Eric and I have decided that we want to do something different to the normal classroom film that we do. Most of the time people choose to do thrillers because they are fairly easy and effective. However, there is only so much you can do with spooky lighting, wonky camera angles and a bit of atmospheric music.
We have not yet decided what we will do it on, so we have been doing some research into short films.
By looking on Youtube, Vimeo and VirginMedia Shorts we have started to accumulate a group of short films that we really like for one reason or another. I have recorded a couple below:
1. ADDRESS IS APPROXIMATE -
I think this has to be one of my favourite films of all time now. I love the originality of it, the tenderness of it and I think the smoothness of the stop-motion is spectacular.
The nicest thing about this is that it is a perfect example of a short film. It doesn't have a huge plot line, there's no twist at the end. I find that most short films try to encorporate a whole feature length film into a short space of time whereas it is a whole different style of film altogether.
Short films lend themselves to stories with a small plot but that are still interesting. I would love to do something along this line in terms of storyline however I feel that a stop-motion may be a little ambitious as they are very difficult to pull off well.
2. SPEED OF LIGHT -
This is another short film by the same company that did Address is Approximate yet the two could not be more different. However, just like the latter, this short film is incredibly original in the concept and has managed to take a well known genre/scene and turn completely on its head. The film itself has been executed perfectly and you can see the time and effort that has gone into it.
Again the writers have not tried to shoehorn too much of a plot into the film as this film is more about the way it was done rather than the storyline. Yet what we do have is more than enough to go on and keep us interested. It has obvious characteristics of a police chase and there is nothing new there other than the actual creating of the chase.
3. THE BLACK HOLE -
This film is much again, very simple yet original. The only other time I have seen this idea come across in a film is in an episode of Morph.
I love the fact that they didn't feel that they needed any prologue or anything of the like and the fact that it had a satisfactory end. Unlike The Theory's work, this had a climax and a build up and felt much more like a film. I think the idea is creative and carried out well.
This is a well known genre that the audience can relate to because it has been so much. Yet by not carrying on the story at all, they managed to make it seem like something entirely new. I think this could be a strong influence on our work.
