Film Plots: 7 Ways to Be Original

It’s not so difficult to come up with an idea worthy of becoming a film, and the competition is not so great. According to statistics, an average of about 700 new films are made in America and Canada each year. One of these films may be based on your idea too. In this article, we decided to tell how to create an outstanding story plot lines that can be easily directed.

1. Decide on the Genre and Watch the World-Famous Movies in This Area

So, before you start creating something of your own, you need to research what has already been created. This is the basic principle of many activities. For example, companies do a market analysis before launching a new product. Students analyze scientific information before writing an academic essay. In the case of preparatory studies for the idea of the film, everything works according to a similar plan.

The first thing you need to do is decide on the genre of the film for which you want to come up with an idea. Here are some suggestions.

• Choose the genre that you personally like. It is not necessary to follow the latest trends in cinematography in order to come up with a worthy idea.
• If you choose a genre, you should be unequivocal. Do not bind different genres in one film and in one scenario - the viewer will quickly get tired and confused.

Once you have chosen a genre, you need to view and analyze the top films from this industry. Be sure to take notes as you watch. Record heroes, a brief storyline, notice cliches and unexpected turns of events, pay attention to dialogs, and transitions from scene to scene.

After you conduct a study of the most popular films of your genre, you can come up with something of your own without fear of an accidental repetition of the plot.

This is similar to competitor analysis. You need to find out what your competitors have already done and come up with better ideas to engage the audience.

2. Let Surrounding Reality Inspire You

Many cool films are based on real events, for example, In the Pursuit of Happyness. This means that someone once knew an interesting person whose life path was special and interesting. Perhaps you also know such a person.

Here are some tips on what you can do using a real outstanding personality.

• Add someone else - fictional or real person.
• Come up with context and conflict.
• Set a 15-minute timer and write a short sketch that could happen to these people, in this context, and in this conflict situation.

You can use this scene at any moment in your film, whether it is the beginning, end, or middle, and develop a further plot in any direction.

Moreover, you can also draw ideas simply in modern reality. Our reality is a lockdown. And rest assured that we will see many films about this when it is all over. Yours may be among them.

3. Create Images and Push Them in a Chaotic Manner

The task of this exercise is to create several heroes and develop their combinations. As we have already said, your characters can be both real and fictional, but combinations should be unexpected.

For example, a popular college girl begins to make friends with a quiet excellent student - this is an obvious combination. But if a popular girl purposely renounces her status, because she meets *come up with someone yourself*, this is already more interesting.

4. Use Freewriting Technique

Freewriting is a recognized psychological tool and at the same time the answer to the question of how to write an original story. The moment you turn off your logic, your internal critic and analyst, and just start writing whatever comes to your mind, you greatly increase your chances of creating something original.

The most important rule is that preliminary thinking worsens the result. Do not think about anything before you start writing. Just write everything that comes to mind, choose random names, describe situations - then you can add clarity and details.

5. Play What-If Game

This is also a game exercise aimed at starting up creative thinking and coming up with something non-standard. The bottom line is to take your hero and start putting him in different situations. The most insane and unexpected, of course.

Apparently, the creators of the film Mrs. Doubtfire used this particular approach. Otherwise, it would be simply impossible to create an image of a nanny who is forced to change clothes and makeup to spend time with children. While being their father.

6. Start from the End

This is a creative thinking technique from the opposite. The task is to come up with the end of the film that will surprise and impress the viewer. Here is a good example of a good ending.

In the film Passengers, (*spoiler alert*) we understand that the main characters have already died, however, they lived a happy life and left a message to those who flew with them in anabiosis capsules. The film ends with people getting out of anabiosis, although logically, this should have been the beginning.

Watch this movie and analyze the intriguing tricks used by the scriptwriters. Here, the beginning and end are supposedly rearranged. Take some of your heroes and also try to come up with something like that.

7. Review Your Plot Ideas and Cut Clichés Off

Cliché plots are awful. This is a disappointing feeling when you can predict the development of events and the dialogues of the characters before they are shown. The only way to avoid this is to know fantasy tropes to avoid, places where they can hide and just not do it in your script. Here are a few examples of the most hackneyed clichés that make everyone feel nausea.

• a dream of a hero that becomes a reality
• one hero speaks of another, who at this time stands behind him
• snotty Cinderella-style love stories when a housewife meets a millionaire and lives happily ever after
• the villain tells his whole plan at the very beginning of the film (by the way, this is done by Grew in the cartoon Despicable Me, but remember that this is a cartoon for children)
• “Tell my wife and kids I love them” is very sentimental, but very hackneyed. The scriptwriters of the Click movie did better - at one point, which is potentially suitable for the above phrase, the hero says, “Family is Above All.”

After your script is completed, look at it with a fresh look again and make sure that you did not allow the cliché to spoil the whole impression.

Conclusion

Even if we take into account statistics about 700 films that are created annually, then, unfortunately, not all story plots are fascinating. It is good if 350 films prove worthy in the end. So, the competition is very small. Use our tips to find a really interesting idea and implement it in a cool movie.

About Frank Hamilton

Frank Hamilton has been working as an editor at review service Online Writers Rating. He is a professional writing expert in such topics as blogging, digital marketing and self-education. He also loves traveling and speaks Spanish, French, German, and English.

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