Int. Bedroom
Clothes are strewn around the room, a layer of dust clings to everything. A man lies on an old bed, sleeping.
He rouses from his sleep, picks himself up and sits in bed. Staring at the wall. He is wearing a stained button down shirt with blue jeans and worn leather boots.
With a loud grunt, he lifts his body off the bed and paces over to the door. He pulls at the handle, but it doesn’t open. He braces himself and yanks hard at the door, with a loud creak it pulls itself free of the doorframe and swings open.
This is the very first introduction to the main character in my piece. This scene is entirely visual, with little audio effects and no dialogue. It took me a while to settle on the look of the character. I think his visual representation is incredibly important in this piece because the audience won’t hear him speak (this short film contains no dialogue from the protagonist) and at this point they don’t really know anything about him, not even his name. So how he looks is vital to gaining at least some basic understanding of the kind of person he is.
The shirt – Clearly not entirely casual. Possibly professional/adheres social norms.
The Jeans & worn Boots – Someone who values comfort and functionality over simply appearance.
INT. Hallway
The Hallway is covered in dust. A small table sits at the end of the corridor, a photo with a broken frame sits on the table. A stair case leading downstairs is next to the table.
He ambles over to the small table and wipes the mirror clean with his hand. He stares into it and rubs his beard.
Looking down at the photo. Its a man standing next to a blonde woman. His eyes widen. His thumb runs across the mans face in the photo, and he quickly looks back up into the mirror.
He pulls the photo out of the frame, places it into his pocket and turns towards the stairs, looking down into the dark room below.
This scene in the Hallway I think starts to set the image of the world into the audience’s mind. They get the understanding that he isn’t just someone who has a messy room, this house has been abandoned. Though I think it is still vague enough to not really hint towards whats happening. Is this some sort of post apocalyptic world?
The part where he recognises himself in the photo is still a bit clunky in my opinion. I think visually it is the right idea but it doesn’t read as well as I want it to. It definitely needs a bit of revision. Though I think just from the look on his face as he notices the people in the photo the audience will understand that he does not know who he is until that moment.
The actual Hallway was inspired by P.T. (a horror game from 2014) which I have in my video of inspiration. That image is the kind of aesthetic I would go for in terms of visually setting up the hallway scene.
INT. Living room
The room is dark, the curtains drawn. The room is lit only by the static on a television screen in the opposite end of the room. An old couch sits facing the tv.
He walks through the room to the television and tries switching the channels. Nothing but static fills his gaze.
The television light spills into the next room and illuminates a large wooden door. At the bottom of the door, light shines through the crack.
He swiftly walks over towards the door and pushes it open. Light floods the room.
Something I want to keep occurring throughout the short film is sudden visual shifts in tone. The further into the house he explores, the darker the room becomes. I want this sense of constriction and claustrophobia to continue to be a through line in the film. Whenever he enters a building, I want the world to get darker and darker until it is suddenly incredibly bright again.
I think something I can add in this scene, which I will elaborate on in the audio part of my presentation on Wednesday, is adding some surreal elements as sound effects. Perhaps the crackling/static of the television can grow louder as he walks away from the television and towards the door and suddenly end when he opens it.
EXT. Front yard
A bright day. Abandoned cars litter the street. The houses dilapidated and broken. Silence.
Rubbing his eyes, he walks out into the street. Glancing left and right across the empty street.
This is the sudden shift in visual tone. I want the darkness to immediately dissipate and be flooded by light as he walks into the street.
I think Im going to make the streets seem realistic at first, but then have them sort of twist and bend unnaturally in the distance. Something that isn’t exactly noticeable at first but if someone paid attention to the background as he walked into the street rather than focused entirely on the main character they might be able to notice that something feels…off…about the street.