Pre-Production: Discontinued Ideas

Our main two ideas consisted of 'One Week Later...' and 'Deployment'. These were our strongest ideas as we felt that they had potential to work as a standalone 20 min film that could be achievable to make and also interesting. However, these two ideas were not the only ideas that we came up with in our brainstorming sessions.

Discontinued Idea 1 (Help Me)

Plot:

A young woman has been kidnapped but is feeding information about her whereabouts to a Police Detective who has been assigned to find her. Little does she know, the Detective who has been tasked to find her, is also her kidnapper.

Advantages:

  • Interesting idea with potential for good backstory development.
  • Character Development allows for further backstory/plot development.
  • Could fit with the brief as a good standalone film.
  • Location wise not too complex other than 'Police Station'.

Disadvantages/ Reasons for discontinue:

  • With character development and story development we found that it would be very difficult to squeeze story into 20 min standalone film.
  • Plot is interesting but has been done before, Harry and I both stated we wanted to create something not done before and different.
  • Shooting Police figures need to be backed up with location or significant uniform / badge which can be hard to obtain and expensive to be convincing.

Contributing Factors:

  • Achievable locations are a must have and to try to avoid official uniforms with a low budget
  • A simple yet interesting story, combined with interesting and 'real' characters is the key to initial ideas 

Discontinued Idea 2 (Reset)

Plot: A man relives the day of his death every day. Every time he dies he wakes at the beginning of the day and relives the day trying to find the one way to make it through the day.

Advantages:

  • Could suffice as a standalone 20 min film.
  • Locations and shooting have no strenuous requirements as they are reused.
  • Interesting premise which could be a very stylish story with dark comedy.
  • Possibility for interesting and charismatic character.

Disadvantages/ Reasons for discontinue:

  • Too similar to existing creations, such as Groundhog Day. (Informed of this in ideas meeting)
  • Requires multiple filming of the same shots which could be boring unless deaths are considerably different. Which therefore requires bigger budget for them to be convincing.
  • Filming multiple deaths could require deaths that may be hard to be convincing.

Contributing Factors:

  • Once again character and story are key with the initial idea.
  • Pitch idea to others as soon as possible to make sure idea isn't too similar to previous films.
  • Simple ideas that can be done creatively are key within short films therefore its important to keep on track and expand when a solid story is there to sustain.
Discontinued Idea 3 (Restaurant Couple)

Plot: This was more an idea for a scene rather than a story however; It looked at a married couple who resent one another where as the wife character talks the husband has an internal monologue describing his dislike for her and the breakdown of their marriage all while having a seemingly normal dinner.

Advantages:

  • Short story which could suffice as a standalone film.
  • Constructing scenes from as little as a dinner can allow me to think outside the box when writing and creating scenes.
  • Interesting story which could be effective with backstory and development.

Disadvantages/ Reasons for discontinue:

  • A scene rather than a story.
  • May be too stretched to reach 20 min film.

Contributing Factors: 

  • Focus on characters and story rather than individual scenes as this can change considerably throughout the production phase through writing and development. There needs to be a solid story and character as the building blocks before its expanded on.
  • Confidence in creating scenes will aid me once more of an idea has been created. The fact that i can picture scenes is promising as I'll be able to do this while writing.


What's Next?

Next is to finalize on an idea between One Week Later and Deployment then present this to the group as our idea. After this research and develop the idea.

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