Chapter 7 Exit Interview - Character and Plot

Vimeo Short Films Research

During my time on Vimeo, I discovered a number of vastly different short films, from sic-fi to horror. One film that I really enjoyed was Cross; a film about an American soldier, lost in the woods, who happens upon a shack with a wounded Nazi inside. The thing that struck me during the intro was the film's lack of dialogue, instead using visual prompts such as letters and photos to set up the story. Inspired by this, using the Mise-en-scene to further the narrative in our film would allow us to pack a lot of back story and plot without having to explain through dialouge, which takes up precious screen time. Of course, one of the flaws of this is the availability of good props and costumes. The films on Vimeo, whilst amateur, still have a budget of sorts, something we don't have.


Cross from Oliver B. Milne on Vimeo.


Looking into the genres that we could do for our film, the choice is particuarly difficult. A Sci-Fi film would require a lot of props and costumes to make it believable and original. It would also require good editing skills and software to produce CGI effects. The same goes for an Action film. To make the action good, we would need a high budget. Something tells me that being chased by teenagers shooting guns, with the sound effects being about as believable as if they were shouting "pew pew", just wouldn't cut it. Thriller leaves a lot of room for the film, as there is not a necessity of a lot of action, just as long as the film is intriguing and tense. Comedy would be difficult to do, as we would need to know our audience and tailor the jokes/satire to them. There is always the tried and tested route of Horror, yet I think this puts too much emphasis on scaring the audience, which would be difficult in 5 minutes.

Overall, I think Thriller is the most open option for us. As long as we have a strong narrative, that makes sense and is actually intriguing, I think we could produce a good film.

After Thought Review

When I was watching After Thought, I was impressed with the quality of the film in terms of the editing, and post-production effects. The use of the almost negative colours to separate the imagined from reality was something that I liked. I also was impressed with the lack of continuity errors, which are often common when filming multiple scenes portraying the same event.

Then the film ended, and I realised I had no idea what the narrative was actually about. As far as I could tell, a man had been beaten up, and for some reason every time he saw his reflection, he began to wonder the ways in which he wouldn't take a fist to the face. Granted this allowed for some interesting editing, and a stylish final product, but it just lacked any substance, and we were left wondering who, what, where and why? That's too many unanswered w's for my liking.

The soundtrack was a large redeeming factor in the film. An original score, it superbly picked up pace when needed, with quick beats accompanying the action, and then dropping down to a slow piano melody during the contemplation scenes. This gave the film a professional feel to it, and I was impressed that it wasn't someone else's work.

Overall, the technical aspects of the film were brilliantly done. The camerawork, editing and soundtrack were huge highlights. Where After Thought falls down is the plot. There just didn't really seem to be a plot the audience could follow. It is understandable that 5 minutes isn't a huge amount of time for a full narrative to play out, but still, it could have been better.