Short Films: Where Are They Now!?

Where exactly do short films make money? I dunno... We covered them in class today though. It got me thinking of my favourite short film... Consent. (watch it before you continue)

How far does the rabbit hole go?

Despite the bad joke, I feel that this little piece can demonstrate easily what Steven (our instructor) was getting at. One clear problem, the mastery of a plot is pretty simple here and the 'timelock' drama producer is brought in by the lawyers. Add some hilarious tongue-in-cheek writing as well as a zinger of a twist ending and you got yourself a well paced great short film. Consent also manages to go beyond the six minutes of viewing time and enter into the viewer's imagination. When watching this with a group the amount of potential conversation can lead people into all sorts of interesting places.

Note: for those of you against this sort of 'crass' material you can leave a comment as to why it's inappropriate. Just remember, 50 Shades of Grey exists and I've seen people reading it in Public. Our society has gone beyond being shy and private about sex. DEAL WITH IT. 

Let's start a conversation instead.

Learning About Storytelling

We learned about story telling today. We learned about "Freytag's Pyramid", a story should have a beginning middle and end with specific events in between. I found it interesting that using this formula I could create very simple stories while having much substance. Our teacher gave us a small example of a guy (I named him Clark) going to get chips for a party. I began to obsess over such a simple story and decided to add in details and events into Clark's life. Weird, I know, but I figured it would be an excellent start to writing stories.

Meet Clark. He lives in a house. In this house are some of Clark's closest friends. Clark's kinda uptight, he likes things to go his way. Clark is always worried about being on time and when he makes things they have to be perfect. Clark's housemates rarely let him cook dinner because what Clark ends up making usually gets burnt and then Clark locks himself in his room for days. Clark's housemates hate when Clark worries. 

I decided that I'd give Clark and his housemates some specific features to help set the story's introduction. From here I can now tell any number of stories about Clark and his housemates. I can do dramas, comedies, romances... All involving Clark and his housemates.

I'm beginning to understand storytelling now... What's behind that door? What is in store for those women who are going to "Work Abroad in Singapore"?