Brainstorming???

Coming up with a film idea can be frustrating. When I started, I had no idea how to get from a random thought in my head to a finished script. Brainstorming felt like this constant swirl of half-formed ideas that didn’t make sense together. But over time, I developed a process that helped me actually turn those messy thoughts into something worth filming.

1. Starting With What Matters

For me, it all starts with writing down whatever is important to me. I think about personal topics, stuff I want to talk about, or things that make me feel something. It’s not about forcing a big idea; it’s more about just getting my thoughts on paper and seeing what comes up. Sometimes it’s a feeling or a unprocessed trauma, other times it’s just something I’ve been obsessed with. At first, this part feels totally aimless, like I’m collecting pieces of something that doesn’t exist yet.

2. Struggling to Fit It into a Film Opening

The real struggle begins when I try to shape those ideas into a film opening. At first, it felt impossible to make these random thoughts fit into a cohesive sequence. I had a bunch of ideas that sounded good, like a kidnapping gone wrong. The original idea was about an assassin couple with a baby who try get close to a target, then kill the target in their own home and leaves the baby behind at the scene. The twist was supposed to be a radio in the background talking about a missing baby. I thought it was dark and edgy, but it just didn’t feel personal. It felt like something out of a true crime show, not something I wanted to make.

3. Watching Real Footage to Get Real

To push through this block, I started looking at real-world situations, actual fight scenes, even raw footage from dark sites that felt intense and unfiltered. I watched how people react in real life to certain extreme situations, like when they're caught up in something personal or when they’re punishing someone who’s done wrong. Watching this kind of stuff helped me get a better feel for the realism I wanted to bring into my script. It wasn’t about adding shock value or violence for the sake of it; it was about making the actions feel grounded, like something that could actually happen.

4. Getting Brutally Honest Feedback

Once I had a rough draft of the script, I showed it to my cousin, who’s an established filmmaker, and my mom, who’s got a PhD in media studies. I asked them to be honest and critical so I can improve my script but they were brutally honest. It sucked at first, but it was exactly what I needed.  They helped me realize that some of the character dynamics weren’t working, especially between my two characters, Saif and Saba. What I thought was a fun, flirtatious back and forth wasn’t landing the way I intended. Their feedback pushed me to make the relationship feel more real, more layered, where the characters were friends with a slight romantic tension, but still with genuine care for each other. Part 5: Finalizing a rough idea

Once I had the rough draft ready, I felt more confident about the direction I was taking. It took a lot of trial and error, and to be honest, some of the early drafts weren’t hitting the mark. Nothing felt right at first. I kept pushing myself to dig deeper into what felt personal and authentic, and after several versions, I began to see where things were falling into place.

At one point, I almost settled for the idea about a couple kidnapping a baby, trying to use the child to manipulate a situation, but that concept didn’t feel personal. I kept doubting myself, especially when I thought about how difficult it would be to get my actors to deliver the emotional weight of the dialogue in the script I did finalize. I was scared they wouldn’t be able to hit the right notes, especially in those crucial emotional moments between them, where the character breaks down facing his childhood trauma. If the actors couldn’t bring the depth and vulnerability I was envisioning, the whole film could fall flat. It was a huge risk, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to take it.

saif and saba

baby killer

me struggling to choose between the two ideas, one was personal but riskier, one was easier but cliche

But after stepping back and reflecting on the core of the story, I realized I needed to go deeper. I had to create a connection between them that felt genuine and complex. Initially, I had written them to be flirtatious, but this didn’t feel true to the story I wanted to tell. After some honest feedback from my cousin (an established filmmaker) and my mom (a media studies PhD), I changed the dynamics. I toned down the flirtation and made their relationship more layered, two people who care about each other, but in a more subtle, unspoken way.

This change allowed me to build their emotional connection and focus on their vulnerability, which was crucial for the later parts of the script. Once I reworked those emotional beats, everything fell into place. The tension, the moments of silence, the unspoken feelings, it all

started to feel much more natural.

The emotional dialogues I had worried so much about began to make sense, and I was able to see that the actors could indeed deliver the subtlety and depth needed for these moments. By the time I finalized the script, I felt confident. The idea had evolved from something I wasn’t sure about to something that felt personal, honest, and true to what I wanted to say.