Twilight Zone

Hi, blog!

So after work today I came home and watched the Twilight Zone with my mom. We do this frequently but today was different as I was doing it with the intention of getting ideas for my short film. Of the ones I watched today, none really jumped out at me. I'm gonna make a list of some of my favorite episodes to give an idea of the ideas I like.

Stopover in Quiet Town: "The morning after a wild party, a couple wakes up in a totally unfamiliar and artificial place." In the end, you find out the couple are dolls in a little girl's dollhouse.

The After Hours: A woman in a department store becomes paranoid when she realizes the floor she was just on doesn't exist. In the end, you find out that she was a mannequin the whole time.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge: "A Southern civilian escapes his execution at the hands of Union soldiers when the hanging rope breaks." In the end, you find out his escape was all in his head and he is hung at the last second of the episode.

Eye of the Beholder: "A woman's natural beauty makes her a freak in a futuristic society." In the end, when the woman's bandages are removed from her face, you find out she really is naturally beautiful, but everyone around her is hideous, which is the norm apparently. She is considered a freak due to the fact that she does not look like everyone else.

I like these episodes the most mainly because of their twist endings. I love twist endings so I definitely want to incorporate one or something like it in my short film. I just have to come up with an idea. I really want to do some sort of pastiche of the Twilight Zone. Hopefully, in my next blog I come up with something new.

That's all for now!

- Rachel

More Ideas

Hi, blog!

Ok, so I have a few new ideas for my short film that I'm kind of leaning towards now.

I thought of these ideas in the middle of our Socratic seminar in class (which I thought was great and hope we do it again).

So I absolutely love The Twilight Zone (1959-1964). `The Twilight Zone' was the brainchild of Emmy Award-winner Rod Serling, who served as host and wrote more than 80 episodes of the original show's 150-plus episode run. It's a strange mix of horror, science-fiction, drama, comedy, and superstition. Serling introduced each episode, and many of the black and white episodes concluded with a surprise ending. Actors such as Burt Reynolds, Roddy McDowell, and Robert Redford made appearances in some of the more well-known stories. 

I thought of another idea when I remembered the movie A Beautiful Mind (2001). A Beautiful Mind is a human drama inspired by events in the life of John Forbes Nash Jr., and in part based on the biography "A Beautiful Mind" by Sylvia Nasar. Early in the film, Nash begins to develop paranoid schizophrenia and endures delusional episodes while watching the burden his condition brings on wife Alicia and friends.

I like how this movie explores Nash's mental state and would like to do something similar in my piece. I think this would be interesting and could give me a lot of things to do with my piece.

That's all for now!

- Rachel

Writing a Script

Hi all!

So a little fun fact about me is I want to be a screenwriter. I'm going to school to major in English and minor in Film with hopes of one day becoming a successful screenwriter.

Behind every good film (in my case a short film) is a good screenplay. Mrs. Stoklosa told us in class the other day that she would teach us a lesson on writing a script/screenplay, so I'm really looking forward to that. I would really like to develop my skills so I can write a good screenplay for my short film.

I read an article online titled "5 Tips for Screenwriters: How to Write a Short Film" on screencraft.org that states the top 5 tips for screenwriters when it comes to writing a screenplay for a short film.

These are the 5 tips given:

1. Short films are the most important moments in a character’s life
Don’t waste time telling about non-essential moments or events. Focus on the decisions, actions, and goals that define who a character is or who a group of characters are. This might involve starting your story in media res, where the audience enters a story (or a scene) that is already in motion.

2.  Remember, film is a visual medium.
Movies are something we watch, so make sure you are delivering a story that uses visuals in an important/interesting/dynamic way. This is different from genre to genre. Action movies need to come up with exciting visual conflicts, spy films need to show people deceiving others or retrieving information in some way, and dramas need to hone in on a change in a character, or their situation, or their relationship/s.

3. Show the beginning, middle, and ending of the story.
Introduce characters with goals, show them encountering obstacles and trying to overcome those obstacles. Show us how they or their world has changed. Set up and resolve dramatic questions. If a story feels unfinished, the emotional impact will be diffused, and the third act will be anticlimactic.

4. Concept driven, more often than plot-driven.
Strong stories that work quickly are great for short films, but concepts are even better. Rather than investing in pages of twists and turns in a relationship or the deadly challenges of a war epic, a strong concept’s appeal is on display from page one. Shorts are useful for highlighting the urgency and originality of an idea we haven’t seen before.

5. There doesn’t need to be a twist.
As with any plot contrivance, if it works, it works. But if there are pages of the story devoted to building to the twist instead of telling the story, chances are those pages aren’t very interesting. Regardless of intent, expository dialogue or scenes that barely serve to develop the current story should be changed or eliminated. If a twist ending is dragging you into bad habits, then avoid the twist ending.

I found these 5 tips to be very helpful when it comes to deciding how I want to set up my screenplay.

That's all for now!

-Rachel

Finding a Genre

Ugh!

Even though this project is due in less than two months, I feel so stressed!

I've been watching a lot of sample projects from past A-Level students and have found that a lot of them embody the drama genre or the horror genre. These are the two genres I've sort of been juggling between. I like horror because I can do a lot of stuff with it, plus I'm a huge horror movie buff. I've always wanted to do a horror short film, but I'm just not sure if I really want to for this specific project.
Therefore, I've been leaning more towards the drama genre, also because most of the ideas I've thought of (mentioned in the previous blog post) fall under that category. I want my short film to kind of send a message or mean something if that makes sense. I love short films or films in general with subliminal messages that make the viewer feel something.

The thing that's stressing me out though is picking what I want the short film to actually be about. As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been juggling a few ideas.

Even though I'm still struggling to figure out an idea, I know I have to figure it out soon. I really don't have that much time, and I don't want to procrastinate this project. That is why I need to come up with a plan and a schedule. I want to get everything done so I'm not doing everything at the last minute. My time management skills really aren't the greatest, so I really want to work on them for this project. It's a new year and a new me! I definitely don't want to make the same mistakes I made with last year's portfolio project.

Well, that's all for now!

-Rachel

Portfolio Project!!

Hi all!

So another year, another portfolio project. I am extremely stressed, to say the least. The project I chose was a short film. I have always wanted to make a short film, and I'm so glad I am being presented with the opportunity to make one!

The only downfall is I have no idea what I want to do mine on.

I've juggled with a few ideas such as a woman who is stuck in an abusive relationship, a person who struggles with anxiety (specifically social anxiety), or a person who has a difficult relationship with their mother (I saw a sample project that had something to do with this that I really enjoyed.) I know these ideas sound like really heavy topics, but I was leaning towards doing my project on a heavy topic. After seeing the movie Parasite I also kind of like the idea of doing it on class structure.

I have so many ideas and I'm so indecisive so this will be a process. I'm just going to watch more sample projects and some other short films on Youtube to draw some inspiration.

That's all for now!

- Rachel