Untitled Mafia Movie

"Untitled" (As of now)


This piece will be a sort of mafia-parody story about crime and the people involved with it. It will follow the story of both a Mafia boss and a lower-level generic mobster who is just starting out in the family and trying to break into it.

The main conflict will be between the boss and the aforementioned low level mobster, who, in doing what he thinks is a good decision, angers the boss and destroys his chances.

There will be one other intertwined character involved, who, in contrast to the first character, decides to do what will further him personally and becomes in good favor with the boss.

In addition, the boss will have to struggle with what's right and wrong in making his decisions about what happens to all of his people.
Basically, the whole piece is about decisions and what happens as a result of both good and bad decision making.

38.

I've already started describing this already, but this my official treatment for the first of my pieces: "38."


38.

38. follows the story of two people who leave their home early one morning to go shopping. As neither of them has a car, they decide to take the bus. It's a cold Sunday morning, and they get to the bus stop and start to wait.

They spend at least an hour at this bus stop, and this is the majority of the piece. It focuses mainly on the extent they will go to to entertain themselves and what comes out between two people when they're stuck alone with each other for hours at a time with nothing to talk about.

The piece ends when a man walking by informs the two that the bus doesn't run on that route on Sundays and they realize they just wasted hours for nothing.

Idea Number 3.

I love musicals.
And silent films.
And music.

SO.

I want to make a silent film.
Because in silent films, the sound is always the highlight and, since I've been doing musical things all my life and film for two years, I think way better in sound than in visuals.

If that makes any sense...

I want to make a scratchy black and white really old and authentic looking silent film.
(I also thought about doing it in a foreign language - the subtitles and stuff that pop up on screen - but I don't know if that would be overkill.).

I know the perfect song I would want to use (The Mooche by Duke Ellington) but I think that the law will probably get in my way for that one... unless I find a way that doesn't involve copyright infringement.

I don't actually know what would HAPPEN in this silent film, but I think it will involve danger. If you hear the song it'll all make sense.



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Thank you.

Idea Number 2.

It called "38."

The story?

My sister and I once spent over an hour one Sunday sitting at a bus stop.
We got so bored that we started doing the most ridiculous things to keep ourselves amused.
Then, after like an hour and fifteen minutes, a guy walking by stops to tell us that the bus doesn't go to this stop on Sundays.

So it'll be a film of two people sitting at the bus stop doing crazy things.
My problem is that I want it to be more than just a pointless comedy, so I have to develop it a little more.

But that's the basic plot idea so far.

Again: suggestions and comments are awesome.

Idea Number 1.

Yay posting!!!

But anyway...

I have three ideas for this year, but I'll writer them under three separate posts.


Idea numero uno:

A Mafia/crime parody.

Basically, my brother has always wanted to make a mafia movie, so this would be a collaboration of his ideas and mine.
So (if I do it - I'm still not sure about it) it'll be a parody (sort of Godfather-esque) of mafia movies/tv shows/stereotypes.

And I want it to be in black and white.

I have a script, but it's on another computer so I'll post it later.


So yeah... I know I didn't give much information, but if you have ANY suggestions on how to make it interesting and not exactly like every other mafia/crime movie ever made, that would be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE part deux.

By the way, I haven't exactly finished the song part yet, but it's not as crucial, as the recording doesn't have to be of the exact same piano as in the piece.

HOPEFULLY I can actually write a song (I didn't realize it was this hard...), otherwise, I have a couple of people I'm gonna ask who can definitely write music and play piano.

Once again, comments, suggestions, etc...

Thank you!!

UPDATE.

So.
Hi.
MAJOR issues on the project.
I just found out today that my major prop, the piano, will be leaving my house sometime between Monday and Thursday of next week.
So all my shooting has to be done between NOW and Sunday night.

SO. I'm trying to enlist my friends to be in the piece, alot of them have said yes, and I'm gonna shoot it all Saturday and Sunday (HOPEFULLY.).
I also wanna try to shoot the people moving the piano, as a conclusion to the piece, so it makes sense. I don't know if I'll use it, but I'm gonna shoot it anyway (if they let me, of course).

So yeah. The only big problem I have now, in addition to the time constraint, is that I haven't found any little kids to put in the piece. So the idea might have to be changed slightly, but I'll work with it.


Any suggestions or comments, especially any tips on how to shoot an entire piece in less than 48 hours, is GREATLY, GREATLY appreciated.

Final idea? Hopefully.

Thank you to everyone who commented on the last blog.

I think I've figured out what I'm doing. Maybe...

So. Piano.
I want the piece to span one full day. So it'll start one morning and end at sunrise the next morning.
Also, I want to action around the piano to move in a similar way - it'll start out with little kids, easy music, stuff like that, and progress to teenage-sort of kids, harder music, older stuff.
So it'll be one day and sort of one lifetime (crazy metaphors and stuff...).
As far as sound goes, I want there to be probably one song that cuts in and out the entire piece. There
will be shots of actual piano playing, then it will cut to the plot-like shots - people at the piano and doing stuff around the piano.
So now, I just have to find actors and write a song.



As usual, comments and stuff are great.

I have legitimate ideas...

exciting.

So. Joe wants me to tell people my idea and get feedback. But I don't want to... so I'll blog it instead.


I'm moving in about three months, and I have to get rid of the piano I've had since I was about six or seven. And I REALLY like it.
SO. The piece is about a piano, but the piano is a sort of metaphor for everything being left behind... memories, etc.
The piano is the centerpiece of the story. I want to show sort of the development and "life" of the piano... I want to somehow show a little kid playing, then have a teenager-sort-of person who can actually play playing it. I also want to have different items and music on top of the piano... starting with little kid kind of things and really easy beginners music all the way to things like cell phones. car keys, and really difficult music.

I want there to be cuts between shots of things like that - people at the piano, things on the piano - and actual shots of the piano being played, with piano music going along with it.

The problem: Joe wants words. I don't. I think it would be awkward and rough. And I don't know what the words should be (Joe wants me to interview my parents about the piano and about me playing it when I was little. I don't like that idea that much).

So I have to figure out the sound and what I'm doing for it.

At the end of the piece, I want to have a shot of the piano in an empty room, and if the timing works out, have a shot of movers coming in to move the piano and taking it away. The final shot will probably empty corner of the room where the piano was, probably during the morning so you can see the shadows and light coming in from the window and stuff... it'll look cool.

That's the basic idea.

Any comments or suggestions of any kind, good or bad, are incredibley appreciated.

Under the Boardwalk

Click To Play

This is the piece me, Andrew, and Branden made on the day the ICA opened...
We went outside and convinced people to sing lines from Under the Boardwalk.
This is only the first draft... I have to go back and add the ACTUAL song under it, and maybe some pictures?
But anyway... enjoy!

Kaleidoscope.

Hurray for filters!

Click To Play

If it makes it as far as being in the actual piece, it'll be as part of the opening credits or something like that... not an actual part of the piece.

A Post!

Finally.

Here are some shots I took... I didn't really have an idea other than that it should involve music.

Click To Play

Idea.

Okay.
I have some sort of vague idea of what I might want to do.

Originally, Joe told me I should do something related to leaving home and moving on, etc... (My mom told me a couple of months ago that she might move to Germany, so the theme is all sort of based on that.)

I wanted, orginally, to do some sort of narrative piece about a girl (or guy, whatever), who finds out that their parent is moving away (or some other big, life changing piece of news, details are sketchy) and all day sees symbols that remind her of that, so she feels like she can't escape from it and it's all that she can think about.

But, it might be hard to do something with an actor, so I'm probably changing it somehow to make it more abstract and less narrative-like.


Any critque you can offer would be great, even if it's just to say that it's a terrible idea. ANYTHING.

Thank you.

Ideas Part II

I want my piece to be... artistic.
I have no idea how.
I've always liked Branden's stuff, but I could probably not do it.
And I like the idea of doing something in another language, like Rene did.
I want it to be... creative and artistic and different.
I just need a story or idea to start it off.

Ideas...

I have no idea what I'm doing this year.
Because I've never made anything before (except last year's documentary), so I have no idea what makes a good movie.
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