PLANNING - Historical event/figure
Adaptation Idea
Continuing the brainstorm, I decided to create a blog post about turning historical events/figures into a short film. Now this is such a common film idea! And why's that? Well it's clear... since the beginning of time we've all loved stories from Campfires all the way up to the big cinema screen. And what are the best stories? True stories! Where do we go searching for these True stories? THE PAST OF COURSE! I mean one simple server search came up with 231,000,000 results all about these fantastic films!
As it's such a giant genre of films, I am not about to go through the whole timeline of history coming up with film ideas! That would be silly! As Rob Wright told me 'Write what you know!' So I'm not about to write a film on King George VI - even though I did find The Kings Speech (2010 By Tom Hooper) amazing, it is not my area of knowledge. A WWI or WWII film on the other hand … I'd definitely give it a go! Having studied history and also having a slight soft spot for this time period; I know I'd feel comfortable working with characters and dates without having to do a full background check on knowledge! The only downfall is that I don't have a gigantic budget so costumes and venues wouldn't be obtainable!
Something achievable:
So instead of waffling about what if's, how about what I CAN do?
Haight Ashbury and Hippies- Now this is something I am obsessed with! For anyone not oddly fascinated by the events of Haight Ashbury here's a speedy explanation:
[1] Haight Ashbury is a thriving San Francisco neighborhood where cultures and eras meld together. Made famous by the hippie movement in the 1960’s, Haight Ashbury was once the home to revolutionaries, famous singers (including the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin) and cult leaders.
Anyway onto the ideas:
1- Girls perspective - So I learnt from the documentaries that lots of young teenage girls ran away from home to go and join this new forward thinking life of, what they perceived to be, freedom. This obviously left cereal packet families lost and confused. IDEA: I could create a short film about the girl escaping her house in the night. Follow her journey to Haight Ashbury. This would allow me to display how lonely and vulnerable many people were who came to the Summer of Love. I could work with a lot of Low Key lighting and Diegetic sounds of traffic and footsteps as she creeps on her way. I could get some fantastic Ambient sound going! Of course I wouldn't be able to film it in America but, that's hardly an issue. I mean in Mama Mia Here! We Go Again (2018 By Ol Parker) they filmed the beautiful Greek scenes in Croatia!
2- Drugs - A big aspect of Haight Ashbury was the drugs. People were living an unconventional 9-5 life: sharing partners, food, clothes, music, ideas and many many drugs! It would certainly be an interesting style of filming. IDEA: I could simply film someone going through their first trip, how they feel what they hear. I would be able to include crazy music and muffled sounds along with loads of colour and mad camera angles! The largest issue would be that, I don't know first hand about tripping (How hypocritical of me, only a moment ago I was preaching 'Write what you know'!) but, there's enough info and visual representations out there that I feel I could pull it off. Along with the fact that I've spent a huge chunk of my free time immersed in Hippy Drug infused documentaries!
3- Tour Bus - You're probably thinking what has a tour bus got to do with any of this! Well they actually had tours of Haight Ashbury for those not involved and infected by the Hippy bug! IDEA: It must've been the craziest view for people who were not a part of this. My idea would be to create a film about someone who got a tour around Haight Ashbury. I wouldn't be able to film the views of the hippies as I don't have a budget like that. I would probably focus on the inside of the bus and the facial expressions of the person taking the tour. It would be more about the emotional shock - maybe their daughter has joined the new community? Or they are an extremely right wing citizen. I could dress the character very prim and proper to emphasise this. The sounds of outside the bus would be muffled. Maybe I could play some of the famous songs written during The Summer of Love; but I'd have to be cautious about copyright.
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