I have lots of ideas all the time. To deal with them, I write them down. I keep a folder on my computer called "Story Ideas", and it is full of documents of, well, story ideas. They are not full scripts, but they are just jotted down plots. Earlier this year, I actually wrote a very long script for an action movie starring a shark. It is a nice script, but then I came up with other ideas, and things got in the way, and it's just sitting in a folder on my computer. I think the best way to pick which idea you want to produce into a film is to analyze it and ask yourself "Do I really want to do this?", and "What can I learn from it?" and "What message does this convey?". These things will help you determine if the film is worthwhile to produce. If the answer the the first question is no, then archive that idea unless you refine it. A lot of times, story ideas are just fun things that pop up in your imagination, and are not really suitable for a film. They sort of have a story, but they aren't really film worthy. They are mostly to entertain your imagination. If you get these story ideas on paper, then you clear space in your brain to come up with more story ideas. And when you want to make a film, look back through your story ideas folder, and either pick one you really like, or make a new one.

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"Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." - 1 Corinthians 10:31b

This is what I do, and I think it's a good method. I always have half a dozen ideas floating around my head, but eventually you need to lock them down and really examine whether or not you should pursue them.

I always want to be trying something new when I make brickfilms. Whether it's a new animation technique, a different attempt at storytelling, a new editing style, or a new genre, I want to be pushing myself out of my comfort zone. For Five Years Later, it was rapid montage editing, for Birdie it was animating brick-built puppets, for Blinders it was telling a story primarily with sound, and for my upcoming Appetite Lost, I'm focusing on on-set lighting.

Brickfilmers shouldn't be afraid of killing ideas. I've killed so many ideas that ultimately I didn't think would work, including a fully-scripted Minecraft brickfilm (though elements of it remain in Five Years Later). If it isn't working for you but you're still holding onto it, you are doing yourself a disservice.

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A lot of the ideas that pop into my head are either space themed ideas or military/action ideas. Since none of my ideas have been made into any brickfilms (one is in production) I have given a few to a few friends who are interested.

My current brickfilm project is an action based one. How I chose this was pretty simple; I narrowed my ideas down to two final ideas, get rid of ideas that would be unrealistic for me to make, and then choose between the final two that have the best plot!

I've been doing something similar with a canon I call Broken Earth, which is a modern fantasy thing but I've come up with story ideas for parts of history too. It started years ago as a brickfilm idea, then a live-action webseries idea, and then last year I wrote an 80,000 word young adult book that I'm still polishing (I've started the second as well).

I finally organised all of my files just before writing the book, and I've been adding to it ever since, but even that isn't quite enough for when I have fantasy based ideas, hence all the medieval fantasy stuff I suggested for the BFCU (which is also growing considerably). Just to give you a rough idea...

Actually, I need to get back to Book 2 at some point.

That sounds really intriguing, I'm looking forward to seeing it.

I seem to remember something about Stanley Kubrick wanting to attempt as many different genres as he could in his career, and this certainly holds up when you look at his filmography. It's a good way of pushing your ability, especially if it means delving into a genre or editing style you're unfamiliar with.

It's quite a good idea. Shakespeare himself did exactly that when writing A Midsomer Night's Dream (or at least, I think I read that he did).

"Nothing goes down 'less I'm involved. No nuggets. No onion rings. No nothin'. A cheeseburger gets sold in the park, I want in! You got fat while we starved on the streets...now it's my turn!" -Harley Morenstein

I try to sort small ideas into which of several larger story ideas that I have they would fit best with, and add those ideas to the pile of notes I've accumulated on my computer for that particular story. Sometimes I feel like an particular small idea could fit into one of two projects, and I add a note about it into both.

As for larger, overarching ideas for a film, I pick what to make next on the basis of which ideas I think are the best, most likely to be enjoyed by others, and most practical for me to make right now. At this stage I also have to consider financing (for instance, part of the appeal of the documentary was that I thought I could get enough funding to make it, whereas some of my other feature film ideas would have been hard to get money for.)

The opposite helps too, I think--combining ideas can be useful too.  Right now, my current project aside, I also have an idea for a somewhat supernatural mystery series with a twist of Noir (which would form a sort of loose trilogy), an urban fantasy alternate-universe type idea for a world with no specific stories as of yet (at this point it's essentially a collection of rules on how magic, technology, and suchlike works), an action movie fight scene, my potential 2015: The Contest entry (although I don't know if I'll be able to do it), as well as a whole bunch of other small ideas and cameos that aren't big enough to merit a film of their own.  I'm undecided, but at this point I'm seriously contemplating combining my first and second ideas as they would work quite well together.  All of these ideas are brewing in the back of my brain so nothing is fixed.  In fact, I feel like my urban fantasy idea could be a really good basis for a professionally made live-action feature film or TV series (which would be a reeeeeeaally long shot at best, assuming I even want to go into professional film-making, but it's still a possibility).

I also try to keep a creative notebook in which I write down all of my ideas.  It helps me keep track of my ideas and allows me to write down notes on how to combine them, or create film plots.  I think it might just be the way I come up with ideas, as I tend to be able to come up with really good characters and specific scenes yet tend to struggle with creating solid plots that link these together, which sometimes means that I often come up with film ideas backwards.  For example, I managed to create a pretty solid character in Mr Vertigo (to the point where he's become my brickfilming mascot of sorts, being the origin behind the current name of my YT channel and username), yet I still haven't thought of a good story in which to put him in.  It gets to the point where I sometimes feel like my film ideas are basically chimeras of different small ideas stitched together.  My current project (Seven Assassins) involves several characters and ideas that I came up with (some years ago) which I intended to put in other projects which never really worked out in the end.

Bottom line, my advice would be to try evaluate your ideas and decide if they are workable, and then see if you can combine them or create a create a new idea based on them.  If that makes any sense.

I actually collaborate with people rather often.  A lot of people ask my to look over their script for whatever reason or to suggest ideas.
I myself often privately upload a film as so that a small number of individuals might give some good advice on rectifications I might make before it's public release.  I feel this strategy significantly improved the quality of the two films I released this year.

I've been writing a lot of scripts for the Custom BIONICLE channel (most of them are still in development or being filmed) but yeah, less so here, which is a shame in one way but these kinds of collaborations can't be forced: for it to work, people actually have to want to work together. Still, it'd be nice to see it more.

I think there was a brickfilm a while ago where it was the same character time-travelling, and one time zone was shot by one person and the other half of the film shot by someone else. Similarly, I think Hazzat and Daragh were involved in a collab brickfilm where two brickfilmers team up to kill Daragh (that one was quite enjoyable, as I recall).

"Nothing goes down 'less I'm involved. No nuggets. No onion rings. No nothin'. A cheeseburger gets sold in the park, I want in! You got fat while we starved on the streets...now it's my turn!" -Harley Morenstein