Generating ideas








Characters- An old man who is always complaining 
Locations- Where everything is weightless
Situations- Someone screaming for help 
Objects- A gun
When- On a cold night 


Mood Board




Genre
The genre of this short film would be a thriller, as there are some features that will bring the spectators to the edge of their seats as well as leaving them with questions about the world the film in.


Plot Synopsis

A little boy is being tested on in a lab and then escapes. Then we see a chase between two beings as they are running through the woods. One boy is barefooted and because its the middle of December, his feet are getting ice burnt by the slabs of ice laying on the forest floor. We then see what the boy is running from, a gun being held by a hooded figure, he screams but no one can hear him, the gun is fired. The little boy then wakes up still in the forest and his body has a purple tinge due to the freezing conditions he's been left in, he sees that everything around him is floating, including himself. We then go forward 60 years, and the weightless world is no more, we see a man sitting on a bench in the park subtlety moaning under his breath, it's obvious that he lives alone, has no family or friends. We then see a tattoo on the back of his neck showing a number and 'property of the United Kingdom's scientific testing lab'. The rest of the film is about the old man coming to terms with his life and realises that he has had crucial memories taken away from him, it also appears that he has no recollection of the weightless world. He doesn't even know why he was being tested on. He longs to find out these answers and to truly discover who he is.

 Decisions

Potential cast
For this short film, it is important to incorporate a reliable cast but also relevant to the genre and events of the film. The cast of this short film would be minimalistic, as it is based around an isolated man who has no family or friends. The man would need to be played by someone around the age of 60-70, as this would show the complete isolation they have from the rest of the world as it is common for someone of this age to be surrounded by Grandchildren and the rest of their family, and so by having him this age we would feel deep sympathy for him as we know what he could have had, if he hadn't have such an awful childhood. If I were to do this short film, I would possibly use my Granddad as the main character, but I would have to be mindful that he may not be the best person for this, as he has had no experience of acting and so getting across how I would like him to be could be challenging.

When thinking about the woman holding a gun, I imagine this character to be quite young, the perhaps mid-twenties. This is because in films related to testing on humans, it is very often an older man who is seen as the 'villain', and so I thought it would be interesting to change things and have a younger woman doing the testing. For me, it isn't too important who plays this character, and I have lots of options for who it could be played by, but I imagine the woman to be hooded and for the gun to be concealing most of her face, this woman also wouldn't speak and so I wouldn't need to have someone who is an experienced actor playing her.

 Mise-en-scene
The main elements of mise-en-scene which I would focus on in this film would be lighting, setting and character expression and movement, but smaller elements like costume will need to be considered as well. The lighting is important in this short film, specifically at the beginning when the young boy is getting chased through the woods, the lighting would be dull and have grey tones to it to represent the time of day (early morning) as well as being a representation of the dark events which have taken place in this young boys life. Setting again, is very important in the first scene when the boy is being chased, as the woods could be a symbol of the isolation that he has had from the rest of society, because he's not running out on a visible path with people around but running through an empty and eerie forest, it could represent how far away he is from the rest of civilisation. Character expression and movement need to be strongly considered as if I don't use dialogue, this is the way that the spectators will be able to know the emotions that the characters are holding. Costume, however, is another smaller element that needs to be considered and is one that I would focus on if I created this short film. Specifically the costume of the boy/older man. The change in costume of this character would be a good symbolisation of how he escaped the life of being tested on and ended up being part of society, the younger boy being chased in the woods would be wearing a hospital gown, which clearly hadn't been cleaned for a long time, whereas the older man would be wearing a normal day to day outfit however it is the tattoo on the back of his neck which shows the viewers that he was the little boy running to escape.

Dialogue

I don't think that dialogue is necessary for this short film idea, as a lot of the actions give a clear enough idea as to what is happening. If I were to use dialogue in this short film it would only be done with proper actors who know how to act with a camera in front of them as I think it is very easy for the short film to become unrealistic or not as effective once the dialogue has been added. 

























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