Short Film Idea 3...

A second idea that we discussed featured a man, probably in his early 30s-late 20s, who dressed all in black and was your typical 'burgular'. However, this man (unnamed) has an extreme case of OCD, which causes him to be very uncomfortable in messy and cluttered rooms, giving him an overwhelming need to tidy up and make sure everything is perfect. As you can probaby guess, he would proceed to break into people's houses and his OCD would take over. So instead of robbing the strangers house, he would give it a thorough clean instead. The idea that he would be downstairs quietly but aggressively polishing the silverwear or scrubbing the floor when the family who's house has been broken into, come downstairs having heard a noise and see him cleaning would help to give the short film a comedic affect which I think would work quite well. I also liked the fact that it would be addressing quite a serious topic- OCD- in a lighthearted, humerous way. You can't feel sorry for him because his intention was to steal.

I'm also really fond of the idea of creating a short film that is plot driven instead of dialogue/character driven, such as Simon Hynd's 'Virus' or 'The Elevator' by Greg Glienna (above).


-KW

Foreign and Eye-Opening Shorts...

Recently I watched a couple of short films that I came across on Tumblr, which really inspired me and made me think differently. Both of these shorts centred around what the world would be like if everything was flipped over and rules and norms about gender and sex were switched. The first film I watched was intriguingly titled "What if gay were straight and straight were gay?". This film shows the life of a young girl who is going through a sexuality crisis. In a imaginery world where being gay is the norm and being straight is mocked and 'wrong', this young girl is coming to terms with the fact that she might fancy boys instead of girls, which is expected of her.

 This film really moved me because it is a gritty showing of what life would be like if straight people were treated as harshly as parts of society treat homosexuals. This short os about 20 minutes long-much longer than I plan for my short film to be, but I would hope to bring to my short film what this one has. For many people, shorts like this could be a real eye-opener because we know that the main girl is not in the wrong by being attracted to boys even if she is treated in the film as if she is. Films like this aim to improve the thoughts of society and if the message is clear, they can be very successful and moving.

Another short film I stumbled across was called "Opressed Majority". This 10-minute short displays what the outcome would be if males were exposed to sexism and sexual violence in a society dominated by females. In this film, a typical father is carrying out his everyday duties. He starts by taking a walk with his child in a pram, not even taking a second glance at women running alongside him topless and shouting crude comments to him. This film tries to represent, in almost an exaggerated way, how sexism effects women and tries to put forward this perspective to men. Later in the short, the man is exposed to sexual violence by a gang of women and then speaks to a police man after viewing a line-up. His wife gets angry at him and leaves. While the thought of men being sexually abused by women and not being taken seriously by policeman for making the claims, these types of things do happen in real life- to men and to women. Also, this film is shot in France and the actors are speaking in French. I think this is effective as it shows that this type of opression is present in all parts of the world and not just in the UK. It also shows how the conventions of a short film are not different in other countries.

 

 

 

-KW

 

Short Film Idea 2...

Taking inspiration from short films such as 'Virus' and 'The Black Hole', I came up with the idea of someone waiting for something. Sounds a bit boring. I developed that so that a man (or woman) could be waiting in a long queue at the bank, and while he is waiting in the queue, time seems to go really slowly, but the queue never seems to shorten.
I then thought it would be funny if strange things were to happen to him all the while he was in the queue. For example, he could be in the queue for a lengthy period of time, thinking to himself, "this is so boring", and then suddenly, two men come barging through attempting to rob the bank. A stir is caused and everyone panics, but then the police arrive and the two men are escorted away, leaving the bank unscathed. The queue is still the same length. Then maybe theres a minor earthquake, causing everyone to panic, but it sover fairly quickly and the only thing damaged is a knocked-over plant. The queue still proceeds. Then a man walks in and proposes to his wife, who is stood 3 or so places ahead of the main character in the queue. Everyone cheers and the woman steps out of the queue, making it shorter. Things continue randomly like this for a while. The scene fades to the main character being next in line for the assistant- it is dark outside. The person in front leaves and he strides up to the window, only to be greeted by the female assistant slamming the glass door shut. He reads a sign saying that the bank is closed for the night and to come back tomorrow.

This idea would be quite funny in an ironic way, however it would be difficult recreating a bank (as I highly doubt we'd be allowed to use a real one) and finding that many actors to play a role would also be challenging. But still, it could work.


-KW

Camera Angles and Editing...

In short films, a variety of strong, storytelling camera angles are key. They use a shorter amount of time to tell the story compared to dialogue and in some cases can have more emphasis on points such as enigma.
Editing is part of the post-production, it is key in short films to signify when one scene has ended and another one begins.

AVARICE
 In the this short, we are given an establishing long shot. It sets us up with a bedroom and a mystery girl reading a book - title is unknown at this point. We then cut to a close up of the book, which gives the impression that it is significant to the film. A 45degree pan is then used to swing and show the audience the female lead reading the book 'Macbeth' and responds to look at her phone. We then cut to a close up of her phone which has a cracked screen, it is unknown if this has a significant mean. The shot reverses back a close up of her face staring at her phone and then cuts to a long shot of her changing position so she is sitting on the end of the bed staring out the window mournfully. We are then cut to side close up of her face so we can see she is debating what to do next.
In summary, we are poistioned with a young girl, presumably studying the play Macbeth and is in question as to what to do next or perhaps she is lonely and wondering why no one has contacted her. All of this is unknown. As the film goes on we see that she has a 'magic pot' which duplicates anything she puts in there, for example money, so very quickly she becomes quite rich and spends it all. However this all comes to an end and symolises what happens when you get greedy.

TICK TOCK
 We are first situated with an establishing medium shot of a ticking clock, which then pans to a young girl sitting on her bed enthusiatically. The camera pans again and we see a young male walk into the room from the corridor. The camera then sinks to the floor and blurs so that we only see bottom half of the couple. From their body movements we presume they are kissing, however the young male is then pulled out by a unknown spirit almost because do not see what pulled him out of the room. The entire first scene is in one take, so no editing has taken place. The speed of movement, obviously sped up signifies rapid changes in time.

 

 

 

-KW

Stop Motion...

Stop motion is an animation technique used in film where physical objects are hand-moved and images are taken to create frames, which then, after thousands and thousands of images are edited together, makes an animation. This technique is perhaps most famously used in the short film and TV series, 'Wallace and Gromit' where plasticine models are created and moved every 10th of a second (or something like that.)

Stop motion is a popular technique because it is somewhat easier to create than animation and the creators can be very creative in what they do. However, it could take several hours just to produce enough photos for a 10 second clip, which is why this type of animation is mostly used in short films innstead of feature-length animations. Stop motion can also be used to create fun but meaningless short films. An example of one of these is the 'T-Shirt War', which involves the two creators of the film changing T-Shirts every frame to give the effect that the T-shirts are moving. This works very effectively and is fun to watch.

I have considered using stop-motion techniques in my short film, as when they are done properly they can be very effective and entertaining to watch. However based on the time limit we have, it may not be possible to create a 5-minute long short film made entirely of stop motion, due to the sheer length of time usually required.

 

 

-KW

Sound...

The use of sound can be very powerful in the creation of short films. Sound in short films, in some ways, can be said to be more important than that in full-length films. This is because if full length films, the idea of there being no dialogue throughout the whole film is unheard of, whilst in short films it is fairly normal. If there is no dialogue, the sound itself will have to create the mood and guide the viewer into how they should be feeling in each scene/moment. It can also be used to indicate the genre and build tension if necessary.

Using the short film 'Virus' by Simon Hynd, the sound used creates tension and suspense using mostly what appears to be diagetic sound (the phone vibrating etc). This is very effective as it helps to set the scene of the film and causes tension for the reader, as it is meant to be a thriller. Without the sound in this film, the audience wouldn't know what to make of it or how to react.

Sound in short films is not only used to create tension and suspense. In the short film 'The Elevator', music is used to create a comedic affect. It plays whimsical music, like you would find in an elevator, while all the people are piling in, all whilst showing the anxiousness of the skinny man's face to add to the humour, then horror music that is found in the film 'Jaws', as the final fat man approaches, and this works very well in terms of making it funny.



-KW

Narration and Breaking the 4th Wall...

Narration

Narration is most commonly used in a film to show an older version of the main character narrating his life as the audience is watching. Some classic examples of this would be Kevin Spacey's character in 'American Beauty', Morgan Freeman in 'The Shawshank Redemption' and Tom Hanks as 'Forrest Gump'. If the narration is done properly, it can be very effective in engaging the viewer and causing them to grow attached to the main character because they can relate to them more.

(Kevin Spacey in 'American Beauty')

Narration has always been popular and widely used in cinema- from the early classics in the 60's and 70's to more recent blockbusters, such as Rene Zelwegger in 'Bridget Jones' Diary', Kristen Stewart in 'The Twilight Saga' and even Simon Bird as Will from 'The Inbetweeners Movie'. These examples however don't follow the classic structure of a character narrating his/her past, but instead, for instance in the case of Bridget Jones, they are narrating things as they happen- she is reading from her diary entries as she is writing them, making the viewer feel like they are also reading from her diary. In 'The Inbetweeners Movie' Will is not an old character speaking about his past, instead, just like in the show, he is guiding the audience through the failures of his life as they happen.

Breaking the 4th Wall

'Breaking the 4th Wall' is a term first introduced in 19th Century theatre, which describes a boundary or 'wall' between the play and the audience that seperates fiction from reality. Breaking this wall became commonly used to try and engage the audience more with the character that is breaking it and let them be more of a part of it. This would be done by talking to the audience as if no one on the stage could hear or see them. This is now almost always used in pantomimes and many other theatre productions. This method then went through a transition from the stage to the screen. Now, many films use breaking the 4th wall to form the attachment between the character and the viewer. This form is most commonly used in comedy films, such as 'Waynes World' and perhaps most famously, 'Ferris Bueller's day off'. 

('Ferris Bueller's Day Off'-Opening Monologue) 

-KW