Make a Movie with Me!

I want you (yes you!) to help me pick what to make next

In the most recent edition of Hollyweird I promised I would make a movie… with you!

If, for some reason, you missed this and are confused, I’d really recommend reading that intro piece because in it I laid out a) what I’m planning with Hollyweird for the foreseeable future b) why I want to try this experiment in making a film TRANSPARENTLY and c) why I have also launched paid subscriptions for the newsletter (and the perks of becoming a paid Hollyweirdo). But the basic gist of things is… I want to make a movie and share IT ALL here on Hollyweird.

Let’s not waste any more real estate on the how and why of that right now. After all, we have work to do!

So…

Let’s make a movie, together!

To make a movie, we need to come up with an idea. I have a bunch, but I have two that feel like they’re the right ones for this exercise in… doing things differently.

I’d like to lay these two ideas out for you here, tell you what they are, what’s exciting, what might be potential challenges, and then YOU CAN VOTE for which one I ultimately write (and then try to direct). [More on voting below]

So if you’re into this sort of thing, let’s go! And if you know anyone else who might be into this, please share!

Step One of Making a Movie: The Idea

Many people begin with an interesting idea. Wrong.

Have yet to see a better depiction of “coming up with ideas…”

Ok. It’s not wrong per se, I am purposefully being “hot take-y,” but it’s not all you need. You also need to know why you’re doing this. So before we pick what to write, we should put a little bit of thought into why we’re writing it. At the end of the day, the “why” of it all is what can and should be the guiding light of the creative process. That way you always have something to turn back to and help you make decisions. More on “why why?” here.

Here are some of the questions that it’s important to consider before you spend too long thinking about any new ideas: Are you writing this to sell? Are you writing this to have a new sample of a different kind of writing? To get a manager/agent? To send to a specific celebrity? To direct?

I am currently puzzling together what I’m hoping will be my directorial debut (which I wrote a bit about a couple weeks ago, and will continue to fill you in on, never fear) but since that’s in process and I just finished another spec that I’m hoping to try to sell… I am at the age old conundrum writers face of… what next? I need to stay busy as a writer, and… I’d really like to write something else for me to direct.

With that goal in mind, I’ve been thinking a lot about whatever my version of a small genre film would be. Why? Contained genre (especially horror) is the easiest type of movie to finance currently (maybe always). Genre also seems to be one of the only areas in film where auteur filmmakers are still continuing to break out with some regularity. Coralie Fargeat, Danny & Michael Philippou, Robert Eggers, Ari Aster, Jane Schoenbrun, the list goes on and on… and goes way back… James Cameron, Sam Raimi, Peter Jackson, Kathryn Bigelow…

With all of this in mind, I’d really like to crack a genre film. It feels like both a strategic decision and a creative decision. Most decisions in film (“where art meets commerce!”) have to be a balance of both. I like genre! There’s a reason I keep working in science fiction. I like things that are not of our world. So I think this would be both creatively fulfilling (which is critical if you’re going to devote several years of your life to something) as well as commercially wise (also critical).

So we have our why(s):

I want to direct whatever I write next.
I want it to be a genre film.
I want it to be small enough that getting the money isn’t impossible.

This is an evolving list, of course, and will probably get more high falutin as we get more into the art of making a movie, but they have already helped narrow down our viable ideas quite a bit!

I have two ideas that fit within these goals, and as promised, I am going to ask you, the readers, to vote on which one I actually pursue!

Is this crazy? Maybe! Feel free to let me know in the comments, and also feel free to lobby for whichever ideas you are most into. And if you are a paid subscriber, I will be especially listening to your opinions!

Here are the ideas I think might be cool to make into a movie. And why.

1. NO CONTACT

ALLISON has cut her “toxic” mom out of her and her 10 year old daughter AVA’s life. But as her daughter approaches her 11th birthday, Allison begins to suspect her mom is trying to force herself back into their lives. Hoping to share her journey of going “No Contact” online, she begins posting on TikTok, but pretty soon her mom begins stalking her and her daughter, leaving behind cryptic and increasingly terrifying clues about her heritage, and the sinister fate in store for her bloodline, all of which Allison begins to document (and share) via social media.

Think Paranormal Activity or Blair Witch Project through the lens of toxic family dynamics in the age of social media. Searching or The Visit for the TikTok era.

2. UNTITLED GHOST ROAD TRIP

HARRY BINT (late 40’s, early 50’s) killed a kid. His shitty 2006 Honda Accord blew a tire, crashed into a ditch, and killed 17 year old ETHAN, a stoner who was in the middle of a massive bong hit, hiding his habit from his conservative parents. Now Harry’s car is acting weird. Dicks keep appearing on the windshield, and the car keeps filling with phantom clouds of weed. Harry’s car is haunted, by a shitty teenage stoner ghost who can’t leave. Convincing Harry he owes him for killing him, Ethan gets the “sad old guy” to take him on a road trip to Mexico, hoping that along the way he’ll get to experience some of the stuff he’ll never get to live out on his own without Harry’s help. The dream he’ll tragically never get to live? “Drinking a Corona on a beach in Mexico, like in those ads.”

Part SWISS ARMY MAN part MIDNIGHT RUN part PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, with a dash of CASPER, if Casper were a shitty teenager.

No Contact Pros & Cons

Pros: I’d love to make a found footage style movie that uses vertical video ala TikTok. I haven’t really seen it tried much, and I always love a formal experiment. (I recently watched Spree, which does play with this format, a bit, but is more constructed around live streaming. I think this would be very different from that film, for a lot of reasons…) I also think thematically this taps into something really prevalent in our current moment — the generational divide between millennials and boomers, and this feeling of family toxicity becoming so unbearable that it tears families apart. Familial estrangement is extremely common (check out #nocontact over on TikTok or Whitney Goodman’s work on instagram), and I think there’s something interesting to taking this emotionally weighty (and it would seem timely) subject matter and building it into high-concept supernatural horror. Could be very Blair Witch!

The cons? It’s probably really small. A very DIY kind of movie. Which are hard to make! Not to mention, found footage can be challenging to build out in a way that’s compelling and believable without feeling too gimmicky. I also think the format might force you into a corner in which you can’t make something that’s very stylish, since you’re married to a very particular aesthetic.

Untitled Ghost Road Trip Pros and Cons

Pros: I think this idea is “familiar but different.” You hear the pitch and you can kind of imagine what the movie might be. There are a lot of things like it, but nothing exactly like it, which might make it more palatable for agents/managers/investors and later on down the road with things like… marketing. This is kind of the sweet spot when it comes to ideas you want to pitch. “I can see the trailer now!” Small road trip movies are pretty safe indie fare because they tend to have pretty low overhead (a car), and tend to be built around performance showcases for actors (making them easier to cast). I also think there seems to be a little bit of an appetite currently for “hard comedy” as in… “haha genuinely funny jokes” comedy and I love this kind of dumb comedy a lot. Maybe the biggest pro? I can already tell I have a lot of ideas for things to do within this world.

Cons: This isn’t truly “genre.” Comedy/drama elements tend to dilute your ability to sell a horror project as it’s now something else entirely, which might make it a little bit less down the middle than something that felt like a straight up genre piece. Also, the idea feels familiar in a way that makes me a little bit nervous. Like… do I have anything new to say about any of the things this film would touch on? I’m not sure! It feels (without having given it too much thought) like it might not be the most original, and also might not really be about anything at all. I tend to get most excited (and I think as a result write the most interesting things) when there’s a big idea at the core of what I’m writing, and I’m not convinced I know what that is for this one. Is that something to be concerned about at the very beginning? I’m not sure yet.

I’m sure there are more pros and cons to each idea that I’m not thinking of. If you have thoughts, I’d love to hear them.

And now, it’s your turn to get involved.

As my readers / eventual viewers, what do you think? What’s exciting? What do you want to see?

I am going to open voting on these ideas for the next week. Modeled on American representative democracy, I am going to consider the will of the people, but I am not committing to follow the will of the people. Unless you pay me enough…

If you really feel strongly about either choice, feel free to lobby to me in the comments. Why is one a better idea than the others? Any pros or cons I’m not thinking of for either? Think I’m crazy for doing this all out in the open? Think this is a good idea? A bad idea?

*A NOTE* I am NOT entertaining your creative / story ideas! I am trying my best to do all of this transparently, and in order to do that, I have to please, please, please ask you to not pitch *ideas* in the comments. Right now comments are open to everyone, and I’d love to keep it that way.

But pitching ideas will get you a swift block from the comment section, and force me to reconsider who gets to comment entirely.

One of the main reasons people don’t share the process is that it can open artists up to legal problems, particularly if people send unsolicited ideas. So please please please don’t do it. Let’s keep this space cool, and keep this a place where I can share all of this without fear!

All of that being said, I would genuinely love to hear any and all thoughts on what you would want to see! And if you’re struggling to decide what you think, I have written about my thought process on what makes a movie idea “good” before.

Into what I’m doing here?

I would really love it if you would help by SPREADING THE WORD!

Sharing, commenting, and (dare I say it one more time) choosing a paid subscription are the best ways to vote with your attention and your dollar (the only two things the American economy prioritizes) for more open-source filmmaking efforts like this!

Oh, also, if you are a paid subscriber, you will be getting a little bonus insight into these ideas, right now…