged in to post a comment.