When Paul pulled out a writing exercise seemingly out of nowhere on Friday morning, I had a a bit of an internal panic attack. This is because out of all the aspects of a being a film student, the thing I am most sure about is that I am not a writer. I’ve never been a particularly imaginative person, and in high school I was always more comfortable with visual rather than textual tasks. After various attempts to write, I’ve resigned with the knowledge that I’m not very good at thinking of short stories.
With this in mind, when it came to listing down ideas, I definitely struggled at first. However, the task sheets’ point that film projects can stem from very simple observations or even philosophical reflections helped me get a start. Most of my ideas are abstract and not completely developed yet, but hopefully with some help I’ll be able to shape them into proper, more refined short film plots.
Here is my semi-formed thought process:
1) An idea
I’ve always been fascinated with the concept of places, or rather, non-places and their history. It intrigues me how any single spot in the universe has been part of so many people’s stories, or how a place that is so special to one person can be quickly forgettable for someone who is there in passing. For any given nondescript street crossing or city alleyway, how many lives have been intertwined with it? How many have been changed by it? For every person who’s passed by, how many leave with memories attached, and how many will leave with no meaning at all? For a place that might be left still and unchanged for years and years, it’s incredible how it can still mean so many different things for so many different people.
2) A short film outline
Two friends walk together on a city street. They pause at a traffic light, waiting for pedestrian crossing to turn green. As their chatter pauses, one woman’s gaze wanders, and her eyes land on a particular street light. The scene transforms into the same frame of the light and the street crossing at a previous time. We see the woman whose memory we are observing with a man, and they are laughing and walking towards the intersection. As they pause and wait for the light, the woman looks away for a moment. When she turns to look back at the man, she sees him down on one knee. He pulls out a ring and proposes. She says yes. Back in the present, the woman smiles and looks down at the ring on her hand. After a moment, her friend shakes her arm, signalling that the traffic light has now turned green. She pulls herself out of her daydream and back into reality. The two friends cross the street and exit the frame.
(Part two of the Mini Research Project continues here)
