Which idea do you think is better?

I would vote for the first one. But what if your hook was something even you haven't heard of before...something that you yourself find undeniably right?

"Production worthy" for whom? A college class producing it? A big studio? Is this a short script - or feature? Zombie films have a fan base, and are easy/cheap to produce. Which is why there are so damned many of them in the 'indy' market. So a bunch of 'rotting corpses' running around in the woods killing people - sure, that's cheap. Is it interesting?

Royal Family - evil lord - could be some serious production costs. Futurisitic? Medieval? Time Travel? I OWN a ton of medieval/renaissance/fantasy costumes and weapons - train and teach mounted combat - it's STILL going to be expensive.

I'd go with the Zombie film on production costs alone.

I Like the Zombie one...

But mostly because you have the word "must" in there. But maybe take it a bit further. He must fight his way thru zombies or....what else.

Death? Maybe.

Or what if they have his wife or daughter held captive? Or they will kill his father, who is the king?

I don't know....but maybe find out which story you can push to the "somebody must do something..or this other bad mojo will happen..."

Hope that helps

gambit924 said:

I have two ideas that I like, but I can only write one for a class project. Which do you think is better?

Three warriors must save a royal family from an evil lord (Science fantasy).

A man sentenced to death must fight his way across an island full of zombies and killers (Battle Royale meets Zombieland).

I don't know. I can make something out of both of these ideas, but which do you think is better (more likely to be production worthy)?

Thank you!

Click to expand...

Well, if the goal is to actually produce this thing on the level of a class project, I can tell you this.

If you're talking warriors and evil lords and royal families -- think very hard about who's likely to be acting in this thing. Ian McKellan it won't be.

Even if you manage to get some half-way decent props and costumes which, in itself is tough -- getting real actors -- as opposed to friends and classmates, who can put this stuff on in a way that makes an audience look as if they really wear it and live in it on a daily basis, that they actually occupy a different time and place -- is next to impossible.

I've seen these kinds of projects and it pretty much always looks like third rate dress-up.

With a zombie movie, you're dealing with a contemporary environment, something that is mostly action -- so little dialogue and thus less demand on the acting ability of whoever you're going to be dealing with. It will be much more about the visuals, the shots, the editing, which will be more under the control of the director, the D.P. the art director, the special effects guys -- which, I have to tell you, in movies like these, are often better than the actors.

So on that basis, I'd say go with the zombies.

NMS