I wanted to make a focused, emotional narrative for my film, as those would work the best given the short film format, I also made an effort to conform to a 3 act structure. I noted down a lot of ideas I had. Here's a bunch of examples of ideas that I've had.
Concept 1,
I indulge in insulting my father.
My life is very unfulfilling and I walk around in this bleak, grey cityscape. On my commute to work,
there’s loud cars and it’s not very nice. My dad calls me on the phone, telling me to come home, but I
rudely refuse.
Slagging off my dad gives me a new sense of purpose and joy, at work I make jokes with my friend at
the expense of my dad. My friend scoffs at my brazen attitude, they would never behave this way
themselves.
In the end I come home to my dad’s house. Our relationship is distant but he makes an effort to be
friendly and warm. I indulge in making a mockery of his efforts with sarcastic quips. I giggle excitedly
as I insult his intelligence and call him a tosser. My dad doesn’t believe it but he begins to understand.
To convince my dad that my disrespect is sincere and not a symptom of a fleeting madness, I call my
friend from work, who provides convincing testimony. This is too much for my poor old dad to bear, we
briefly fight, I unfortunately lose and am left on the floor, sad, alone and withered.
Concept 2
What if there were a bunch of creepy looking stalkers following me around.
I’m trying to hide my life from a group of sinister, mysterious investigators but my friends mess it up
and keep revealing embarrassing information. They aren’t as afraid of the sinister, mysterious
investigators as I am. At the end I confront the mysterious, sinister investigators, who drop their
sinister facade to laugh at me for how embarrassing I am.
They are a group of masked stalkers who wear black clothes and black hats and other eccentric
clothes typical of wealthy people from the past. They stalk me around the local area, following me
everywhere I go. I know they’re always somewhere around the corner. I am very scared of them and
don’t dare get too close.
I struggle to hide my embarrassing secrets from them (details pending), which I feel like they want to
know about, though their intentions are pretty vague. I ask my friend to keep quiet and promise not to
say anything out loud and reveal my secret. But my friend isn’t interested, they have no respect for me,
and they don’t really believe me about the guys who are investigators. They unfortunately let
something slip and then it’s all over.
In the end I see a particularly intimidating group of those investigators. I resolve to confront them,
because they’ve been a nuisance to my privacy, but they just laugh at me endlessly. The
confrontational expression falls from my face and I hang my head in shame. My friend happens upon
this scene and is profoundly puzzled.
Concept 3
I’m stuck in a cage.
I’m stuck in a cage, and I’m calling for help. The cage is on one side of a room and there’s a key to the
cage on the other side of the room and there’s also a door that leads outside, to the street. I shout for
somebody to help me. They Arrive. I tell them to use the key to open the cage. They are cautious to
act, they don’t really know what’s going on. I tell them that while I was walking home at night I was
ambushed, sedated and brought to the cage where I then woke up. My saviour tries to use the key to
open the cage but it doesn’t work, because the key got jammed. While they work I tell them I’ve only
been awake for a couple of minutes. They’ve now opened the cage.
I step into the street with my saviour, “Now that I’ve left the cage, I feel like I don’t know what to do.”...
“Do you want me to call the police?”. “Yes”. [cut out presumably lengthy police call] “thank you so
much for your help.” They then leave me but I stay there. They return. “Are you alright? Do you want
me to stay with you for a bit?” “No, It’s alright, I’m fine. Thank you so much.”
At home. I wanted to be out of the cage so much that I forgot what I wanted to do once I had gained
my freedom. Life outside the cage feels refreshing but the feeling is bittersweet. What good is all my
freedom If I know not how to spend it? I sit still for a while in my home. I eat some food but it tastes of
nothing. I read a book that’s supposed to be good but I feel nothing.
There’s only one apparent solution to my emptiness, my loneliness, my lack of motivation and purpose.
I realise I need to return to the cage (in either a literal or figurative sense the details aren’t important)
I'm proud of each of these concepts but I feel as though each of them present challenges if I want to make them into a film. For example: Concept 1 feels a bit too dialogue heavy, I don't know what "embarrasing secret" to use for Concept 2 and I'm not sure how to get my hands on a cage. I'm currently working on deliberating as to which would be the best to move forward with. Which do you think is the best?
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