Idea Genesis

Genesis of Our Idea We originally wanted to do a film based on Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss. We brainstormed several possibilities with this concept, as we really liked the idea of a film that revolves around a journey or trip. We considered adding a Tim Burton twist to the film. As we were discussing who we wanted our protagonists to be, we decided that we all liked the idea of having older characters. It seems that so many films revolve around people our age or cliché characters, in general. By adding this unusual element – feisty older people – we hoped to escape some of the overdone, overused material we all know so well.

As the development process dragged on (literally, dragged on), we just couldn’t quite come up with a concept that clicked and that we could all get excited about. We played with the idea of an older couple going on vacation, then an idea about a group of old guys who go on a trip to revive their band, and more ideas. After drafting the first treatment, we all agreed that we should scrap our ideas and start fresh. Within about 15 minutes, we came up with the basis for the final project.

The concept of including older characters stayed, we added a young hipster kid, incorporated the idea of a band, and added a chase (which is kind of like the original Journey idea we liked so well). As this plot developed, we still made some changes to our original ideas and had to decide how best to deliver the narrative.

For example, we weren’t sure if we wanted to have Rodney, the character who gets killed in the restaurant scene, have an “in” with the mafia or have a history of screwing over his friends. We also had to decide why the band owed money. We settled on a realistic scenario in which they hadn’t been paying their studio fees for quite some time.

A few of our members had seen quite a few mafia movies and offered some great insight on the dialogue and flow of the plot. We did some extra research on mob families in the Los Angeles area, which is how we came up with the name Ardizzone’s for the restaurant.

This is the last name of the original mob boss in LA. The final story came from many hours spent exploring different dialogues, scenarios, plot twists, and personal experiences. We had to be flexible and creative, open to new ideas and trashing ideas that just didn’t fit. We are excited about and satisfied with the finished product and are glad we spent so much time deliberating on the front-end of this assignment.