After watching and researching short films, I have come up with three of my own ideas for the short film I will be making. These ideas are all very different, and all have a maximum of two or three characters to enable the audience to get a better understanding of each of them.
Idea One: Horror
The first idea I had was to make a horror/thriller film. In this idea, a brother and sister are left at home alone at nighttime, where the sister then starts to hear sounds in the house. The siblings then realize there is an intruder in the house, and try to sneak out unnoticed, whilst trying to avoid the intruders who have weapons. I thought that a twist for this film could be that one of the siblings wakes up at the end, believing that the narrative was all a dream, before finding out that he/she has been taken by the intruders, who are shown to be standing over her.
Whilst I like this idea, and would like to pursue it, I feel that the narrative will take much longer than five minutes to set up and develop. This is because an equilibrium would take a few minutes to establish and then it would need to be disrupted. Additionally, I am not sure of how the audience will view or connect with the siblings as there is such a small space of time to create an understanding and connection between the audience and the characters.
Films to watch for inspiration: Don't Breathe, The Curve, The Moonlight Man
Idea Two: Mental Illness
My second idea is a documentary-style drama based around a young girl with an eating disorder. In the film, I felt that the main protagonist could face challenges throughout her day in the form of weight, food and body image - and that my film could demonstrate the effect that these three factors have on someone with this illness. Following these challenges, the girl goes to a therapy discussion, where her therapist reveals to her what her family think of her illness and the effect it is having on her. From this, the girl realises that she does not want to live like this anymore, and challenges her thoughts by eating something her mum offered at the start of the film, that she declared was a 'fear food'.
I am hoping that this idea raises awareness of both mental illnesses and eating disorders, and the effect that they have on both the individual and the family as a whole. Furthermore, I hope this film reveals to those unaffected the amount that mental illnesses take over a persons life on a daily basis through the frequent body checks and restrictions the girl faces throughout the one day.
Films to watch for inspiration: To The Bone, Empty
Idea Three: Stalker
My final idea is to create a film that is portrayed to the audience as a romance and drama, by having a young girl looking at photographs of her and a boy who were clearly a couple. At first this seems innocent, until the audience see the photos she has up around her room of the boy, that appear to be candid. The girl is then shown to be checking his social media, clicking on his friends that are tagged in posts. She then checks the time before heading to a cafe, where she 'bumps' into the boy as he starts his shift, before watching him getting picked up by another girl. The antagonist then follows the couple home, and heads into the house with a knife in her hand. Throughout the film there will also be a voice over that starts off with innocent 'I miss you's', and 'I want you back', before getting darker and more suspicious throughout the narrative.
Whilst I really like the idea, I have the same suspicion as with my first idea - that the audience will be unable to connect with the characters in the short duration of the film, and that twist will not be as shocking as I am hoping it will be. However, I really like the open narrative of the films ending as I think that this makes the film more interesting.
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