good excuse for a film to be in space?

[MadaBidyoni]

Hi
most of the space films & tv shows don't have a good excuse to be in space.
i mean, they could be easily be set in sea for example. Instead of "sailing" with a space ship - sail with a normal ship etc...
do you know about a good "excuse" for a story to be set in space?

 

[JarodRussell]

Acid bleeding, chest bursting Aliens?

 

[sojourner]

Because a planet is not an island?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

There are plenty of reasons, especially if you think about movies as being a visual medium and the audience seeking novelty.

Would you be able to create the visual splendor of Pandora on boring old Earth?

Would you be able to have massive battles with ships and explosions, up, down and all around, plus bizarre, scary, colorful and funny aliens a la Star Trek and Star Wars?

Would you be able to have threatening critters that the audience has never seen or even thought of before, a la the Alien movies?

 

[JarodRussell]

Not to plays the Devil's Advocate here, but...

Because a planet is not an island?

Most of the time, such a planet is depicted just like an island. It's a small confined space, filmed somewhere on Earth.

Would you be able to create the visual splendor of Pandora on boring old Earth?

Yes, because there are places on Earth that aren't boring at all. Some places are even more amazing than anything seen in Avatar.

Would you be able to have massive battles with ships and explosions, up, down and all around, plus bizarre, scary, colorful and funny aliens a la Star Trek and Star Wars?

Yes on massive battles. War ships, airplanes attacking... Semi-yes on bizarre alien stuff: monsters?

Would you be able to have threatening critters that the audience has never seen or even thought of before, a la the Alien movies?

Yeah, if it's a fantasy world?

I realized after I wrote my Alien comment that Alien could have been set on Earth easily. Ship finds island, crew finds some other ship that has a killer monster on it, monster kills crew.

 

[MadaBidyoni]

you're a good advocate

about the monster thing... you could easily say they found new species in a certain island in earth or under the sea.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Why does one need an excuse to set a story somewhere they like?

 

[Christopher]

Most of the universe is space. Not setting stories there is extremely limiting.

That, and space is cool. Reason enough.

 

[sojourner]

Oh, I just thought of a good reason! Because.

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

do you know about a good "excuse" for a story to be set in space?

I think it is fun to set stories in space. That's a good enough excuse for me.

 

[Peacemaker]

Why because of dinosaurs...Dinosaurs! ON A SPACESHIP!

 

[Tiberius]

Hi
most of the space films & tv shows don't have a good excuse to be in space.
i mean, they could be easily be set in sea for example. Instead of "sailing" with a space ship - sail with a normal ship etc...
do you know about a good "excuse" for a story to be set in space?

Hi
most of the seagoing films & tv shows don't have a good excuse to be at sea.
i mean, they could be easily be set in space for example. Instead of sailing with a sailing ship - fly with a space ship etc...
do you know about a good "excuse" for a story to be set on the sea?

 

[Australis]

Here y'go.

I have a script out there, the basic plot is two ships from opposing forces have collided and are now stuck together while fallowing down the gravity well, and the villains are determined to deliver a planet killer to the goodguy planet. Race against time, lots of action and 'splosions, character moments.

I actually thought about doing at sea - two ships tangled together, carried by a fast tide, the villains have a big bomb to destroy a city. But a tide wouldn't carry two big ships that fast, plus I could ramp up the action, cost and technology.

 

[JarodRussell]

I have a script out there, the basic plot is two ships from opposing forces have collided and are now stuck together while fallowing down the gravity well, and the villains are determined to deliver a planet killer to the goodguy planet.

Now that's not bad at all.

But it's never a bad thing to take your scifi story and put it into the real world for a while, because then you fully realize what kind of huge machinery would be really involved in an event like that, and how characters would behave realistically. It's like taking a big step back and watching at it from a distance and from another perspective.

My favorite example is the cadet to Captain thing in Star Trek 2009. Just imagine that for a US Navy aircraft carrier. Just because some hot shot Navy cadet stops a terrorist who has a couple of nukes, he gets command of an entire aircraft carrier. I love that. That would totally work.

 

[Pingfah]

Hi
most of the space films & tv shows don't have a good excuse to be in space.
i mean, they could be easily be set in sea for example. Instead of "sailing" with a space ship - sail with a normal ship etc...
do you know about a good "excuse" for a story to be set in space?

Because it actually happened in space. See Apollo 13.

 

[Gaith]

Because space scenes are, as a rule, vastly cheaper than aquatic ones?

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

In "Titan A.E.", the Earth blew up in the first few minutes. That's a pretty good justification to have the rest of the film happen in space. Until Bob comes along.

Mark

 

[JoeZhang]

The lead character wants to be the first person to trying rimming in space - that provides a specific logical reason why it has to be set in space.

 

[Christopher]

Because space scenes are, as a rule, vastly cheaper than aquatic ones?

Not if you shoot them on location...

 

[Silvercrest]

I realized after I wrote my Alien comment that Alien could have been set on Earth easily. Ship finds island, crew finds some other ship that has a killer monster on it, monster kills crew.

Oh, you mean The Thing.