Writing 29 pages of a screenplay per month #2: Flashback Inspiration

For the screen writing part of the challenge, I thought that I’d try and write a variety of forms, and in December I thought that writing shorts would be fun. I’d only written one before and that was part of a screen writing course. However upon thinking of shorts to write, one of my ideas I realised would need longer time to explore. I’ll go back to shorts during the year, as it’s a type of screenplay I don’t readily watch or read them.

With getting ideas they can come from anywhere, an article I've read or a conversation I've had. Most of my ideas come from the question; what if? A lecturer of mine at uni called John Rafferty was very eccentric and he would say all these out there ideas for articles and didn't make much sense at the time. Some of my course mates thought they didn't learn much. But what I did with his ideas is take one and then ask myself what if I did it this way instead of that, what if this happened instead.

My screenplay ‘s working title is called Stuck on You and yes I know it’s a Matt Damon film. My friend Hayley pointed out the film is a great lesson in green screen. So what is my screenplay about and how did I get the idea?

Before Christmas I was walking over to house of the new guy I am seeing, and I passed a park that I sit at in the summer. I had a flashback to the summer when I was with my ex and we were sorting through his football stickers he was collecting. There was a drunken couple who started chatting to us and said that my ex should hold onto the album as a complete one could be his pension. And so back to walking past the park in the winter I asked myself, what if a completed sticker album could be a person’s pension in the future?

After thinking some more, I thought it couldn't be one person’s pension, so I thought of different things the money could buy. The screenplay is set 40 years from now and is about a grandad and his grandson who after selling a 2014 world cup sticker album, uses the money for a European road trip. Except it’s one with a twist as there is a blast from the past for the grandad.

I've written 31 pages so far, which means I've achieved my 29 pages for January, but obviously haven’t met my November or December targets. But I'm on a roll with writing Stuck on You, and choosing the countries the characters visit make me feel like going on a road trip myself. Hopefully with the current cold weather I’ll get this completed in no time. Also if anyone has any suggestions for a title let me know!