The nerdfighter movie, ideas.
Next blog: http://nerdfighters.ning.com/profiles/blogs/nerdfighter-movie-getting
Hi,
Welcome to my second ever blog, the first one went rather well so I'm hoping this one does as well!
Firstly thank you all for the enthusiastic response and it certainly was enthusiastic! Seeing all those comments reminded me why I so want to make this movie and it's great to know you all do too.
So onto ideas. There have been one or two knocking about but I really do want a lot more! So I thought I would give you mine. Something I didn't think of at the time but has now obviously become important is whether this movie is fiction or a documentary. I strongly think it should be fiction, that is always what I had in mind and I think it's a more engaging medium to get our message across. That said the supports of a documentary are really quite persuasive so I have a suggestion:
Fictional movie as planned but rather than doing a traditional "behind the scenes" we do a "behind the scenes/the history of nerdfighting" a documentary explaining that although the story and characters in this film are fiction nerdfighting is real and the ideas behind the film are here in the real world... if the internet counts as the real world :P
I hope that pleases everyone.
Now for the plot/character ideas. Having read the comments and also talked to people there seams to be an idea that people come up with almost universally: two nerds going though their lives and falling in nerdfighterlike, a love story but not in the Hollywood way. A love story our way, a real story that has happened to many of us. It will also give us a chance to show two perspectives on nerdfighteria. I think everyone agrees that it should be a hopeful story, something that captures the essence of what it means to be nerdfightastic and therefore truly awesome. This brings me onto an idea I specifically want to mention, the idea of flipping the world around so that the nerds are in charge and the jocks and cheerleading types get bullied. I think this is a fascinating idea which has real potential but, and there is a but, I think it undermines the message of nerdfighting. We want to show that everyone is awesome, there is nothing inherently wrong with liking sport or being bad at maths. There is something wrong with bullying and putting people down, nerdfighteria may be a hope for geeks and nerds but at its heart it is a home for anyone who wants to live in a nicer world than the one we live in now.
I think that is a very strong basis for our film and I hope everyone likes it! At this point I would urge you all to send in your personal experiences of what being a geek, nerd and/or nerdfighter has been like for you. Not all can or will be included but it would be really nice to have a strong set of stories to base our characters on and maybe even put in the film. Please bear in mind that anything you do send in may be actually told in the film as you tell it and we might not be able to let you know first! Most films say "the characters and events in the film are entirely fictional" etc. I don't want to say that, I want them to be real but I also don't want people complaining about seeing themselves onscreen! You can send your stories in via comments on this blog, putting them in the discussion thread: http://nerdfighters.ning.com/forum/topics/nerdfighter-movie or at the new email address I've created: nfthemovie@gmail.com
So those are the general ideas that I hope people agree on, now for my personal ideas for plot and character.
I think that one of the characters should be a proper geek and fall into nerdfighting and end up video blogging etc. The other should be nerdy but gets caught up in celebrity somehow, I was thinking an actor/actress who has to deal with paparazzi etc. while at heart being a shy, geeky person.
The celebrity at some point, not sure whether it would be before or after they were famous ends up commenting on a video by the other character. They become friends and both become nfs. In short I like the idea of showing nerdfighting is some obscure thing for the weird people it's something that can affect anyone anywhere. More than that I'd like to show it helps them. I am a little worried about sounding preachy with this film but I think if we are careful and light-hearted about it, not taking ourselves too seriously I think it could come off really well.
Anyway, the two characters fall in nerdfighterlike and it's all good etc. etc. The other idea I really like is showing bits from across their secondary school lives. A lot more from later on obviously and most set now so that we are working with the same actors fro most of the film. I was thinking we could open the film with a montage from the millennium, new beginnings and all that. We could even get the whole community involved sending in clips of "home videos" from that millennium, give everyone a chance to act!
One final point I would like to make on a practical level but also something I think could help the filming along. I think one of the main characters should be British, the other American. We would have one unit filming in the US and one over here lead by me. It would split the filming in half to ease the burden, it would allow people from both sides of the Atlantic to be involved and would create a more interesting character dynamic that shows the international nature of nerdfighting. Sorry to people living everywhere else but there are only so many different units we can have! Plus most nerdfighters are in the US and I live in the UK so they were the logical choices.
Please let me know what you think about any or all of that!
Best wishes!!
DFTBA
Stephen
P.S. Reading this back I realise that I totally forgot to mention I would like to include videos from famous youtubers in the film and have contacted John about using vlogbrothers videos.
Hi,
Welcome to my second ever blog, the first one went rather well so I'm hoping this one does as well!
Firstly thank you all for the enthusiastic response and it certainly was enthusiastic! Seeing all those comments reminded me why I so want to make this movie and it's great to know you all do too.
So onto ideas. There have been one or two knocking about but I really do want a lot more! So I thought I would give you mine. Something I didn't think of at the time but has now obviously become important is whether this movie is fiction or a documentary. I strongly think it should be fiction, that is always what I had in mind and I think it's a more engaging medium to get our message across. That said the supports of a documentary are really quite persuasive so I have a suggestion:
Fictional movie as planned but rather than doing a traditional "behind the scenes" we do a "behind the scenes/the history of nerdfighting" a documentary explaining that although the story and characters in this film are fiction nerdfighting is real and the ideas behind the film are here in the real world... if the internet counts as the real world :P
I hope that pleases everyone.
Now for the plot/character ideas. Having read the comments and also talked to people there seams to be an idea that people come up with almost universally: two nerds going though their lives and falling in nerdfighterlike, a love story but not in the Hollywood way. A love story our way, a real story that has happened to many of us. It will also give us a chance to show two perspectives on nerdfighteria. I think everyone agrees that it should be a hopeful story, something that captures the essence of what it means to be nerdfightastic and therefore truly awesome. This brings me onto an idea I specifically want to mention, the idea of flipping the world around so that the nerds are in charge and the jocks and cheerleading types get bullied. I think this is a fascinating idea which has real potential but, and there is a but, I think it undermines the message of nerdfighting. We want to show that everyone is awesome, there is nothing inherently wrong with liking sport or being bad at maths. There is something wrong with bullying and putting people down, nerdfighteria may be a hope for geeks and nerds but at its heart it is a home for anyone who wants to live in a nicer world than the one we live in now.
I think that is a very strong basis for our film and I hope everyone likes it! At this point I would urge you all to send in your personal experiences of what being a geek, nerd and/or nerdfighter has been like for you. Not all can or will be included but it would be really nice to have a strong set of stories to base our characters on and maybe even put in the film. Please bear in mind that anything you do send in may be actually told in the film as you tell it and we might not be able to let you know first! Most films say "the characters and events in the film are entirely fictional" etc. I don't want to say that, I want them to be real but I also don't want people complaining about seeing themselves onscreen! You can send your stories in via comments on this blog, putting them in the discussion thread: http://nerdfighters.ning.com/forum/topics/nerdfighter-movie or at the new email address I've created: nfthemovie@gmail.com
So those are the general ideas that I hope people agree on, now for my personal ideas for plot and character.
I think that one of the characters should be a proper geek and fall into nerdfighting and end up video blogging etc. The other should be nerdy but gets caught up in celebrity somehow, I was thinking an actor/actress who has to deal with paparazzi etc. while at heart being a shy, geeky person.
The celebrity at some point, not sure whether it would be before or after they were famous ends up commenting on a video by the other character. They become friends and both become nfs. In short I like the idea of showing nerdfighting is some obscure thing for the weird people it's something that can affect anyone anywhere. More than that I'd like to show it helps them. I am a little worried about sounding preachy with this film but I think if we are careful and light-hearted about it, not taking ourselves too seriously I think it could come off really well.
Anyway, the two characters fall in nerdfighterlike and it's all good etc. etc. The other idea I really like is showing bits from across their secondary school lives. A lot more from later on obviously and most set now so that we are working with the same actors fro most of the film. I was thinking we could open the film with a montage from the millennium, new beginnings and all that. We could even get the whole community involved sending in clips of "home videos" from that millennium, give everyone a chance to act!
One final point I would like to make on a practical level but also something I think could help the filming along. I think one of the main characters should be British, the other American. We would have one unit filming in the US and one over here lead by me. It would split the filming in half to ease the burden, it would allow people from both sides of the Atlantic to be involved and would create a more interesting character dynamic that shows the international nature of nerdfighting. Sorry to people living everywhere else but there are only so many different units we can have! Plus most nerdfighters are in the US and I live in the UK so they were the logical choices.
Please let me know what you think about any or all of that!
Best wishes!!
DFTBA
Stephen
P.S. Reading this back I realise that I totally forgot to mention I would like to include videos from famous youtubers in the film and have contacted John about using vlogbrothers videos.
Comment
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Comment by Stephen on July 27, 2009 at 11:48pm -
new blog: http://nerdfighters.ning.com/profiles/blogs/nf-movie-charictors
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Comment by Stephen on July 21, 2009 at 1:27pm
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New blog now up:
http://nerdfighters.ning.com/profiles/blogs/nerdfighter-movie-getting
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Comment by Stephen on July 20, 2009 at 7:14pm
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P.S. You'll have to audition but I'd love you to be in it!!! We'll talk about that later on int he process
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Comment by Stephen on July 20, 2009 at 7:09pm
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This will I really really hope not have the feeling of a homemade film! I'll try dammed hard to make it not. That said it will be amitor. We do need to eb very careful about being chessy or unsubtle and will definatly keep that in mind!
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Comment by Mina Markliff on July 20, 2009 at 3:14pm -
Can I actually be in it? I live in the UK.
Also, I've seen a lot of "homemade" videos and bullying is a reccuring theme that rarely gets pulled off with any believability and often looks ametureish - so I think that would have to be subtle too. I have faith in the idea though!
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Comment by Stephen on July 16, 2009 at 8:15pm
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Have started a group for this project http://nerdfighters.ning.com/group/nfmovie
PLease go and join and add ideas etc. it will really help!
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Comment by David on July 11, 2009 at 12:39pm -
Oh I see. So by starting at the new years, we could follow their lives from the year 2000? Was that what you meant?
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Comment by Stephen on July 11, 2009 at 7:23am
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Ok again i have about half a minute to answer all that! Basicly most of that sounds pretty good to me. I think yes to nerdfighterlike and the ending idea and all that. I suspect the words 'Harry Potter' are copyrighted but we'll see what we can do.
One think I'm confused about, I thought we were going to go though the lives of the two main charictors or at least one of them a little bit. See how they got to where they are because I think it's important to see their lives develop and unfold until they reach nerdfighters and it changes everything. Think the way they showed young ned at the begining of every pushing dasies episode... except less twee!
Also the multiple locations is actually a practical thing. Having differnt units working with differnt people in differnt places cuts down on filming time and allows many more people from more places to be involved. With a colab channel we could have people who are in europe or south america or asia or anywhere really! And they wouldnt need more than a webcam!
For main filming we would need a high def camera in each unit. I certainly have one but I dont know about anyone else. I was thinking of flying over to america to shoot the ending. It is well worth looking at the only other time this has been atempted. http://internetzombiemovie.blogspot.com/ the british youtuber Briony (paperlilies) decided to make an international zombie movie using the youtube comunity, differnce is she set herself a deadline fo about two months! I'm thinking more two years! That said we will need the publisity of some famous youtubers to get things moving.
As for writers I want to at least parcialy write it as a group and then get fewer and fewer people working on it as we move towards proper scripting. Just to get maximum ideas but not end up fighting over it for months! I do know the format and I have now written 5 scripts of various lengths, that said I'm hardly an excelent writter! Idealy of course John would help out but he is almost certianly too buisy. In short we will see.
More than jsut a writer though we are going to need a whole team of people to get this done, thats why we need to raise our profile a bit. I will message everyone who has commented at any point sometime soon and get a ning and facebook group going.
Thats all for now!
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Comment by David on July 11, 2009 at 1:06am
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ONE LAST THING FOR TONIGHT I PROMISE :D
I think the splitting up the filming thing may need a bit discussion. It may be a bit complicated. Though I think that making it about a collab channel would ease things in terms of filming location.
Also, who would write the final screenplay? I would volunteer, but I don't know script format. or maybe we could all have a bunch of IM chats/ skype and write it live :D hehe
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Comment by David on July 11, 2009 at 1:02am
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Oh, and I think this may be implied all ready, but how abut the 2 main characters be in nerdfighterlike?
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