Step 1: The Genre

As mentioned in the previous post, the first step in determining my plot is figuring out the genre. I unfortunately don't have enough time to research all the genres in the world so I've decided to pick three to research. But which three? I went on Statista (a great website to find statistics from a myriad of topics) to see which ones historically generate the most box office revenue and according to this graph, in North America from 1995 to 2016 comedy has been the top grossing genre. I found this slightly strange since I personally believe the quality of comedy movies has been decreasing over the years. I decided to take a look at another graph oriented solely on current years rather than an average of the last decade. In this particular graph listing domestic box office revenue of Hollywood movies in 2014 comedy ranked third behind action films, which came in first, and drama, which came in second. Action films grossed more than twice as much as comedy, bringing in 2,160 million US dollars more. Given this I've decided to conduct my research on action, drama, and adventure. I've chosen adventure as my third choice given that a lot of the films nominated for the Academy Awards this year fit within this genre such as The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road, and The Martian (you can check out the list of the of the nominees and winners here).

Sources:

Donnell, Jim. "Oscar Winners 2016: See the Complete List!" The Oscars. N.p., 29 Feb. 2016. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. <http://oscar.go.com/news/winners/oscar-winners-2016-see-the-complete-list>.

"Hollywood: Highest Grossing Movie Genres 2014 | Statistic." Statista. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. <http://www.statista.com/statistics/433732/highest-grossing-movies-domestic-box-office-genre/>.

"Movie Genres by Box Office Revenue in North America 2016 | Statistic." Statista. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. <http://www.statista.com/statistics/188658/movie-genres-in-north-america-by-box-office-revenue-since-1995/>.

Writer's Block & How to Combat It

I've learned that personally, to focus on little details I need to understand the big picture first. To work best I've decided that I need to determine the full plot to have the clear picture of the concept, the characters, their representation, and the setting to produce the film opening that represents my concept in the best way possible. There is only one problem: I still have no idea what direction I want to go with the film, what genre I want to work with, or what kind of characters I want to feature.
I've decided to break down the tasks I need to tackle to ensure that I will have a solid idea to work with.

Step 1: The Genre
To help aid in choosing the best genre I will complete extensive research on the three that I am most interested in working with and document my analysis on each to be able to compare and decide which one I want to tackle.

Step 2: The Idea/Concept
To help combat my bad case of mental block I will be bringing a group of friends together by to help me brainstorm ideas for the film. I will document this process and later decide on which concept I can work with best given the resources I have. Once I have a solid concept for the film I think the rest of the process will become much easier.

Step 3:  The Characters and Setting
Thinking about the characters and their traits ahead of time will help me begin to narrow a list of actors/actresses that fit these traits and begin to schedule filming. Determining the setting ahead of time will allow me to go out and seek potential locations to see which one best suits the setting I'm going for.

After these three steps I will have a very concrete idea of the film and will be able to begin larger projects like the storyboard, seeking the best music, and the script.