After a little while I settled on the idea to create a short film about a mental disorder such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. This would involve a lot of research on my part to get the different perspectives across in my film (a neurotypical person and a person with moderate/severe OCD). This would also allow me to create a film that would hopefully inform the audience of the disorder and have a lasting impact on them. I could go into the mind of the main character and use techniques such as a voiceover to give the audience an insight into what he/she is thinking and feeling and why it is different from a neurotypical person.
However, after getting to the end of my AS Task, I have 'gone off' this idea. This is due to it being another film in the 'drama' genre and all my films I have created so far have been in this genre; and it moving towards a more documentary style of filming, rather than fictional.
So I started to search for new ideas... The way that I did this was watch a wide range of my favourite films, TV shows and games; it was during watching the latest episode of the AMC series 'The Walking Dead: Season 4' that I came up with my new idea. I had recently re-watched 'The Dark Knight' (2008) and I love the scene in it, in which Harvey Dent awakens in a hospital and realises the love of his life, Rachel Dawes, has been killed by The Joker and the left side of his face has been burnt off. He cries out in distress and flails violently - however, there is silence in the soundtrack, only a single high pitched not is heard. This made me really concentrate on his physical performance, rather than what he was actually saying - this in turn made it far more emotional.
I had also played the first level of Naughty Dog's 'The Last Of Us' at my friends house. This included the opening credits. After the tutorial level, there is a cinematic cutscene, in which the main character's daughter is shot. As she dies, Joel (the father) whispers to her and cries, as this happens there is a sharp cut to a black background, with white writing containing the Game's title. I found this scene extremely emotional, not just due to the death of the girl I had previously played as, but due to the techniques used in the scene and the talented actors that were hired to play these characters.
After all that explanation... Lets get back to my idea.
I was watching the latest episode of 'The Walking Dead' and a very emotional scene occurred where Rick (the central character of the series) has to sacrifice some piglets the group had reared. This is because they are using the piglets as bait for some zombies, so they can fix part of the fencing surrounding their camp. I decided that for my film, I wanted to try and re-create the emotions that are present in all these pieces of media - in other words, I want at least one audience member to be close to tears!
Now for the story line - I wanted to use the idea of someone being bitten in a zombie apocalypse, and their friend having to kill them (it's bad enough having you're best friend die in front of you, even worse that you have to be the one to cause it). This idea came from the end to the opening of 'The Last Of Us' (the death of the girl) and the setting of 'The Walking Dead' (the zombies).
Finally, the format. My previous ideas had all been for short films. However, though this idea would work as a short film, I preferred the idea of making a teaser trailer for a possible feature length film.
You are probably thinking "But teaser trailers are just that - teasers... How is a full story going to help him here?" Well, many video games, TV series and films nowadays, create little storylines in the 'fictional universe' of their stories... But they are never actually included in the marketed product. This creates hype for the film and gives audiences an idea of what the film might be about - in essence, a teaser trailer.
Some examples of this are the 'webisodes' for The Walking Dead. Webisodes are small episodes that are released on the internet for fans to watch. The Walking Dead franchise has created many of these and they are all set in The Walking Dead's 'universe', but are not directly linked to the main story (apart from the slight links, such as a location or prop being the same). Another example is when Quantic Dream were developing their new graphics engine for the Playstation 3, they released a tech demo entitled 'Kara'. This was not linked to ANY game in development at that time (they were very clear on that matter), but it showed the engine's in-game capabilities and helped spread awareness of their next game 'BEYOND: Two Souls'. Again, this is in essence a teaser trailer, but has little/no relevance to the actual project being produced.
Using this basis, I want to create the short scene and film it, but it will be designed in the form of a teaser trailer. Meaning that if a major studio had produced something similar, it may be creating a new horror film based on the 'zombie survival' idea that so many films have done before. The 'teaser scene' could be included in the film, or could not. If I had the money, time and an ideas of making a feature length film of it, I would most likely only feature the location that my teaser was shot in as one of the places visited/featured in the full film - creating a link between the scene and the marketed product.
So, after all of that, what is my project?
Form: Teaser trailer.
Genre: Horror.
Working Title: In Seclusion, We Find Safety
Rough Storyline: Two people stumble into a room - one has been bitten by someone carrying a deadly virus that is destroying the world's population. The other person has to kill the 'infected' person.
Their relationship hasn't been decided yet. Boyfriend and girlfriend? Husband and wife? Best friends? Two like minded survivors?
Techniques that I want to use
(these will most likely change at some point)
- Sharp cut (when they die).
- Silence/single note (when they are about to die).
- Playing with lighting a lot - most people are scared of the dark.
- Good acting and costumes/make-up (make the scene believable).
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