Shadowrun Script Ideas, I need some help brainstorming Options

[Stumps]

Well...in another thread, Aku said that he wanted to make an SR film.
He has said that he's serious about it, and backed it by saying that he's just finished film school.
He also asked for help with ideas and what not from the board.

I have worked quite a bit on low budget movie making before I joined the military and have wrote a few scripts so I PM'ed him and offered my help with writing the script.
He accepted the offer but told me that he wants me to keep it City Neutral, or make it set in Pittsburgh because he can drive there if need be.

I'm thinking of setting it in Pittsburgh because my office co-worker is from there so I can gather local info from him for writing it which will be helpful and having an actual city would make the script be more alive than city neutral.

----
All that said (so you have a back-history and all), I wanted to open up the floor for ideas that anyone might have for an SR low-budget movie.

There are no guidlines or anything.
I'd rather just let everyone free-flow think and imagine on this one.

Should it be a full team, or lone character?
Should it be "Payback" or "Heat" style (revenge, or tactical hit)
Should it be a Corp run?
If so, what Corp's would be interesting to you?
What races would you like to see the most if it is to be a team of runners?

Stuff like that.

Any ideas?

[Fortune]

As to location, I have to say that only a very small percentage of the movies produced are actually filmed in the city in which it is set.

Just to get things started in regards to the plot ...

Possibly a typical Corp-run-gone-wrong (Aztechnology, or SK), with a chase through the Barrens, with the inevitable gang encounter (the Spikes). :)

[Nikoli]

I think the Halloweeners would be a better one, they strike me as more cinematic flair.

Wage slave in a dead end job gets extracted, not for his knowledge, but to test defenses and the skills of the team. Milk run gone wrong sorta thing. Problem is, he didn't want to go, but the corp doesn't know that, so they whack his family in retailiation. Poor sob doesn't blame Corp, he blames the runners and enters the shadows to hunt them down and seek revenge, only to fnid out that some sleaze exec. was going to liquidate him anyway because of some inner-Corp politicing. (poor guy probably came up with a multi-million nuyen concept by accident and pitched it upstairs, this guy passed it off on his own, only to have it flop and cost him a corner office)

Guy, by the end can handle himself and chooses to instead work with the team that inadvertantly saved his hoop while making life hell for teh exec

[toturi]

Just a "normal" run. Meet the Johnson, legwork(meet your contacts at a bar or some backroom or a Matrix search), infiltrate somewhere and steal something and get out, meet the Johnson to get the nuyen.

KISS. In fact, I wouldn't mind if you guys used the SR Miniature as the cast! Cheap, no need to go on location, the props and stuff can be made at home, Matrix things can be CG.

[Aku]

on the not often set in the city, its true, but pittsburgh can easily pull off a variety of other sites, it has a lot of nice ethnic neighbor hoods, and is convenient for me hehe

[Fortune]

I wasn't arguing against filming in Pittsburgh. I was merely pointing out that just because it is filmed in Pittsburgh does not necessarily mean it has to be set there. :)


Nothing against Pittsburgh ... I have some very distant relatives there somewhere that I have never met. :D

[Stumps]

Good stuff here so far.

Nikoli, I like the drama inwrapped in your idea there.
Some interesting story complications can be seen in that.

Toturi, that's an idea of course...although...I'm thinking for a movie, a "normal" run for an audiance of Shadowrun fans would be wholly boring since everyone has done that and seen it in story version many times over.

And there is no way that I would propose the use of miniatures as the cast for Aku's tallent.
That's a rediculous waste of a chance to make a short movie that's worth a damn for SR.
But really, that side is ultimately up to Aku.
If he wants to do it with miniatures then I suppose that's his call.

Actually...Aku, they just gave me a great "inside" idea.
You know...those little add-in's that movies do as homage to something they like.
I'll let you know about it on IM.

Fortune:
Yeah, that's true I'm sure most of Pittsburg could double as other cities.
I'll keep that in mind

[Demon4x4]

[toturi]

You know what I really would like to see? And I think nearly everyone would identify with since they would almost certainly have run it or read about it? FOOD FIGHT!

[Feonyx]

Sneakers meets Goonies meets Bladerunner meets Matrix.

... team work... traps and corp defenses... future tech/life... cyber matrix stuff... Would own

Feonyx

[Kagetenshi]

If anyone knew someone who owned a convenience store, especially one with a lot of just-expired foodstuffs that could be put on shelves to be destroyed…

~J

[Method]

[Nikoli]

Hell that would be fun, even without doing a movie or short

[JaronK]

Well, knowing what I do about small budget movies, here's a few thoughts:

1) No magic. I'm sorry, you just won't be able to make that one look good without some kind of special effects... otherwise, on screen it'll just look like an actor fell down for no reason.

2) No weird races. You're not going to make it look good, unless the only trolls you see are REALLY far away or very much in shadow.

3) Keep it more about characters than big fight scenes. You might be able to get a good writer... you won't get a good special effects team.

With that in mind, something more about today would go over with a wide audience better than something that only makes sense in the future. See Heat or Ronin for a good example, but of course toned down. Maybe it's just a group of thieves that wants to steal something for revenge/profit. Maybe it's politically motivated. Who knows. But a goal that makes sense today, not "stop the horrors" or "extract a cyberzombie."

JaronK

[Kagetenshi]

You can use magic, just make sure you use only the spells that have no primary visible effect.

~J

[JaronK]

For those not familiar with Shadowrun, spells with no visual effect will just look like the SFX guy forgot to put something in there.

JaronK

[Kagetenshi]

And for those not familiar with Shadowrun, anything but a semiprofessionally-produced fanfilm will look pretty silly either way, so why cater to the already-lost audience?

~J

[JaronK]

If it's not well produced, at least the acting can be good. The most common mistake I've seen in small budget films is too much ambition. You don't need lots of money to have decent acting and writing, so that's what you need to depend on.

JaronK

[Cynic project]

Well, one thing you should do is to put the focus on the things lacking that would drive someone to become a shadowrunner.

Maybe have "home" in a storage unit,filled with cinder bock,particalboard and trash. Have everything that have just look old,and used.Maybe make it look like they haven't had a good night sleep in a long time. Make them cynical,and yet show that they still have hope.

[Method]

To be honest I agree with JaronK to some extent.

I don't think you can do a low budget SR film and do justice to the game, or at least it would have to be exceptionally well writen and acted and even then you'd still have to invest in some half decent special effects, props and make-up.

Cuz...well, lets be honest... A SR movie without magic, tech (including Matrix) and metahumans just isn't a SR movie. It would just be a low budget knock off of "Ronin" and/or "Heat".

But I don't want to be a naysayer... I think it would be great if you could pull it off.

[Method]

To answer Stumps question more directly I think the main challenge with any SR movie would be to distill the expansive game universe into something you can feasibly convey to an audience with minimal exposition. I am of the opinion that, to do the game justice, a movie should be the quintessential run-gone-bad with:

- an evil corp johnson as the antagonist
- a decent mix of interesting character types (face, sam, mage, decker and maybe rigger)
and
- the subtle hint of published adventures scenarios here and there (a chase scene through the sewers and fight with giant alligator, food fight or gang fight scenario, maybe some random encounter from Sprawl Sites) to add interest for established players.

That way it would be new and interesting to someone unfamiliar with the game, but old school fans would instantly relate to it. I think that to win over the SR fan audience you need to make those classic SR scenes come to life on the screen the way the players have been envisioning them in their heads for years (think of how you felt when you saw the first LoTR movie having grown up reading Tolkein your whole life).

[GrinderTheTroll]

[PBTHHHHT]

In terms of SFX, I think it's more easy to pull off with todays computers than before. Yeah, i know it's limited resources, but heck I think the movie with antonio banderas (the latest mariachi movie), the church fight scene they did it all with rubber guns and then added in later the flash. Heck, I think magic can be done. Hmmm... what ya need, a fireball sequence in the film by the mage.

As for story, definitely keep it simple but add in a twist or complication somewhere. For background, please put in some shots (at least in passing) of a bleak urban sprawl scene with the gleaming high rise buildings and arcologies jutting out into the horizon as a background to show the difference. Heck, I drive down from school in the evenings sometimes on North Capitol Street in DC and I see the Capitol building dome looming at the end of the street all lit up, but all around me as I drive is the urban decay of northwest DC. The boarded up buildings, the panhandlers bundled up walking near the intersection. As you get closer to the Capital building, the whole environment changes.

[KillaJ]

I would like to cast a vote for Nikoli's pitch. That brief synopsis of a movie kicked the shit out of many actual movies that I have seen.

It seems like it would be quite affordable (as far as any movie is) since it seems like most of the movie could be set in a modest office or someplace like a shitty bar or a dark alley. There isn't any need for any flashy SFX, mages are rare after all, and you could plausibly leave out metahumans if he worked for one of the hard line Japanacorps.

It practically writes itself, betrayal, revenge, a corp suit getting a bellyful of lead, what more can you ask for?

[Stumps]

Just so you guys have some better ideas of restrictions here.

There are none.
Aku has told me he doesn't want low budget so I'm not giving him a script that is low budget.

Cast wise I felt somewhat what the writers of x-men must have felt like when they asked themselves, "Ok...so who's in the movie?"

With all the archetypes, it can be hard to try and pin down the best overall mixture to represent SR with in one movie.

So, here's what I'm looking at so far:
Human Merc/StreetSam/Teamleader
Human Decker
Human Shaman
Elf Adept (if you play 2nd Ed, this would be a physad)
Troll Brawler & Big Gun
Dwarf Rigger

That is what I think diversifies and shows SR's uniqueness the best.
The Hermetic style of magician is something that we all have seen often in movies.
The Shaman, otoh, is not something that is often used and is so interestingly unique to SR that I think it's worth getting in there.
The Elf being an Adept is because we are completely used to magical elves in RPG's so one that is more akin to kicking martial arse would be a fresh view to audiences.
The rest pretty much fall into place except the Dwarf Rigger who I got the idea from the artwork in SR3 showing such a thing. It's just a great idea.
(Except I keep hearing the quote from Thumb Wars in my head when I think of a Dwarf Rigger, "The tall one's kind of feminine and I think the small one has an amputee inside!" [regarding C3PO and R2D2])