Generating ideas

Mind mapping is an industry with people like Tony Buzan claiming rights over this method of generating ideas.

There are a number of web tools to help you to present your thoughts and this should be a key part of the creative process.

Your thoughts and ideas need exploring and this stage is often missed out in the planning of projects. Many ideas that do not have legs or are impractical can be filtered out and it allows several options to be considered before settling on one which excites you.

We are going to try a number of activities to generate ideas and the mind map is the way to record this thoughts.  Be creative, use colour and images.  It is constructive doodling, arranging ideas into a cohesive narrative.

Short Film

Activity One

The short films we have looked at are about childhood in some way

Try to think of stories from your own childhood. In this clip from 'Ratcatcher' Lynne Ramsay captures some of the magic realism of childhood. One could imagine the idea for this scene coming out of a memory.

Imagine a narrative which has the theme of childhood.

Use your own experiences and those stories that you know from school or growing up.  Think of three and put them on the branches of your mind map.

For example, it could be about another child who you looked up to

A child who you were not allowed to play with

Roll some stories up together...

• Child who had a nose bleed
• had their ears pinned back
• parents stopped you playing with them
• Flooded the local church
• Creosoted a dog
• Had a fight with someone's dad at the kid's disco
• Someone threw a stone that hit them in the head
• Called the fire brigade and tragedy ensued 
• Argument with teacher about making a green salad 

Some we came up with...

• Stealing football stickers
• Drawing with crayons on Aunt's wallpaper
• Camping and putting a frozen doner kebab on the fire
• Rubbing white stretch jeans on a dartboard
• Being sick in a tent
• Getting head flushed down toilet
• Radiator falling on a student
• Pulling achair from under someone
• Hair removal cream

Two examples of visual incidents from a classroom were brought up which may have legs in a short film and we may come back to when scripting

A mannequin of body parts was taken apart and hidden from the teacher. The Skull was found in a hoody and various parts were hidden around the school

An irate teacher stood in a bin to make a point and said, 'Do I look like Rubbish?'


Maybe it is an early memory or a character at school whom you remember

Draw an image that represents each idea.

Activity Two

Now think about mise-en-scene and draw or list ideas on your mind map

Props
It may be something which establishes the time period

Costume - fashion
It may be having to wear something you didn't like, a big jumper or unfashionable shoes.




Activity Three

Develop a narrative

Use Todorov's theory of narrative to establish a plot.

If you are struggling for an idea use these familiar tropes.
--> A trope is a commonly followed formula or plot which is reproduced and becomes familiar to audiences.
Firstly try to identify a film that goes with each...


-->

• Spider and the Fly
• Love triangle
• Romeo and Juliet
• Oedipus – horrified when confronted with truth
• Superhero
• Underdog
• Escape
• Heist
• Sacrifice
• Rivalry
• Temptation
• Judas
• Metamorphosis

-->

Christopher Booker is a theorist whose ideas about narrative you can reserach and explore. He claims to have identified these types of narrative.  Think of a film that goes with each...

• The quest
• Overcoming the Monster
• Rags to Riches
• Voyage and return
• Comedy
• Tragedy
•  Re-birth

Your narrative could be man versus

• nature
• self
• man
• god
• machine

Here is an article about advertising showing how some of these narratives are used in adverts





Activity Four

Think of a character

Hairstyle

Body language

Facial expression

Name

Habits

Role in the narrative

Activity Five

Identify five types of shot that you could use in your narrative.

For example, a point of view shot will allow the audience to empathise with a character such as this one in Wasp which encourages the audience us to empathise with the children who are left vulnerable in a car park late at night with a range of threats. We feel their terror or discomfort as we are literally seeing through their eyes.

Maybe use Prezi software if you want to present your ideas digitally. If not then paper and pens are fine. The key thing is that you show the development of ideas on your web-log.