Movie idea.

[NSEP]

Everyday i get surprised and saddened by the fact that Spaceflight is extremely under appreciated by the public. So why not make a movie about Spaceflight?

Sure thing, we got alot of Space-related movies, but most popular Sci-Fi are either unrealistic, and more fantasy-like, or only show the far future side, or the dangerous side of spaceflight. Why not make a movie about a kid who dreams of going to Mars and goes there, instead of a person who almost dies on Mars and struggles to survive?

If there are any space movies that aren't unrealistic or too dramatic? Feel free to share!

 

[Bill Phil]

There is a good selection of historical documentaries, but I suspect that's not what you're looking for.

[tater]

The next big budget space movie (space opera fantasy doesn’t count) will either be Seveneves (Ron Howard has this, apparently), or Artemis (movie rights were bought from Wier outright before the book is even out). 

[TheSaint]

I think the problem you have in making a spaceflight movie is that real spaceflight is, well, fairly boring. At least from the perspective of John Q. Public. Nobody is fighting, there are no big explosions, the uniforms are not in the slightest bit sexy. Even the major challenges that we face in long-term spaceflight are not all that exciting. It's hard to make bone loss or long-term radiation exposure a riveting plot point in a 120-minute screenplay. Space disaster films (Apollo 13, The Martian, Gravity, etc.) do better, because they bring some danger to the table. But as a genre I don't think they really do much to promote spaceflight. I think if anything they make the average person think, "If it's so dangerous out there we should stay home." When people go to the movies they want to see drama, and the entire point of the programs associated with spaceflight is to avoid drama entirely. 

[tater]

That’s why near future can work, since it gives some plot freedom.

[TheSaint]

3 minutes ago, tater said:

The next big budget space movie (space opera fantasy doesn’t count) will either be Seveneves (Ron Howard has this, apparently), or Artemis (movie rights were bought from Wier outright before the book is even out). 

I'm looking forward to Seveneves, but I would wait to see what Ron Howard and company actually do with the concept before you categorize it as "Not Space Opera". A lot can happen to a novel between the first draft of the screenplay and the premiere.

[Geonovast]

I think we need a Kerbal movie that does neither and both of those things.

[kerbiloid]

A realistic movie about a spaceflight would be the second most boring after the realistic movie about hackers.

Though, both of them could be a meditative arthouse.

Edited November 16, 2017 by kerbiloid

[TheSaint]

Just now, kerbiloid said:

A realistic movie about a spaceflight would be the second most boring after the realistic movie about hackers.

I laugh so hard at movie hackers.

[NSEP]

2 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

I think the problem you have in making a spaceflight movie is that real spaceflight is, well, fairly boring. At least from the perspective of John Q. Public. Nobody is fighting, there are no big explosions, the uniforms are not in the slightest bit sexy. Even the major challenges that we face in long-term spaceflight are not all that exciting. It's hard to make bone loss or long-term radiation exposure a riveting plot point in a 120-minute screenplay. Space disaster films (Apollo 13, The Martian, Gravity, etc.) do better, because they bring some danger to the table. But as a genre I don't think they really do much to promote spaceflight. I think if anything they make the average person think, "If it's so dangerous out there we should stay home." When people go to the movies they want to see drama, and the entire point of the programs associated with spaceflight is to avoid drama entirely. 

Spaceflight is boring, but for the Astronaut it maybe is not. There are alot of exciting bits in an Astronauts journey to space, like the launch, landing, spacewalks, etc. Cut away the not-so exciting things like the Coasting to Mars, and you got mostly exciting bits. Spaceflight is also about riding explosions, how is that not exciting!

9 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

I laugh so hard at movie hackers.

 

[TheSaint]

22 minutes ago, NSEP said:

Spaceflight is boring, but for the Astronaut it maybe is not. There are alot of exciting bits in an Astronauts journey to space, like the launch, landing, spacewalks, etc. Cut away the not-so exciting things like the Coasting to Mars, and you got mostly exciting bits. Spaceflight is also about riding explosions, how is that not exciting!

When people go see a movie, they want to see drama and peril. Screenplays about people getting along and working as a team and equipment that functions flawlessly go nowhere. That's just how it is.

[NSEP]

8 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

When people go see a movie, they want to see drama and peril. Screenplays about people getting along and working as a team and equipment that functions flawlessly go nowhere. That's just how it is.

Yeah, thats true. Im just not up for the deadliness of spaceflight itself, that give spaceflight a bad view. Maybe an argument between Astronauts that lead to someone smashing a hole in the station and a bunch of red alarm flashy lights, its nothing too deadly and explodey, yet it is thrilling and dramatic, i think (im could be wrong). Yet its a person's fault, not spaceflights fault.

[tater]

Clearly you need a hook. There are also movies about regular people living their regular lives. Sometimes they do well, particularly if they cost little to make. A space movie by definition costs more to make, so can’t afford to take chances.

It’s possible to set a realistic future history where “normal” character movies take place. It’s about people, but they happen to be in space, vs something like gravity where it’s about everything exploding in space. 3 characters, 2 are astronauts, and the other is the monster, “space” trying to kill them. It was either that, or it was a disaster movie, minus the ensemble cast.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-highest-grossing-movies-of-all-time-adjusted-for-inflation-2016-9/#10-snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs-1937-1

interesting list adjusted for inflation.

I think there must be a way to interest people where the realism is just set decoration, organic to the story without being the primary focus. 

[NSEP]

1 minute ago, tater said:

Clearly you need a hook. There are also movies about regular people living their regular lives. Sometimes they do well, particularly if they cost little to make. A space movie by definition costs more to make, so can’t afford to take chances.

It’s possible to set a realistic future history where “normal” character movies take place. It’s about people, but they happen to be in space, vs something like gravity where it’s about everything exploding in space. 3 characters, 2 are astronauts, and the other is the monster, “space” trying to kill them. It was either that, or it was a disaster movie, minus the ensemble cast.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-highest-grossing-movies-of-all-time-adjusted-for-inflation-2016-9/#10-snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs-1937-1

interesting list adjusted for inflation.

I think there must be a way to interest people where the realism is just set decoration, organic to the story without being the primary focus. 

Thats interesting! Thanks for sharing!

[kerbiloid]

A space reality show.

Pilot season.
Casting.
Ask yourself: would you like to be staring at awful and dinky persons for almost two years?
No. Spacehumans must be eye candies. Otherwise you will get bored before they leave the LEO.
(Of course it must be strongly taken into account that hair and etc. float nicely in zero-G.
This makes the audience to make their choice deliberately, engaging the imagination,)

Season 1.
They meet each other, discuss what to build in orbit, and whether stay there, or fly to some another planet. Also create pairs.
Several contestants leave the show, mercilessly ground it and start a spin-off show "Staying on the Earth."

Season 2.
They start building a spacecraft in orbit. They fly up and down in a reusable spaceship in a cabin equipped with magnets.

Spoiler

(like these:)

(The magnets provide the artificial gravity, this is well-known).

They deliver the station modules. Some of them are classic, others are inflatable.

Spoiler

(skipped due to the forum rules)

They deliver and berth several greenhouse modules with different plants, which they will be farming during the flight.

Spoiler

(They will be eating this.)

(Netherlands have sponsored a part of ESA greenhouse module, so...)

(Also nice and makes the air odor unforgettable).

 

(Skipped due to the forum rules).

Also they discuss the station design and change it several times, replacing different modules with each.

Every second pair gets broken and exchanges with the neighbors. Several new contestants arrive.

 

Season 3.
The spaceship is build in LEO, all get to there.
While the supply shuttles are fueling the station/ship, the contestants continue discussing their psychological problems, cheat each other and replace the pair members.
This lasts for several months, as the fuel tanks are big, and they have to wait a lot.

Season 4.
The station/ship is fueled, now the audience have to make the ultimate decision: what's the target?
Online polls, personal agitation of the crew members, guest stars visits, cameos of incognito celebrities.

(Next seasons should be planned according to the audience preferences and income values).

Edited November 16, 2017 by kerbiloid

[Bill Phil]

A movie like Interstellar but more realistic might fit the bill here. 

You can skip all the boring parts and get to thr cool parts. 2001 and 2010 did it.

[tater]

I hated interstellar so much. It is to SF what Pearl Harbor was to ww2 movies.

[kerbiloid]

3 minutes ago, tater said:

I hated interstellar so much. It is to SF what Pearl Harbor was to ww2 movies.

Why? The corn harvesters look enough realistic.

[StrandedonEarth]

I agree that a good space program is supposed to be boring. Perhaps they can market ISS EVA videos as sleep aids...

There are two ways to provide drama In a realistic space movie: catastrophic equipment failure (possibly from sort of impact (oh wait that’s been done)) or personnel problems, where someone goes over the high side/goes psycho/is breaking bad. Surely someone’s problems can slip through the cracks. 

[TheSaint]

I think Tater's idea is the closest you're going to get to a real plan for something like this. But the science can't just be window dressing, that's a cop out. To me if you're writing science fiction, real science fiction, then the science has to be a key element to the plot.

How about something Rama-esque. A large object travelling a significant fraction of the speed of light comes falling into our system. Over the course of a couple of years it alters its course and settles into an orbit somewhere between Earth and Mars. And then sits there. We bombard it with signals, no response. We can image it all we want, but the only way we're going to know more about it is to send people to it. So we cobble together a manned mission and send it off.

• This is a hastily assembled mission, with cutting edge technology. Plenty of chances for things to go wrong.
• Obviously this thing is very technologically advanced, every major nation will want in on the mission, international tensions will be high. Maybe some of the nations involved (and therefore their representative crew) have their own agendas?
• What do they find when they actually get to the object? Is it a threat? How does the personal drama that developed on the flight out to the object impact the investigation that develops when they arrive? What are its implications for humanity?

That's just something I threw together on the drive in to work this morning. It would probably work better as a novel than a movie, simply because movie audiences don't really like to think a lot. But you could probably make it work as a screenplay. Maybe if you filled the object with brain-eating zombies.

[KSK]

A couple of things that I've found with writing realistic (according to present day technology) spaceflight science fiction which I think would also apply to films.

• Getting the level of peril right can be quite difficult.
• There's only so much mileage in the 'wonder of space'

Admittedly, I'm by no means an expert at this writing thing but there's only so much drama you can extract from star-struck astronauts watching their homeworld from orbit. It might never get dull for them but it most likely will for your audience / readers. I've also found that striking a balance between 'welp - they're stuffed then' and 'meh - they can fix that', is tricky. I imagine it gets even more tricky when that's not the main focus of the film and you can't really afford to devote half an hour of screen time to an elaborate depiction of the crew cobbling an air filter together out of old socks, duck tape and a spare Tang can. Especially when they're building it mid-way though the film so you're pretty sure that, as the theatre probably isn't planning to roll the credits anytime in the next hour, the crew are probably going to be okay.

You can level plenty of criticisms at Interstellar but (for me at least) it did a very good job of the 'exploring strange new worlds' theme. Likewise, I thought the Martian did a good job at getting the general feel of the book right without getting bogged down in technical minutae.

Edited November 17, 2017 by KSK

[TheSaint]

28 minutes ago, KSK said:

A couple of things that I've found with writing realistic (according to present day technology) spaceflight science fiction which I think would also apply to films.

• Getting the level of peril right can be quite difficult.
• There's only so much mileage in the 'wonder of space'

Admittedly, I'm by no means an expert at this writing thing but there's only so much drama you can extract from star-struck astronauts watching their homeworld from orbit. It might never get dull for them but it most likely will for your audience / readers. I've also found that striking a balance between 'welp - they're stuffed then' and 'meh - they can fix that', is tricky. I imagine it gets even more tricky when that's not the main focus of the film and you can't really afford to devote half an hour of screen time to an elaborate depiction of the crew cobbling an air filter together out of old socks, duck tape and a spare Tang can. Especially when they're building it mid-way though the film so you're pretty sure that, as the theatre probably isn't planning to roll the credits anytime in the next hour, the crew are probably going to be okay.

You can level plenty of criticisms at Interstellar but (for me at least) it did a very good job of the 'exploring strange new worlds' theme. Likewise, I thought the Martian did a good job at getting the general feel of the book right without getting bogged down in technical minutae.

I remember when the Space Station IMAX movie came out I dragged a bunch of friends from church to go see it at Universal City Walk on a Sunday afternoon. I was absolutely enthralled. My friends were all, "Gee, that's great." One of them actually got up in the middle of it to go use the loo. Most people just don't find spaceflight, in and of itself, very exciting. As sad as it may seem, they'd rather go watch Justice League.

I liked Interstellar. I mean, it wasn't life altering or anything, but it was a good film. It was well acted, well directed, it had a solid script. It pulled me in and made me care about the characters. It probably doesn't hurt that I'm a bit of a Christopher Nolan fan, have been ever since I saw Memento. But I do think that in his total body of work, Interstellar is probably his weakest film.

[kerbiloid]

I find two things great in Interstellar:
1. Hans Zimmer's soundtrack. (probably 75% of the movie attraction)
2. General atmosphere of confusion and silent distress. No heroic pathos and euphoria. A whisper instead of the loud shouts.

[DAL59]

How about an asteroid is going to hit Earth in 1969 and USSR and USA have to cooperate to divert it?  

(And the first attempt at diverting fails, but moves the impact site from Russia to US, threatening the alliance.)

[WinkAllKerb'']

what about a movie full of prof xavier from the x-men or precog kinda like that one with tom cruise , the red hair girl and the floating pyramid ? a movie full of people in stase and chair ; ) well somhow it's kinda like the matrix ^^ hahahah

Edited November 19, 2017 by WinkAllKerb''