The main inspiration for this film, came from a family discussion we were having whilst having dinner one night. The topic came up of my brothers job, who works for supermarket delivering foods from house to house. As conversation went on, i asked him "Whats the strangest house that you've delivered too?" and he told us about a house near where we live. He told us about a house near where we live, who he had made a delivery too.
He pulled up outside the house and unloaded the products the person had ordered and walked upto the house. After he had knocked on the door, A ordinary looking young women appeared at the window, looked at my brother, then dissapeared She then answered the door. He then explained that he was there to deliver the stuff she ordered. She smiled and gave her signature, as she did, my brother had a little glimpse inside the house, and saw lots of old and creepy stuff such as taxidermied animals and the like, which he thought was pretty weird.
This story got me thinking about how everyone has two sides to themselves. The first being how they act in public and when they can be seen by strangers who they dont even know, And the other side is them whilst they're in the privacy of their own homes. The everyday people who you see so often could act one way to everyone else, but when they return home, act completely different and have hidden secrets that people do not know about.
The purpose of my short film is to show both sides of these people, and get a glimpse of what how they act and what their life is like behind closed doors, albeit, a bit more exagerrated in the film perhaps. The intention is to get the viewer to start thinking about what someones life is truly like and how it affects their attitude and personality.
Inspiration
Films
Birdman
I have recently watched birdman, and in my opinion it was truly a masterpeice. I love the whole "oner" camera style it has throughout the majority of the film, as we take a tour throughout the whole of the theatre. I love way it glides into each characters different scenario. Also, the time transitions, and the shots in which, you dont see any characters, yet you can hear the noise in the background to let you know what is going on, i think, is brilliant and works well.
This film gave me many ideas for my own, In my film, i will want to film each different scenario in each house, using only one shot, starting when the delivery driver shows up at the house and steps out of his car, hands over the parcel, and the camera follows the character back into their house. By using one camera shot, it will feel like you are taking a tour of the building and glimpsing into what this persons life is like. Although, this will be extremely difficult to plan and pull off well at a good standard, i beleive that i can, and the final product will be worth it!
Hustlers
This is one of my favourite film storylines. This is because instead of having one whole storyline throughout, it plays through one, then skips back to the time of the begginning of the film, then plays another, and then again and so forth. What i particulary enjoy about this style of film, is this each storyline, has links and small connections to one another, some only slightly, others more majorly. Theres always the moment where you go "ooh, so thats what that was" when another story reveals something about the other.
This is the film that gave me the idea to use multiple short storylines (each different house) instead of one continous long storyline. What i will be attempting to do is get each of the houses to give subtle hints about the another.I will do this to help the film blend and run smoothly and give little "ooh" moments to the viewers. I think this will also prove a challenge but can be accomplished with smart, careful and meticulous script writing.
Grandma's Not A Toaster!
This short film (Watch by clicking on picture to the left) is just a great POV film that i really enjoyed. I love the way that it only has a short and simple storyline, but it replays it again and again, but from different views of each of the character, and by doing so, sort of creates its own sub-storyline with each one. The shooting style literally makes you feel like you are the person, and in doing so, creates confusion throughout the film, but as in progresses, you learn more about what is really going on.
Although i am not sure how i will incorporate ideas from this film into my own, it has given me alot of knowledge on how to film long, continous shots and the effects that they can have on a film.
In Bruges
Being one of my favourite films, the script in this is perfect. The the two main characters talk and act to each other really gives you a sense of how close they are, despite all the arguements they have with each other. What i like about it is that the main character, Ray, will use snippets of information he has learned from conversations in the film, and use them later to back himself up, and by doing this, it reveals to the audience catches on how innocent he is, and how he feels bad about what he has done. Just via the dialogue and how Ray acts, you begin to feel his mindset yourself and what he is going through. To understand truly what i mean, you need to watch the film.
This film gives me alot of ideas on how I want to write my script and how i want my characters dialogue to really reveal what kind of person they are. That being said, i want what each character says and how they say it, to be completely different to one another, to really show a broad variety of people.