Initial idea and research

Following brainstorming we have decided to make a film which we would classify as a supernatural thriller which would follow a man who has came into ownership of a mysterious briefcase and his desperate attempt to flee the mysterious assassin who is trying to catch him.

For this film our main inspiration would be No country for old men and due to the similar premises we have decided to analyse some scenes from the film in order to help us write a high quality script.

The scene which i have chosen to analyse in order to help understand the crime genre is from the coen brothers' No country for old men in which Woody Harrelson's character Wells is killed by Anton Javier Bardem's character.

This scene begins with a low angled shot focusing on Woody Harrelson’s character Wells, this increases the tension of the scene as we can see Javier Bardem’s character Anton chugure slowly approaching in the background. The scene then transitions to both men sitting facing each other  within a hotel room.The seen makes use of sound very effectively as the lack of musical score makes the scene more visceral and further adds to the tension. The diegetic ringing of the telephone along with minimal dialogue also adds to the tension of the scene. the miss en scene of this scene is also pivotal as throughout Javier Bardem’s character is made  to appear taller and more powerful, this is also conveyed through the slightly higher angled shots in which he features signifying that he is in control of the situation. 

Lighting also plays a large part within this scene as Anton is placed within darkness whilst Wells is constantly illuminated and whilst this does not signify good vs evil it does however signify the conflict between the characters and through making Wells illuminated it makes him stand in contrast to Anton this further adds to the tension of the scene. through ending the scene with an over the shoulder shot of Wells being killed and never actually seeing his dead body a sense of realism and brutality was conveyed as all gravitas was taken from his death making it appear more sudden and impactful. Overall this scene helped me to understand how tension can be created in a very dialogue driven scene. 

Initial idea: Spec script and Brief

This is the first draft of our untitled A2 media project script.

One sentence Brief: Our film revolves around David as he is hunted by an unknown assailant.

FADE IN

INT. SUBURBAN HOME (DAY)

Doorbell rings. DAVID opens the door to find a briefcase sitting there. He looks around the area before he brings it inside. When investigating the briefcase, he finds an unseen object and a note stating nothing but, ’They’re coming. Run!’ 

FADE OUT TO:

EXT. STREET SIDEWALK (DAY)

We see a MAN enquiring about where a certain house is.

MAN

Excuse me, could you tell me where this address is.

He shows the WOMAN the address.

MAN

I was supposed to have a meeting with the owner but I can't seem to find it. 

He reaches for his concealed weapon  the protagonist begins to run from the assailant who is slowly approaching with his knife drawn, our protagonist then hides and waits to wrestle the assailant grabbing the knife out of his hand and proceeds to stab the assailant. he then returns home to find another person sitting in his house with the briefcase

WOMAN

Yeah it's just down the road and take the second right

MAN

I'm glad you answered, the last person I asked wasn't as helpful.

 He takes his hand off the weapon and leaves. 

INT. SUBURBAN HOME (NIGHT)

DAVID and his friend, PAUL are discussing what to do and who the note could refer to, they decide to leave but DAVID insists on going to get stuff from the shop.

PAUL

We can’t stay here, come on, we have to leave!

DAVID

Hold on, we need to get food and some money first.

PAUL

Fine, fine, just..I’ll start packing, just hurry back.

David leaves the house. The man arrives at the house and kills PAUL and proceeds to search for the briefcase. DAVID arrives home and sees the killer and his friend’s corpse. He flees the house, grabbing the hidden case on his way out.

EXT. ALLEYWAY (NIGHT)

DAVID continues to run from the assailant but is caught in a dead-end. The assailant is slowly approaching with his knife drawn. DAVID hides, then wrestles the assailant, grabbing the knife out of his hand before proceeding to stab the assailant. He then returns home to see the man who he just killed. It is then apparent to the audience that the man who had been killed and this man are twins. We cut to the outside of the house where a gunshot is heard and we see the man leaving with the briefcase and cleaning his boots.

FADE OUT

analysis of short films

How are they structured?

 Of the films which i watched all of the films other than Jigsaw which focused upon the love life of one couple and the idea that “perfection isn’t a necessity” Most of the short films followed a structure of introducing us slowly to the world and characters then usually during the latter half of the film a twist in the plot will occur, however the scope of the twist varied from film to film. One of the films i watched titled “Dog food” had a plot which centralised on a butcher and his relationship with his dog and later a woman following his dogs kidnapping this Film incorporated two plot twists into its narrative with the first being the reveal that the girl who the butcher was interested in being responsible for the kidnapping as revenge for the animals which the butcher in her eyes had “inhumanely slaughtered"

The second was that the dog in fact was alive. In other films however the scope of the twist was relatively contained such as in"the shore" which telegraphed its twist frequently in that our two protagonists were old friends and the story itself was more concentrated and subtle rather than being over the top.  

Are there any rules to follow?

within The short films whist they diverge in style and content they all adhere to some rules mainly within their narrative structure they usually follow todorov's narrative principle of equilibrium in that at the beginning we are met with a certain situation i.e in dog meat the protagonist is at the beginning happy and with his dog and although through the film he loses the dog by the end this balance is restored as he finishes in the same position.

Many of the other short films also follow this narrative principle closely. The short film "8" begins with a soldier being held captive by an opposing soldier over the course of this short film the roles are reversed until the end in which  they are both placed in the situation when they both step on land mines resulting in both being placed in a helpless situation.

Attitudes towards characters/setting/theme?

Throughout many of the short films which I watched, The setting was treated almost like a character unto itself. The most prominent example of this came  “ The shore “ which tells the story of two friends reunited after over twenty years and is set in Northern Ireland. Throughout this film the rural backdrop and very typical irish locales such as a pub, the mourn mountains and the small town of rosstrevor, these locations along with  the very irish humour help to immerse the viewer and make the film feel as authentic and genuine as possible. 

Another film which I watched which made effective use of its setting was the satirical “ We ate the children last” which deals with a world in which life saving transplants between  humans and pigs which inevitably leads to outbreaks in cannibalism. This film however unlike “the shore” focuses so much so on the setting that it proves detrimental to the plot placing the setting above the narrative and plot resulting in what comes across as convoluted and contradictory.  

How do they differ from conventional films?

on the whole the short films which i have watched have differed quite greatly from conventional films in that they usually are on a small budget and are relatively isolated to specific locations usually with a short time span of between five and ten minutes, they also tend to be more vague and ambiguous than conventional films.

 whilst not necessarily unconventional. The short films also tend to have more ridiculous plots than most feature films and mainly focus on parody and satire an example of this is the film "Kung Fury" which instead parodies the typical 80's action movies through ridiculous action set pieces and cheesy dialogue and also the video tape aesthetic of the film. The plot of this film is also quite over the top with a superhero police officer travelling through time to combat Hitler with yet again a twist in the film of Hitler surviving their final confrontation fitting in with the typical action movie tropes of the eighties.

However in many ways the short films can be quite similar to a conventional film, For example the film "undying love follows many of the typical zombie film tropes in the highlighting of just what humans will do and how they will change when faced with the apocalypse and also uses undead similar to those seen in Danny Boyle's 28 days later with a large focus on the gore and violence similar to many zombie films.

Before we can begin creating a short film it is important to understand the key elements of a short film and what some typical codes or conventions are so that we can achieve a worthwhile and authentic product. In order to do this we looked at various short films from the Short of the week website from various genres in order to distill what exactly a short film consisted of.

In conclusion through looking at these short films i have found that the perhaps three key aspects of short films these would be

-some form of twist

-usually small and isolated

- Deal with subject matter and concepts usually not seen in many large films