Is this idea any good? part 2

[michaelvorhees666]

For the ending of the movie 'Blackout' with the four teenagers trapped in the school, would a happy or depressed ending be better?

[Streetprowler]

Mike, you're going to have to let the cat out of the bag and tell us the twist. Then any of us might be able to help you with the ending.

What's the whole story so far?

[michaelvorhees666]

I'm not going into all the details, but it turns out that the entire school was taken by aliens. Everytime there is a Blackout, they come into the school because they are sensitive to light. They take the people and experiment on them back on their ship.

That's basically what it is. I just wandered if I should kill off all the main characters and make it sad, or at least have one survive to make it happy.

[LadyLiz]

Why not have the nerds figure out how to trash the aliens and take over their ship?

[michaelvorhees666]

i was hoping to film this liz, so i didn't want to have much CGI. doing an alien ship would be too much and i was kind of leaning towards a depressed ending anyway. but thanks for your comment!!!

[HailtotheKing]

You could always do the ship. Just build a model. CG is not always need, and some physical effects are better then CG sometimes.

[DAD]

Why does everyone seem to think CG is expensive? If you're working on a shoe string CG is sometimes the CHEAPEST way to get really cool visuals if you know how to do it yourself or know someone who can do it for you. I work in CG all the time and it doesn't cost me a bundle. Although I KNOW how to do CG animation and design all my own CG characters and stuff. :-)

[michaelvorhees666]

i just don't want to get into the whole CG thing on my second feature. thanks for the tip though!

[michaelvorhees666]

i just don't want to get into the whole CG thing on my second feature. thanks for the tip though!

[armagecko]

Hey, MV666! Your idea sounds interesting, whether it's good or not will depend on how you tell the story. You don't find too many unique revelations in LB horror movies (additional comments are always welcome, everybody). Most involve a battle between good and evil. How simple can you get, right? What makes this often-told tale interesting is how the writer, director, photographer, and actors choose to tell of this battle between good and evil. Your characters, setting, dialogue, medium (film/video), choice of shots - all of these - are used to tell your story your way. Turn your interesting idea into a good story and people will want to see your movie.

Which brings me to your next question - whether to have a happy ending or a depressing ending? Well, I don't mean to sound cynical or anything, but I guess the question really is, do you plan to make any money with your movie? If the answer is 'yes,' then I would suggest a happy ending, or at least a creative-twist ending (as earlier stated, other opinions are always welcome!) If the answer is 'no, not really' then by all means depress the heck out of your audience.

Study classic and neo-horror. Study the patterns of success in the genre. Most horror flicks, Hollywood & Indy, have what would be considered a 'happy' ending. Yeah, people die, but someone (our hero/ine) survives. This proves that good does conquer evil. That's the story most of us want to hear, isn't it? We all consider ourselves to be 'good' people, so we want our lives to be validated, to show that we are capable of rising above our obstacles. Tell a story of evil conquering good and you're taking a risk that 'good' people will enjoy seeing their lives invalidated.

Take Adolf Hitler, for example. Most, although not all, would agree that he was a despicably evil man. Now let's make a movie that shows Hitler as our hero. Now let's ask people to pay $8 to come see a movie that shows a man responsible for killing millions as the hero of our picture. Will people come? Some might, and if it only cost us $800 to make our movie and we got 101 people to come see it (after a tour of artistic venues , then we've made a profit (if we were working for free).

Sometimes these stories are interesting to some, but when you are attempting to make money, you'll probably want to cast as wide a net as possible. That doesn't mean you have to try to make a Hollywood blockbuster. But, you do want to take into account the 'Human Perspective' and how we like to view ourselves.

Maybe this has been helpful. If not, at least it's sure to stir up conversation!

Good luck with your efforts!

[michaelvorhees666]

thanks for the help!!!