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You've Had the Idea for Years. Here's Why It Never Got Made.
By Raymond Karsten · Published · Last updated
Some people have carried the same idea for a decade. A world, a character, a scene they can see completely. And it stays exactly where it started.
An idea is not a story yet
An idea is a feeling with a picture attached. A story is a character who wants something, is stopped, and changes. Most long-carried ideas never crossed that line, so there was never anything to actually shoot. This is the missing step, and it takes one page — then how to build it from that one page.
The reason it survived this long
You've protected it. It stays perfect while it's unmade, and any real version will be smaller than the one in your head. That's true, and it's the price. The version that exists is worth more than the perfect one that doesn't.
Make the smallest true version
Don't start with the feature. Take one scene from that world — the one you see most clearly — and finish it in three minutes. The world will still be there afterward, and now it will have a face.
The tools exist now. The idea is already yours. AI and I can help you make it.
Raymond Karsten
Thirty years in film. Storyboards, commercials, music videos. Story sequences for Netflix. Ten years teaching story development at Høyskolen Kristiania.
Artificial tool. Analog director.