Now that we have confirmed which production teams that we are in, we know need to start thinking about short film storylines. As I mentioned briefly in the last post, we were all told to come up with an idea for a short film that we could practically make to a high standard, and present the idea to the class, with feedback from Mr Hood and the other students. Here are mine and my group's ideas:
My idea: a 'mockumentary' style short about a boy that thinks/is a vampire. He moves to a new school, and though initially met with curiosity, and befriended by the other students, is soon ridiculed and alienated. Eventually, he feels as though enough is enough and tries to take his life in the sunrise, nut fails as he's not a vampire. The film would include interviews with himself, family members and his school 'friends'. It's supposed to be slightly humorous in tone, as it's a ridiculous situation, but slightly dark as you're supposed to feel slightly sorry for the boy at some points.
Advantages - could be done with a small cast
- 'mockumentaries' (fake documentaries) is not a widely used genre in short films. It would, I feel be more interesting for an audience to watch than a drama or romance film, which can become tiresome if there isn't an interesting story to back it up
- would fit in the short time period of 5 minutes.
Disadvantages - would need quite capable actors in order to portray the 'dark humour' (also, comedy is a very subjective thing. Even though this isn't necessarily meant to be a comedy, it's also got silly and humorous elements which may get overlooked depending on the audience).
- permission would be needed for a school setting.
Connor's idea: A man is stuck in the same daily routine with an office job that bores him. Everyday is a groundhog day, with him growing increasingly more depressed and deflated with the amount of mind-numbing work he receives. However, his life seemingly changes for the better, when a pop up appears on his computer asking him if he's bored of his job. He clicks it and the office printer starts to print out money. He grabs it all and runs out of the office, with a new start. But then his boss drops off more work, and he wakes up realising it was all a dream.
Advantages - Simple yet very effective. would be easy to shoot as the shots are quite repetitive.
- Very small cast.
- Plot twist which works great with the conventions of short films.
Disadvantages - I can imagine the pop-up on the computer and the printer that prints out money to be challenging to create effectively.
- An office setting may be difficult for us to find.
Ryan's idea: There is a university, and it is going to be closed down by the government because of it's lack of “student satisfaction” ratings/ falling numbers. The university fund the students to make a short film that promotes student satisfaction. The money is given to a group of 3 high achieving media students, to make a short film that expresses “student satisfaction”. In their shared apartment, the students discuss how they could make a good short film. One of them recommends they just blow the money on a party, and they do. They have this party, and it's awesome. The news of it gets leaked back to the university. They return to the office with the teacher, and he knows what's going on, but he pretends he doesn't, he asks where the film is. The students say they have the perfect short film to show student satisfaction – and points to the STATIC camera filming the action.
Advantages - Clever plot twist
- No need for special effects
- Students as cast would be easy to find.
Disadvantages - Plot would be hard to fit into 5 minutes.
- Possibility that it would only appeal to a younger audience.
Now that we have all listened to the pitches and given feedback, we will all consider the ideas individually and come back next lesson for a group meeting to decide which ideas we can go with or incorporate in to the film.
