Okay, so over the past couple of days, I have been working steadfast to finish up the paperwork for the short film. Right now I have decided to name it "6 seconds to die" just cause I think its the most fitting name to what the plot is.
But yeah, I would say that developing the idea for this script was actually quite hard. There are different types of difficulties you experience when you have complete freedom and when you have restrictions but on you.
When you have complete freedom, you have to think about what is doable but still awesome and when you have restrictions, you have have to think whats can be done with the restrictions but still awesome.
In this case, I have both. I have the rules (or as they call them, restraints) placed upon me by the competition, which are:
1 Choose a title from the following 6 options:
– SWEET 6TEEN
– 6 SHOOTER
– 6th SENSE
– 6 SECONDS TO DIE
– 6 DEGREES OF (LIMB) SEPARATION
– 6 FEET UNDER
2 Maximum run time – 6x 30 seconds (That’s 3 minutes!)
3 Maximum lines of dialogue – 6
4 Maximum hours of shooting time – 6
5 Maximum budget – £666
6 Maximum cast – 6, and maximum crew members – 6 (including post)
Right now, I need to focus on the script, so the only things I need to worry about are restraints no.2, 3 and 6.
I need to make sure to come up with a script that is scary, but doesn't have too much of a plot. Have something where there aren't many characters, make sure they don't speak that much and won't take many people to put together.
When it comes to creating scripts, there is usually either some kinda method you can follow to coming up with an idea, or following a guideline to creating a standard one. Now it is different for everyone, but something I would find particularly useful would be Dan Harmon's Story circle.
Basically Dan Harmon's story circle is a structure of the "Hero's Journey" story stereotype that he created while working on the popular comedy series: Community. Whenever I'm stuck for time I would refer to this and base a story off this. I will maybe go even deeper into story development in a later post, but right now, I need to focus on a different method.
Now there are a lot of methods for coming up with ideas for videos , here are some examples:
- Doing Research (watching movies, read a book, surfing the internet, playing games, etc.) and looking for inspiration among that research.
- Take example of videos you like, what about them is so good?
- Do relaxing activities (take a shower, a walk, etc.)
- Take examples from your own life or other peoples life.
- Try base it off something else (an adaptation)
- Listen to music
Now for this project what I did was listen to music at my desk according to the kind of feel I wanted to create. So that meant listening to a lot of creepy music....... What fun!
(Random N.B. For some reason this reminded me of the Action Man PS1 game soundtrack from the factory mission)
I listened to the likes of the Nightmare on Elm Street soundtrack, Scream soundtrack Halloween soundtrack, Saw soundtrack.... there were a lot of soundtracks. I don't really think many people intentionally make scary music unless its for a movie, but in any case, listening to these soundtracks and then watching a few scary movies got me in the mood to right a short horror script!
One of the pieces of music that inspired me the most was "The Game Begins" from the Scream soundtrack movie soundtrack, or at least the start of it anyway. That gradual build of suspense is what I want in my film. After listening to this I thinking back to what kind of horror films I enjoy. Now I personally am not the biggest fan or complete gore stuff because of the fact I think its just disgusting for the sake of being disgusting and adds nothing to the story unless used in certain cases. It was brilliant for the first Saw film, but then it began to just be used because of its shock film. But we can discuss my opinion on gore at some other date, what I'm saying is I love horror films with a story.
Look at Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers and all the Scream villans. They all have brilliant backstories which has lead to becoming the insane characters that they are. I believe that horror can be used to really enhance a story in the form of progression and character development. So thats what I would like to have in my short film, a story and progression. Now I thought this was obviously going to be difficult to make a good 3 minute horror short film with a good story, but at that time, I had already pin-pointed what I wanted. I knew what I wanted to create. I wanted to create a horror mystery.
Now when I mean horror mystery, I mean like the Scream movies, where the threat of the killer is there, but you are not sure who it is and know that he is around there somewhere, its just that the characters don't know where they are.
So once I had found what I wanted I wrote out a basic outline/ synopsis:
"Alan keeps waking up with different types of bruises and injuries for weeks now and believes its something supernatural. So when he sets a camera to find out what he causes these wounds, we find out the threat is much closer to home that what he thinks."
Look at Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers and all the Scream villans. They all have brilliant backstories which has lead to becoming the insane characters that they are. I believe that horror can be used to really enhance a story in the form of progression and character development. So thats what I would like to have in my short film, a story and progression. Now I thought this was obviously going to be difficult to make a good 3 minute horror short film with a good story, but at that time, I had already pin-pointed what I wanted. I knew what I wanted to create. I wanted to create a horror mystery.
Now when I mean horror mystery, I mean like the Scream movies, where the threat of the killer is there, but you are not sure who it is and know that he is around there somewhere, its just that the characters don't know where they are.
So once I had found what I wanted I wrote out a basic outline/ synopsis:
"Alan keeps waking up with different types of bruises and injuries for weeks now and believes its something supernatural. So when he sets a camera to find out what he causes these wounds, we find out the threat is much closer to home that what he thinks."
Hope I've hooked you in :-p.
(This picture really made me cring)
So upon that I began typing out my script and have finished all the planning paperwork including shot lists, script, storyboard and props list.
So now with all the paperwork done, I need to find a location and a crew of 6 (including myself) if I want to pull this off right.
Wish me luck and hope you return for the next post!
P.S. WEIRD VIDEO TIME
