GROUP AGREEMENT LINK HERE

BRAINSTORM FOR MAJOR PROJECT

–   Must be 8-20 minutes

• Comedic short film/sketch

• Taking ideas/situations that audiences can relate to
• Incongruity, escalation, benign violation

• Even using something like a pet peeve to plant the seed for a rise in tension and progressing narrative

• 
  

  Telling one story from multiple different perspectives

• We like the idea of exploring drug use and the premise of our idea.
• We like the idea of a group of friends experimenting with drugs for the first time.
• Each person is having a unique experience – with the narrative being shown from their perspective.
• The narrative can also be advanced and explained through one particular character who believes he is in a documentary – he gives talking heads interviews throughout the skit to put particular scenes into context, and even makes the audience believe that they are watching a documentary.
• The classic guy who always believes we are living in a simulation/is full of Joe Rogan type theories and conspiracies
• A twist at the end of the sketch where we se that maybe our original perspective of the narrative was missing something that adds a new layer of context (e.g. one friend didn’t take the drugs/spiked it etc…
• Funny SFX shown in random trip sequences, e.g. a dog with shoes on, random pop ups/funny paranoia.

Character Archetypes that could be explored 

• Arrogant Friend: This character thinks he knows everything about drugs. He constantly tries to guide the others in how they deal with their trip/how much they take. He also claims to have the most experience and craziest stories.
• Nervous Friend: This Character plays the classic hesitant friend, with familiar traits that can be added from everyday situations (e.g. the friend that doesn’t want to go out but ends up the most tragic)
• Regular Friend: A character that can go any way, someone we can mould in any way to progress the story
• Trip Sitter/responsible friend: This character can also help guide the narrative and be a voice of reason/represent the audience who is sitting and observing the other characters act out of the ordinary

• Comedy Mood Board
• Trapped (2023) perfect incongruity and escalation explored in Week 3’s reading, which discussed the pillars of writing short comedy sketches. We really like how it takes the relatable idea of being stuck talking to someone in a social setting and escalates it to a point where you genuinely have no idea where its going to go. 
• “One beer, then I’m going home” (2023) Is another short by ‘Almost Friday’. We really like how these guys take such familiar situations yet are still able to add a twist and element of surprise. Having already completed some short comedy sketches, it is also quite clear that many lines are improvised and worked on during filming.  
• This scene from Peep show is another impressive example of how drug taking, and the nerves that come with it, can be approached comedically in TV. This whole episode (S3EP3) is a terrific take on psychedelics, as it is filmed in a really underwhelming and dull set (the apartment) – with what could be the worst characters to be around in that specific circumstance. 
• This Sketch from Key and Peele is another piece we can take inspiration from. The piece focusing on one particular gag, which could be set up in any circumstance, works really well in the gang type environment. Obviously the production quality is also great – and shows that although the joke can naturally get laughs, a high focus and attention to detail on set and production in vital.
• The Trip (1967) is filmed in a a uniquely casual yet hypnotic way – aside from the actual trip sequences, Corman has used shadows and natural colours to put the audience into a lysergic frame of mind. If you watch the 6-8 minute mark of the link, you see how the camera movement, colour, lighting (particularly the bold and constantly moving shadows) all compliment each other to visually fit the theme of the film, and characters frame of mind.

WEEK 1 REFLECTION

This week mainly involved getting into groups and generating a basic concept for our major assignment. I am really happy with my group, and certainly feel that all of our senses of humour align. Even through short brainstorming sessions, we are all on the same page with most of our idea – and work well bouncing ideas off each other.

Wednesday was our main opportunity to flesh out a proper idea and concept for our film. Although we were a bit slow to start, we came up with the idea of a short film focused on the unique circumstances a group of friends find themselves in when taking drugs for the first time. I think this idea works well because it allows us to capture a variety of different ‘mini sketches’ all following the same story. Similar to how Little Shits explores the same characters in different situations, I imagine our short film will follow a similar style.

Moving forward, I definitely think our group needs to remain decisive in our decision making and scheduling, as the project has the best chance of succeeding and running fairly smoothly so long as we remain on track with our key dates. By the end of next week, I hope to have a mostly completed script, as well as an agreed upon schedule for filming and what we want completed by the work in progress.