Here's the challenge: Come up with a second concept to deepen, enhance or twist our main concept-- An astronaut crash lands on a planet and is kept safe by alien children while he tries to get back home. Put your ideas in the comments below!
Mmm... What about (and I'm just thinking about this one) He (the astronaut) is torn between going back (and not being able to tell gain any further knowledge) or losing his family (there's this "time bomb" where he can only come back at a certain moment).
He makes friends with some of the kids, a relationship of trust develops. But some children are jealous, report back to the alien parents, accusing the astronaut of deeds he didn't commit. The parents take this alleged offence rather seriously and put a price on the head of the earthling, who is forced to escape with the children still faithful to him to yet another planet before he can even manage to organise his voyage home - an adventure in itself, which might be depicted in a sequel if the hero survives... but he usually does, doesn't he? ;)
Yes he does, at least for the first sequel. :) From the second episode on, we can possibly introduce a Han Solo deal: he's technically alive, but many question remain open by the end of the movie. The challenge then becomes not to make episode three flat and predictable because it provides closure too simplistically. Yeah... First I need a good episode 1. ;)
Omg you're so amazing. Since discovering this channel yesterday, studying every video is my current obsession. I've known without a doubt I've got high-concept gold... But also that something's falling short. FINALLY I understand: It needs the second concept. Exactly as you guess, I think, "How am I going to--?!" Oh, look at the antagonist and enrich their dimension of the story? Thanks for illuminating my problem and pointing me in the direction of the solution all within the first 9 minutes of this video. (!!!)
The female astronaut discovers that many years ago, the father of the kids hiding her was an explorer for the alien planet and his disguise was as a human boy she crushed on in high school.
All gratuitous flirting aside your videos really are fantastic. Very informative and a pleasure to watch. I decided to write a screenplay 2 days ago. Grateful to have stumbled across you.
The astronaut's mission was to abduct one of these aliens and take it back to Earth for research purposes. When he realises the aliens are friendly, it doesn't sit well with him despite the 10 million dollar paycheck that will be awarded for his bravery. He has to choose between betraying his new friends, or receiving the 10 million dollars.
Concept: Man wakes up into an empty world. As he explores he rememberes scenes from his life, a plethora of mistakes and bad choices, slowly we come to realize that the man is dead, and finally it becomes clear he is a suicide and is in a very personal hell.
I think the secondary concepts should be, astronaut finds out one of the alien children is being bullied at school and he shows it how to deal with the bully.
Thanks for your valuable information. Actually, I got 2 different ideas. 1. What if aliens are harmless and not as advanced as human? After crash land, he tries to repair his space craft with the help of alien kids and learn their culture, and finds how good they and their planet is. After few months, he notices a man made space craft entering the planet's atmosphere and then he tracks it, in a hope that it is his rescue team, only to find that there is a man made base(nearly a decade old) build by a secret private agency. Then, he finds out that they are bringing some cargoes from earth to take over the planet and harvest some valuable resources, which later can be used to gain control over earth. So, now he hijacks a space craft(from the base) to travel back to earth and inform the government about this secret agency so that they can stop them. But before leaving, he finds that the cargo has already left earth. Now the only way to stop them entering this planet is to destroy the portal(assuming that, he also accidentally entered that portal to get here) and the base. Which will trap him on this planet forever, but gets to save two planets. 2. What if the aliens are far more advanced than us? -they are the one who created the portal, and stalking earth for some time. (Here we say, you never know who stalks you) -now, they are planning to invade earth. -using the alien kids and some good aliens' help, he tries to stop the invasion by destroying the portal and alien's tech that helps opening portal (they can still rebuilt it, but takes some years). -then, he manages to return to earth and warn people about whats coming.
You're a knowlege beast. Gotta figure out how to telepathically connect and just mass download the wisdom. Until then, I'll forge ahead one great video at a time.
Astronaut discovers he is not the only accidental alien to crash land on the planet and join the family. He meets old Moon Friday, who helps him build his escape craft. But, the kids don't want to lose their earthling toys.
Never really thought about writing or coming up with ideas like that. Usually I think about resolutions and then beginnings. Usually things just pop up in my head as scenes and I build from there. That makes it sometimes difficult to fill in the middle and also makes it difficult to summarize the story into a line or two. Maybe I should try to think more in concepts to see if it helps out. Thanks for broadening my view!
Astronaut lands on the alien planet while in search for Earth. He investigates this weird planet, to realize it’s filled with alien-like creatures, soon realizing that it was earth
Very cool! This video addresses an important point with great sense of humour. The success and subscriber base of your channel can only grow... and this is probably a euphemism.
Space marines raid the ship and he rushes to get the children off the ship, while avoiding both the aliens and space marines. In the end the astronaut sends the alien children on an escape pod, the space marines blow up the ship. The astronaut sacrifices himself to save the children. You could also add more meaning, revealing that his own children died in a car crash or something.
Sequel: his astronaut wife or relative goes into space, only to find the man from the last film has been clone with memories of the events of the last film.
Second concept: the astronaut was being sent to another planet that had allies that were enemies to the planet he’s on. However he still has to go to the rival alien planet to get resources to save earth. Now he has to convince the kids to help him go to the rival planet.
Any advice you could give on a screenplay that is pretty much a biography of a man who was a trailblazer in the 1930's and 1940's but who was forgotten? He died at 52 as a normal working stiff with those around him not knowing all the things he accomplished when younger.
I have always loved writing but never in a screenplay I am also a acting student how much does acting and writing help with each other quality cause I don’t care to do this unless I am going to be great and I am so committed to studying and training with the crafts,.. I always wrote trying to paint a vivid picture and mood in mind is that anathema to screenwriting which seems to be more to the point cause of the changes that are inevitably going to be made?
How do you combine scenes to go back and forth with during a voice over? And example would be someone on stage performing while in another scenes something else is happening at the same time with voice over from person on stage.
I have 3 stories that I am working on right now I call them stories lol, is it better to focus on one at a time?And one story which I was thinking of making it a novel “Average Joe” is my loosely based off my experience overseas in the Army and my struggles with being in country going to be great Should I write it as a screenplay as opposed to a book?
An astronaut crash lands on a planet and is kept safe by alien children. He knows the plants will be destroyed by a natural disaster but is duty bound not to do anything to help the inhabitants.
Hey! Thanks again for your videos. An idea: the astronaut is unconscious and when he wakes up it feels like home (because the aliens have this telepathic power where they can use his memories to build a hologram like the astronaut's home) so he thinks the people he sees and what he eats and what he does is real but it doesn't feel quite right. First he thinks it's because of the crash - he can't quite remember details- but then he `progressively discovers he is not on earth and nothing is real, it's just a hologram. So the alien children learn to do this at school and he would be an experiment or a toy for them. Eventually He discovers that there is a way back home, but he has to convince the alien children to help him, which is hard because they love their new toy.....what do you think? (off the top of my sleepy head)
The astronaut crashes down, and being kept safe by the alien children, but little did they know the astronaut's mission was to blow up their planet with a bomb he had on his ship. Don't know if that was good or not, but I tried haha, love the videos by the way.
+Oujii- There is no worries about good or bad with brainstorming - just let the ideas flow! So well done! You could go in many different directions with that. Evil earth E.T. and the aliens are good- I like it. Twist on most movies where the aliens are bad.
Love your second concept. Blowing up their planet is his mission (as the planet is considered a threat to earth), but after the crash and being taken care of by the alien children, he starts to understand them and envy the simplicity of their existence and starts to wonder whether his mission to terminate that planet is justifiable, as there is no sign of intended aggression to earth. Added twist; the planet has, advanced medical science, (could not use this as he is in hiding and has no idea of their medical capabilities) a flower with healing qualities that was used to heal him. It is also possible that it could be used to heal his sick daughter that his wife died giving birth to. His mission then changes to saving the planet.
the astronaut sees how advanced the technology is on the alien planet and he will try to document it and even try to take some of it back to earth while being deceitful to the alien children.
ok , first let me say, I thoroughly enjoyed your video ,it was informative , inspiring , and warmly hosted . I would add, the work of yours I have seen is much the same , full of useful ,new , enriching , screenwriting or storytelling , secrets and standards . Thank you for sharing your experience , knowledge and passion . You have a good vibe and a friendly gracious AURA , and your easy on the eyes , all that being said-----------I have two ideas for your astronaut story, the first is, lets call it " ASTRONUT " a washed up ex nasa pilot who is mired in drugs alcohol and celebrity , who dosent go anywhere without his attorney , maid and guru/butler, has agreed to pilot a privately financed super shuttle into space. After inadvertently flying into and emerging from a black hole behind our moon he crashes onto a planet and is saved by children and their mother. Now heres the twist , He falls for mother and her kids before he's discovered and once again becomes a celebrity , He will have to save the mother , her kids and his entourage and return them all to earth, After a harrowing but successful return to earth he wakes up, but now he has wife kids and is a successful business man who always wanted to be an astronaut. If you ever find yourself in Sonoma Napa , please say hello , and let me treat you and a friend or two, to , whats your pleasure.
No thank you for ur wonderful work.... and for that fun writing excersize , congratulations on the Nichol fellowship its almost like an Oscar I think ,maybe the best contest to win for writersI suppose selling is best reward, or seeing your script made, I wouldn't know ....yet....but im happy for you and any other writer who achieves their goals ....thanks again for the insightpeace...jah....god bless ...ciao......ernestPS do u recommend the hiring of consultant and if so which ones and lastly is querying agents still productive or is that time gone
You can watch my video on "How to Sell Your Screenplay" for my take on queries and how to get your work out there. I usually just recommend coverage to start with. If you need a consultant, the one I recommend is Craig Kellen at hollywoodscript.com
The alien children in an attempt to conceal him damage his ship more. So he is stuck until one of the aliens parents shows up with a ship he could use. But it would mean that he would have to hurt or kill the parent of a child he has become fiends with.
The two children are so pure and good he assumes they hide him from the adults or authorities. They start to become really good friends, that is until he shows them a pictures of his own children. At that point they become cold, unfriendly and lock him away. Why do you lock me away he cries, your parents may help me!!. We don’t have parents the child says. Like your spiders on earth, the child eats the parent at birth. You are a parent. ...... my first ever story....
Blimey, that was quick. You will never know how grateful I am for that. I've only read 3 books in my long life, and was almost ungraded in my English exams, but I just want to write a book. Your lessons are totally brilliant, you inspire me. I'm going to do it...Cheers Jules
The only class in my life I have ever failed is speech class - and now I have a TH-cam channel.. where I am speaking :) As Tony Robbins says, the past does not equal the future. Do it!
I like that! Just a thought. That idea you had of creating a scenario, asking people to finish it, then commenting if worthy...Well for people like me, with no experience or confidence, it's invaluable, I can't see that anybody else does that. Perhaps you could expand on the concept??? I'm working through your videos now and would have though that many of the topics could have a 'challenge' at the end. Or just carry on dong what you're doing, it's the best.
I like that -- I will have to come up with more challenges and people can post them at the end. As the channel grows I might not have time to make comments, but y'all can learn from each others responses as well.
Crash landing wasn't as difficult as trying to escape the humanoids trying to kill Marco. What looks like a forest has many strange beings, everyone doing something different, from playing what looks like baseball to fighing hand to hand combat. Marco hides behind what looks like a road vehicle. Some small beings, could be children on earth, point for Marco to get into the vehicle. Once inside Marco still gasping for air thanks the small beings but its obvious that they don't understand. There is screaming and yelling from the beings chasing Marco. No, they don't want to kill him, no, they want to study and experiment on him. Zer is in command and he doesn't want the human harmed, just captured. It seems Marco isn't the first to come to this planet.
Heres a riff on the Book Club idea :- bodies start turning up where the modus operandi matches each book the ladies have just read. Authorities say coincidence. Eventually the group tries to out the killer by deliberate choice of the next book.....
Bruce Willis was filming Diehard and filming moonlighting at same time and he refused to budge on 5million salary studio didn’t want to put all their stock in an UNKNOWN MOVIE ACTOR TV STAR FIRST ACTION MOVIE.... I grew up in his hometown in Jersey and I will be the next Bruce.....how long does it take to write a quality screenplay? Cause I have written hundreds of pages in a day?
When the astronaut finally learns who they are hiding him from, he learns that the children are really all slaves on an island labor camp making intergalactic ship parts.
Flip an alien equivalent of a medicine man that is friends with one of the children send him on a quest to come to terms with the fact that hes stranded And may never get to go home. So basically the children have to go find a magical artifact that may possibly take him home.
Let's see... The astronaut should be Will Ferrell. 🙂At first it seems the cute alien children are hiding Will because they fear for his life from the adult aliens. They're also scaring him about all the terrible things they'd do to him. They nurture him, care for him, play with him, repair his ship, all the while interrogating the gullible, loquacious Will, and learning all about the Earth, the humans, their weaknesses... etc. Then the twist comes. It turns out the adult aliens (like humans) almost destroyed their own planet and their children have gone wild, rebelled. In fact, they are in power, and now their plan is to get to Earth with Will to conquer it... Fortunately, Will finds out about their plan in time. Then he goes on the warpath with the now rather terrifying alien children...
What if the children who kept the astronaut safe start dying one by one because the aliens are alergic to humans and now the astronaut has to find a way to save the last childs life
Becoz alliens want to know about the astronauts talent and want to about how could they also crash into another planet and increase their lands on other planets........
He’s a militant nationalist on earth. He sees these aliens live for each other, for love, family, etc. and instead of phoning home, needs to misdirect others following him to protect these aliens.
I've got a great idea for a script!! what if people could get inside the mind of a well known actor (John Malkovich for example) and this happens to be found by a man who is in love with a girl from his work (now we have two ideas!) and we can do it more interesting making him a married person and a frustrated artist!! :D (seriously, it seems like Charlie Kaufman had seen this video before writing that master piece, jaja) Thank you Dancer, great info as always!!
What if the astronaut is Elliott from ET, all grown up? What if the planet he has crash-landed on has two sentient species. One, whose kids are trying to protect him, is very anti alien. The other species is pro exploration and its leader is ET from the movie, all grown up. The first species rules the planet. ET's species is reduced to an underground rebellion. The story unfolds, and yada, yada, yada... in the end ET helps Eliott get off the planet.
The alien kid gets his UFO crazed tin foil hat uncle to help him steal an alien shuttle to get the astronaut back to his space station so he can go home. Because the astronauts spaceship crashed landed and doesn't work the same way the alien craft works. Basically the astronauts ship can't be fixed and there's only one way home. And that's with the help of his new found friends. But he's running out of oxygen so they have to hurry before time runs out.
Or...he crashed in the future earth where the children are a mutated version of what humanity used to be. Not pretty. They tell him he must return and warn humanity that they are headed in a dangerous direction. That this new earth cannot support them for very long. If the 'current' humans don't change asap, these children will die. But how does he get back? And if he does,will they believe him?
I have idea: You and i one person in different point of space and different time in universe and in real time we see each other in our point of attention.time of univers 1second =1000years. you alone here everything ilusion YOU CREATED UNIVERSE SUMETENUOSLY UNIVERSE CREATED YOU ALL THES UNIVERSES ARE SIMPLY DIFFERENT SETTINGS OF THE SIMULATION
So if you guys in your e-t move is on a planet that breaths carbondeoside and they are all most out and need a way to get higher level. Or the hole planet will die. So as you can tell buy my writing it sucks but I have an idle for a move the has all of the stuff to be a great move and all most everyone over 40 would won't to go see or would watch on something like Netflix how do I go about selling this move or get someone to screen wright it with the basic ideals I have for all most every act.
Here's the challenge: Come up with a second concept to deepen, enhance or twist our main concept--
An astronaut crash lands on a planet and is kept safe by alien children while he tries to get back home.
Put your ideas in the comments below!
Mmm... What about (and I'm just thinking about this one) He (the astronaut) is torn between going back (and not being able to tell gain any further knowledge) or losing his family (there's this "time bomb" where he can only come back at a certain moment).
You definitely gave him a tough choice and some urgency! Cool!
He makes friends with some of the kids, a relationship of trust develops. But some children are jealous, report back to the alien parents, accusing the astronaut of deeds he didn't commit. The parents take this alleged offence rather seriously and put a price on the head of the earthling, who is forced to escape with the children still faithful to him to yet another planet before he can even manage to organise his voyage home - an adventure in itself, which might be depicted in a sequel if the hero survives... but he usually does, doesn't he? ;)
Sure, he has to survive for the sequel lol:)
Yes he does, at least for the first sequel. :) From the second episode on, we can possibly introduce a Han Solo deal: he's technically alive, but many question remain open by the end of the movie.
The challenge then becomes not to make episode three flat and predictable because it provides closure too simplistically. Yeah... First I need a good episode 1. ;)
The alien food, air and water start making him super human. He uses his power to help the alien children out of a jam.
Cool!
Omg you're so amazing. Since discovering this channel yesterday, studying every video is my current obsession. I've known without a doubt I've got high-concept gold... But also that something's falling short. FINALLY I understand: It needs the second concept. Exactly as you guess, I think, "How am I going to--?!" Oh, look at the antagonist and enrich their dimension of the story? Thanks for illuminating my problem and pointing me in the direction of the solution all within the first 9 minutes of this video. (!!!)
Best discussion on "the big idea" I've ever read or heard. Lots of examples. THANKS!
Thanks, Malcolm!
So far, one of the best channel on how to write a screenplay (shout out to lesson from the screenplay too lol)
Thanks, Elis!
Thank you for giving all of your knowledge and resources you have at your fingertips!
+Carol Jackson
Sure, Carol. Thanks for the nice comment!
Wonderful. Smart professional tips. Thank you.
I just discovered you. You’re amazing. Will be binge watching the rest now.
all your videos are so helpful thank you so much
I love that you told me that:) These comments make me want to make more videos -- which will be coming soon.
I immediately hit the subscribe button and never skip the Ads. Thanks WD!
The female astronaut discovers that many years ago, the father of the kids hiding her was an explorer for the alien planet and his disguise was as a human boy she crushed on in high school.
Brilliantly explained. Welldone
Brilliant! You've done it again; so many valuable concepts to consider. Thank you!
Welcome!!
:)
All gratuitous flirting aside your videos really are fantastic. Very informative and a pleasure to watch. I decided to write a screenplay 2 days ago. Grateful to have stumbled across you.
Write that screenplay! My video "Your screenplay needs candy" will help you structure:)
The astronaut's mission was to abduct one of these aliens and take it back to Earth for research purposes. When he realises the aliens are friendly, it doesn't sit well with him despite the 10 million dollar paycheck that will be awarded for his bravery. He has to choose between betraying his new friends, or receiving the 10 million dollars.
Concept: Man wakes up into an empty world. As he explores he rememberes scenes from his life, a plethora of mistakes and bad choices, slowly we come to realize that the man is dead, and finally it becomes clear he is a suicide and is in a very personal hell.
I think the secondary concepts should be, astronaut finds out one of the alien children is being bullied at school and he shows it how to deal with the bully.
You're so awesome! Thank you for all of this!
Thanks, Jack!
Thanks for your valuable information.
Actually, I got 2 different ideas.
1. What if aliens are harmless and not as advanced as human?
After crash land, he tries to repair his space craft with the help of alien kids and learn their culture, and finds how good they and their planet is. After few months, he notices a man made space craft entering the planet's atmosphere and then he tracks it, in a hope that it is his rescue team, only to find that there is a man made base(nearly a decade old) build by a secret private agency. Then, he finds out that they are bringing some cargoes from earth to take over the planet and harvest some valuable resources, which later can be used to gain control over earth. So, now he hijacks a space craft(from the base) to travel back to earth and inform the government about this secret agency so that they can stop them. But before leaving, he finds that the cargo has already left earth. Now the only way to stop them entering this planet is to destroy the portal(assuming that, he also accidentally entered that portal to get here) and the base. Which will trap him on this planet forever, but gets to save two planets.
2. What if the aliens are far more advanced than us?
-they are the one who created the portal, and stalking earth for some time. (Here we say, you never know who stalks you)
-now, they are planning to invade earth.
-using the alien kids and some good aliens' help, he tries to stop the invasion by destroying the portal and alien's tech that helps opening portal (they can still rebuilt it, but takes some years).
-then, he manages to return to earth and warn people about whats coming.
Lots of cool ideas! Thanks for sharing:)
You're a knowlege beast. Gotta figure out how to telepathically connect and just mass download the wisdom. Until then, I'll forge ahead one great video at a time.
Astronaut discovers he is not the only accidental alien to crash land on the planet and join the family. He meets old Moon Friday, who helps him build his escape craft. But, the kids don't want to lose their earthling toys.
Cool!
Never really thought about writing or coming up with ideas like that. Usually I think about resolutions and then beginnings. Usually things just pop up in my head as scenes and I build from there. That makes it sometimes difficult to fill in the middle and also makes it difficult to summarize the story into a line or two. Maybe I should try to think more in concepts to see if it helps out.
Thanks for broadening my view!
Everyone has a different process -- sounds like yours works great!
Thanks for all these videos! Subbed
Astronaut lands on the alien planet while in search for Earth. He investigates this weird planet, to realize it’s filled with alien-like creatures, soon realizing that it was earth
Very cool! This video addresses an important point with great sense of humour. The success and subscriber base of your channel can only grow... and this is probably a euphemism.
Space marines raid the ship and he rushes to get the children off the ship, while avoiding both the aliens and space marines. In the end the astronaut sends the alien children on an escape pod, the space marines blow up the ship. The astronaut sacrifices himself to save the children. You could also add more meaning, revealing that his own children died in a car crash or something.
Sequel: his astronaut wife or relative goes into space, only to find the man from the last film has been clone with memories of the events of the last film.
Cool!
Thank you. You help me write my screenplay "ROADKILL BUFFET"
Love the title!!
Second concept: the astronaut was being sent to another planet that had allies that were enemies to the planet he’s on. However he still has to go to the rival alien planet to get resources to save earth. Now he has to convince the kids to help him go to the rival planet.
Second concept: The astronaut falls in love with the alien mother...
Any advice you could give on a screenplay that is pretty much a biography of a man who was a trailblazer in the 1930's and 1940's but who was forgotten? He died at 52 as a normal working stiff with those around him not knowing all the things he accomplished when younger.
I think your referring to the movie, Planet 51.
The number represents the overall quality of the movie, out of 100
I have always loved writing but never in a screenplay I am also a acting student how much does acting and writing help with each other quality cause I don’t care to do this unless I am going to be great and I am so committed to studying and training with the crafts,.. I always wrote trying to paint a vivid picture and mood in mind is that anathema to screenwriting which seems to be more to the point cause of the changes that are inevitably going to be made?
How do you combine scenes to go back and forth with during a voice over? And example would be someone on stage performing while in another scenes something else is happening at the same time with voice over from person on stage.
This helped a lot!
The aliens on the planet that the astronaut crashes in, are actually in act to move to another planet.
Thank you so much
I have 3 stories that I am working on right now I call them stories lol, is it better to focus on one at a time?And one story which I was thinking of making it a novel “Average Joe” is my loosely based off my experience overseas in the Army and my struggles with being in country going to be great Should I write it as a screenplay as opposed to a book?
I honestly need to make screen writer friends 😩
Me too 😭
Again with the sharknado reference
You're welcome!
If I'm starting my script out side going to the bedroom do I just write ext./int. Bedroom-day?
An astronaut crash lands on a planet and is kept safe by alien children. He knows the plants will be destroyed by a natural disaster but is duty bound not to do anything to help the inhabitants.
Hey! Thanks again for your videos. An idea: the astronaut is unconscious and when he wakes up it feels like home (because the aliens have this telepathic power where they can use his memories to build a hologram like the astronaut's home) so he thinks the people he sees and what he eats and what he does is real but it doesn't feel quite right. First he thinks it's because of the crash - he can't quite remember details- but then he `progressively discovers he is not on earth and nothing is real, it's just a hologram. So the alien children learn to do this at school and he would be an experiment or a toy for them. Eventually He discovers that there is a way back home, but he has to convince the alien children to help him, which is hard because they love their new toy.....what do you think? (off the top of my sleepy head)
+Ingrid frühbrodt
Very interesting and unexpected! Cool:)
woah i actually want to see this movie now lol
I am very interested in those 22 tips by Emma Coats. They would definitely improve my script. How can I find them?
io9.gizmodo.com/5916970/the-22-rules-of-storytelling-according-to-pixar
Thank you:)
Thanks for the comment, Steve!
I’m still working on story development
The astronaut crashes down, and being kept safe by the alien children, but little did they know the astronaut's mission was to blow up their planet with a bomb he had on his ship.
Don't know if that was good or not, but I tried haha, love the videos by the way.
+Oujii-
There is no worries about good or bad with brainstorming - just let the ideas flow! So well done! You could go in many different directions with that. Evil earth E.T. and the aliens are good- I like it. Twist on most movies where the aliens are bad.
Love your second concept. Blowing up their planet is his mission (as the planet is considered a threat to earth), but after the crash and being taken care of by the alien children, he starts to understand them and envy the simplicity of their existence and starts to wonder whether his mission to terminate that planet is justifiable, as there is no sign of intended aggression to earth. Added twist; the planet has, advanced medical science, (could not use this as he is in hiding and has no idea of their medical capabilities) a flower with healing qualities that was used to heal him. It is also possible that it could be used to heal his sick daughter that his wife died giving birth to. His mission then changes to saving the planet.
Shirley Temple haha You were spot on to what I was thinking, but your version of it is a lot better and more interesting, your creativity is superb.
Oujii thanks. We will be making our movie soon. lol
the astronaut sees how advanced the technology is on the alien planet and he will try to document it and even try to take some of it back to earth while being deceitful to the alien children.
He finds the aliens are gonna invade Earth.
Astronaut's blood is needed to save the alien race...
Here is the twist... 😉... only his blood given with selfless love does the desired healing effect actualize
Coolio!
You mentioned you read tons of scripts per year. Do you have a website for that? Do you do coverage? Is it the wordplayer.com site?
What's the music, please?
Not sure- royalty free music I get on audio blocks
Nooice! Thanks you! #respect
I can't open wordplayer.com. I can't even find something on archive.org. What's wrong?
ok , first let me say, I thoroughly enjoyed your video ,it was informative , inspiring , and warmly hosted . I would add, the work of yours I have seen is much the same , full of useful ,new , enriching , screenwriting or storytelling , secrets and standards . Thank you for sharing your experience , knowledge and passion . You have a good vibe and a friendly gracious AURA , and your easy on the eyes , all that being said-----------I have two ideas for your astronaut story, the first is, lets call it " ASTRONUT " a washed up ex nasa pilot who is mired in drugs alcohol and celebrity , who dosent go anywhere without his attorney , maid and guru/butler, has agreed to pilot a privately financed super shuttle into space. After inadvertently flying into and emerging from a black hole behind our moon he crashes onto a planet and is saved by children and their mother. Now heres the twist , He falls for mother and her kids before he's discovered and once again becomes a celebrity , He will have to save the mother , her kids and his entourage and return them all to earth, After a harrowing but successful return to earth he wakes up, but now he has wife kids and is a successful business man who always wanted to be an astronaut. If you ever find yourself in Sonoma Napa , please say hello , and let me treat you and a friend or two, to , whats your pleasure.
Thanks!
I like your idea! It's like SCI FI family man! Unique twist on the concept.
No thank you for ur wonderful work.... and for that fun writing excersize , congratulations on the Nichol fellowship its almost like an Oscar I think ,maybe the best contest to win for writersI suppose selling is best reward, or seeing your script made, I wouldn't know ....yet....but im happy for you and any other writer who achieves their goals ....thanks again for the insightpeace...jah....god bless ...ciao......ernestPS do u recommend the hiring of consultant and if so which ones and lastly is querying agents still productive or is that time gone
You can watch my video on "How to Sell Your Screenplay" for my take on queries and how to get your work out there.
I usually just recommend coverage to start with. If you need a consultant, the one I recommend is Craig Kellen at hollywoodscript.com
thanks........i hope to see a great movie and notice You wrote it!!!
One query: what if a spec script with less Dialogues completes in 50/60 pages but still last 80/90 minutes screen time?
That's tricky. You might look up the script for A Quiet Place and see the page count. You can always add more paragraphs and give it more white space.
The atmosphere makes the astronaut grow, so he becomes harder and harder to hide. What do you charge for notes, by the way?
I haven't yet started accepting consulting and notes services yet - I've been too busy. That might open up in a month or so.
Well let me know. I'd be interested. Keep up the great vids.
+Jeff Tarbell
Will do! There will be a video if I start doing notes with that announcement.
haha this idea is perfect
Nice!
+crow spike
Thanks!
Word Dancer - How to write a screenplay Your videos are very interesting. They helped me, I signed up for you girl
+crow spike
Excellent! Welcome aboard!
The alien children in an attempt to conceal him damage his ship more. So he is stuck until one of the aliens parents shows up with a ship he could use. But it would mean that he would have to hurt or kill the parent of a child he has become fiends with.
Cool!
Can you let me know when you become available to review a script?
Sure. Just hop on the waiting list here and you will get notified. It might be sometime next month:
www.screenwritingclassesonline.com/pages/services
The two children are so pure and good he assumes they hide him from the adults or authorities. They start to become really good friends, that is until he shows them a pictures of his own children. At that point they become cold, unfriendly and lock him away.
Why do you lock me away he cries, your parents may help me!!. We don’t have parents the child says. Like your spiders on earth, the child eats the parent at birth.
You are a parent.
...... my first ever story....
Whoa! I love the twist! And there's so much emotion going on there! Juicy!
Blimey, that was quick. You will never know how grateful I am for that. I've only read 3 books in my long life, and was almost ungraded in my English exams, but I just want to write a book. Your lessons are totally brilliant, you inspire me. I'm going to do it...Cheers Jules
The only class in my life I have ever failed is speech class - and now I have a TH-cam channel.. where I am speaking :) As Tony Robbins says, the past does not equal the future. Do it!
I like that! Just a thought. That idea you had of creating a scenario, asking people to finish it, then commenting if worthy...Well for people like me, with no experience or confidence, it's invaluable, I can't see that anybody else does that. Perhaps you could expand on the concept??? I'm working through your videos now and would have though that many of the topics could have a 'challenge' at the end. Or just carry on dong what you're doing, it's the best.
I like that -- I will have to come up with more challenges and people can post them at the end. As the channel grows I might not have time to make comments, but y'all can learn from each others responses as well.
lol, you totaly missed cabin in the woods(done the same mistake)..watch it again
Crash landing wasn't as difficult as trying to escape the humanoids trying to kill Marco. What looks like a forest has many strange beings, everyone doing something different, from playing what looks like baseball to fighing hand to hand combat. Marco hides behind what looks like a road vehicle. Some small beings, could be children on earth, point for Marco to get into the vehicle. Once inside Marco still gasping for air thanks the small beings but its obvious that they don't understand. There is screaming and yelling from the beings chasing Marco. No, they don't want to kill him, no, they want to study and experiment on him. Zer is in command and he doesn't want the human harmed, just captured. It seems Marco isn't the first to come to this planet.
Heres a riff on the Book Club idea :- bodies start turning up where the modus operandi matches each book the ladies have just read. Authorities say coincidence. Eventually the group tries to out the killer by deliberate choice of the next book.....
Ooohhhh...
High concept: Celebrity houses ... at night.
This concept sounds a lot like Planet 51
I had to look that up - yep!
Bruce Willis was filming Diehard and filming moonlighting at same time and he refused to budge on 5million salary studio didn’t want to put all their stock in an UNKNOWN MOVIE ACTOR TV STAR FIRST ACTION MOVIE.... I grew up in his hometown in Jersey and I will be the next Bruce.....how long does it take to write a quality screenplay? Cause I have written hundreds of pages in a day?
When the astronaut finally learns who they are hiding him from, he learns that the children are really all slaves on an island labor camp making intergalactic ship parts.
Would mentioning something like Twitter cause legal issues?
So basically:
Original + Familiar= movie
Im writing a scifi fantasy/thriller.
Flip an alien equivalent of a medicine man that is friends with one of the children send him on a quest to come to terms with the fact that hes stranded And may never get to go home. So basically the children have to go find a magical artifact that may possibly take him home.
The alien children are hiding the astronaut from giant alien dogs that run the planet and if they found the astronaut would use him as a chew toy!
LOL
LMAO!
Let's see... The astronaut should be Will Ferrell. 🙂At first it seems the cute alien children are hiding Will because they fear for his life from the adult aliens. They're also scaring him about all the terrible things they'd do to him. They nurture him, care for him, play with him, repair his ship, all the while interrogating the gullible, loquacious Will, and learning all about the Earth, the humans, their weaknesses... etc. Then the twist comes. It turns out the adult aliens (like humans) almost destroyed their own planet and their children have gone wild, rebelled. In fact, they are in power, and now their plan is to get to Earth with Will to conquer it... Fortunately, Will finds out about their plan in time. Then he goes on the warpath with the now rather terrifying alien children...
What if the children who kept the astronaut safe start dying one by one because the aliens are alergic to humans and now the astronaut has to find a way to save the last childs life
+Keith Koogen
Ooohh.. even another highly original take.
Thanks for your feedback, really enjoying your channel and the wealth of knowledge you so willingly share :)
:)
I google soccer mom and found something interesting...
Becoz alliens want to know about the astronauts talent and want to about how could they also crash into another planet and increase their lands on other planets........
He’s a militant nationalist on earth. He sees these aliens live for each other, for love, family, etc. and instead of phoning home, needs to misdirect others following him to protect these aliens.
I've got a great idea for a script!! what if people could get inside the mind of a well known actor (John Malkovich for example) and this happens to be found by a man who is in love with a girl from his work (now we have two ideas!) and we can do it more interesting making him a married person and a frustrated artist!! :D (seriously, it seems like Charlie Kaufman had seen this video before writing that master piece, jaja) Thank you Dancer, great info as always!!
Sure, Peter!
What if the astronaut is Elliott from ET, all grown up? What if the planet he has crash-landed on has two sentient species. One, whose kids are trying to protect him, is very anti alien. The other species is pro exploration and its leader is ET from the movie, all grown up. The first species rules the planet. ET's species is reduced to an underground rebellion. The story unfolds, and yada, yada, yada... in the end ET helps Eliott get off the planet.
I take it she doesn't think Cabin in the Woods was a well written movie.
The alien kid gets his UFO crazed tin foil hat uncle to help him steal an alien shuttle to get the astronaut back to his space station so he can go home. Because the astronauts spaceship crashed landed and doesn't work the same way the alien craft works. Basically the astronauts ship can't be fixed and there's only one way home. And that's with the help of his new found friends. But he's running out of oxygen so they have to hurry before time runs out.
Yeah!
Or...he crashed in the future earth where the children are a mutated version of what humanity used to be. Not pretty. They tell him he must return and warn humanity that they are headed in a dangerous direction. That this new earth cannot support them for very long. If the 'current' humans don't change asap, these children will die. But how does he get back? And if he does,will they believe him?
Also fun!
Thanks:)
I love you
Wow. SHARKNADO IS THE WORST MOVIE I SAW IN MY LIFE. WELL THE FIRST 15 MINS I DIDNT MAKE IT THROUGH.
I have idea:
You and i one person in different point of space and different time in universe and in real time we see each other in our point of attention.time of univers 1second =1000years. you alone here everything ilusion YOU CREATED UNIVERSE SUMETENUOSLY UNIVERSE CREATED YOU ALL THES UNIVERSES ARE SIMPLY DIFFERENT SETTINGS OF THE SIMULATION
So if you guys in your e-t move is on a planet that breaths carbondeoside and they are all most out and need a way to get higher level. Or the hole planet will die. So as you can tell buy my writing it sucks but I have an idle for a move the has all of the stuff to be a great move and all most everyone over 40 would won't to go see or would watch on something like Netflix how do I go about selling this move or get someone to screen wright it with the basic ideals I have for all most every act.
OMG. you talk too much. Lol