I decide to make a drama as my short film project for this semester, and I expect it to be about 5-7 minutes long. It will have about 4 characters and be filmed in three different locations.
The plot:
A man wakes up and finds he is not able to speak; He is so nervous and looking for help from everyone he knows; the doctor says you lost your language because the loneliness in your heart; After being helped by so people he knows, he still can’t speak but doesn’t feel that nervous anymore; he go to bed at that night; when tomorrow he wakes up, he is able to speak again.
So the 4 characters are the man, two of his friends and the doctor. The locations should be his home, his friend’s place and the doctor’s office. Also, there might be several shots of the man walking on street as montage and transition between moving from his place to his friend’s.
Objective:
What I want to express by this short film, is when you feel alone, disappointed or helpless and do not know how to handle the pressure in your heart, do not just repress this emotion. Otherwise, you might finally be like the man who is not able to ‘speak’. The solution is to share it with your friends and look for others’ helps. I think I’m inspired by the fact that nowadays, due to the extensive use of Internet and heavy pressures caused by work and study, people sometimes seem indifferent and spend less time with their friends in real life and families.
Approach:
The first thing I want to make sure is the narrative is clear and logical enough for audience to understand what I’m talking about. I don’t want to make it too abstract like an experimental or poetic film. Therefore the way of storytelling, shooting and editing will not be so different and special.
However, I do want to try something different in this project. For example, to emphasize that the man is not able to speak and feels alone, I want to use subtitles with pure color background to show what he thinks and wants to say in his mind, just like the silent films have done before.
Here is an example of it, in film sunrise a song of two humans, the director used this approach to make a silent film such emotional and moving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnLVMREVA6M
But this approach will be only used for the man, not every character in the film. Everyone except him is speaking, to emphasize how different he is.