Short Film Idea

Plot: Following a young male that slips and drowns in a lake whilst taking shots for his art/school etc. I feel this section of the plot is the least dimensional in regards to depth, the "slipping into the water and drowning" is pretty loose and may need some improvement so the audience doesn't become emotionally disconnected to the onscreen action.

Throughout the short film I will use a montage of shots back and forth to the 'real life' and 'limbo' in which the character carries on with his normal routines. Perhaps to execute this successfully a distinct editing effect such as a slow misty fade will help the transition. That said I don't want it to be too obvious or dragged out so I will have to experiment and conduct some research to get the effect I desire.

The protagonist (art student) feels real things and can interact with environment, shots designed to not show that the protagonist is dead. A hypothetical situation occurs as "real and happening' but turns surreal. Mum sees the dead child but ignores the "ghost" protagonist. At the end of the short film, after credits there is a short montage of where the ghost has been. Hopefully this acts as a sort of tie up which may hint for audiences to re watch the film.

I developed my idea by brainstorming on paper, I played around with some ideals and plots then when i had my basic idea outlined, i took it into a scene construction. The whole process has helped me to form my idea and gradually build it up. Furthermore my storyboard was influenced by ideas I picked up whilst not actively thinking about it and they just came to me.

However I worry that perhaps I have made it too complicated or difficult for myself to create a succinct and easy to digest short film. To challenge this thought I applied Todorov's narrative theory to my story-line to see whether I comply with these conventions or go against them.

Source: I found a well summarized blog post on Todorov's Narrative Theory and I have decided to follow this similar approach of review: http://merrynbrodiea2.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/todorovs-narrative-theory/

• Stage 1 – Equilibrium   

- This is the on going situation before anything actually happens

• Stage 2a – Disruption

- This is the event that starts the story going and must be resolved

• Stage 2b – Recognition of Disruption

- This is where the characters realise that there is a problem and try to deal with it (often making the situation more complicated)

• Stage 2c – Attempt to repair disruption

-  This is where the damage of the disruption is realised and measures are taken to deal with it

• Stage 3 – Resolution

- This is where the story is concluded by returning to a new kind of equilibrium (different to where the story began)

Stage 1, 2b) My story quite literally plunges rapidly into the "disruption" stage. This goes against the narrative theory as I have bypassed the equilibrium stage. I didn't think to include anything before this, I may look into creating a short scene (30 seconds) of establishing the protagonists role in a peaceful way. e.g. taking pictures of flowers etc. 

Stage 2b, 2c) The story-line cuts back and forth in time/limbo between the protagonist drowning and the ghost going on about his life as if nothing has changed. It is definitely hard to define the line in-between the two but this is my desired affect of ambiguity. Attempts to repair the disruption are undertaken in a slightly abstract way and perhaps subvert typical conventions of narrative in this sense. 

Stage 3) Essentially, the story doesn't wrap things up, however it does end with the protagonist relatively content but his mother distraught. This decision was made to not leave the viewers with any guilt and furthermore the character is fairly disengaged with viewers throughout which enables the story to end fairly sadly without causing distress. In regards to the narrative theory a new sense of equilibrium is created which coincides with Todorov's theory of narrative.

Conducting this analysis is beneficial for me as it helps me to outline what I want to do with my film whilst allowing me to potentially change the order of things that might not work well for the sake of making it easy to watch from the audience's perspective. 

 The brainstorming and scene construction:

Music/Editing: Subvert typical death conventions. Perhaps use happy sounds in worst possible places. (mother seeing dead/missing son.)
I did a character development sheet which helped me to structure the idea and plot however I since have moved away from the sheet: