'Go Short' is a short film website in which you can submit your own short film, documentary, animated shorts and music videos, as long as they are 10 minutes or less. 'Go Short' has the benefit of being an international film festival, allowing for many different types of work to be submitted and thus allowing for a wider range of films and genres. 10 minutes or less is one of the many entry requirements to submit your work such as:
-The film must be no longer than 30 minutes long
-Must be produced in Europe (the director and producer must be European or financed from a European country)
-DCP is the preferred film format
-No Fee for entry-The film has no dialogue or clear-spoken English dialogue and/or commentary. If this is not the case, English subtitles are required.
There are also requested materials should you wish to enter the competition, involving:
A completed online entry form. A printed version is not required.
- A Vimeo link to the film with the download option enabled. The link and download option have to stay active till February 2017.
The Night Manager-Episode 1-Screenplay Analysis
The short is about a group of civilians in a saloon set in the west. As a gunfighter (the main protagonist) enters the saloon, a narrator begins to describe the scenes taking place and the scenes that would take place later on in the film. However, the characters can hear the narrator, leading to a bloody shoot out and the characters secrets are revealed.
I found this short film to be very reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino's 'Reservoir Dogs', a film and director famous for iconic and effective dialogue. Since the theme and concept of the scene involves withholding information and cynical characters, the comedy comes in to play with unexpected gags and release of information that takes the narrative in an unexpected direction, allowing for more surprises in terms of dialogue, comedy and characterization.
The second film I found to be very interesting was "E N V O Y", a sci-fi drama about a boys relationship with a mysterious alien robot. The dialogue in this short film is very simple yet effective and in just under ten minutes is able to establish the world of the film, the relationship of the two brothers and their separate perspectives on the situation.
This short film does utilize a lot of sci-fi, adventure conventions. Such as the young wondering boy, the friendly yet powerful entity and the government conspiracy/involvement of the misunderstood entity. These are found in films and TV shows like Super 8, Stranger Things, E.T and The Iron Giant, and was a staple of the 80's sci-fi era, the time in which these genres were at their peak and have been recreated and homaged for many years.
A research into audience
Here is a survey I made asking an audience about their opinions and interests regarding horror films.
I asked such questions as their biggest fears in horror films, their favorite horror film and also their opinion on the narrative of my short horror film.
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/XZ99QCK
Research-Theme, Character and Location
Theme- The horror genre was invented and used to create a reaction of negative emotion from the audience using the concept of the audience's morbid curiosity and the fear of the unknown. Recurring themes in the horror genre are the supernatural, nightmares, fears and the macabre (using visuals and audio to reinforce the atmosphere and mood of the film).The reason I chose to make my script/film as a horror genre, is because of the freedom you get within the narrative and the ability to manipulate certain aspects of the characters, driving forces and how you can play with the emotions, especially the fear, of the audience. I personally feel that the horror genre is by far the most superior of all the different genres and sub-genres, Using the horror/psychological horror gives me the chance to play with a huge psychological fear within the audience which is the "Fear of the unknown", a concept made famous in the short stories of H.P Lovecraft (Call of Cthulhu, Dagon, Nyalarthotep), which offers the audience to relate to the situations that they find when they are placed in the shoes of the main protagonist.
The main theme I will be exploring in my narrative will be the theme of fear and exploring the concept of lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is a dream state in which the dreamer has full control over their dreams, allowing them to do anything they desire, whether it is building structures that defy the laws of physics, fly or anything they can imagine. Many people have different experiences with lucid dreaming and some even suffer from the terrifying "Sleep Paralysis", a state in which you have unable to move and are in a liminal state between dream and reality, causing you to see things that aren't really there. I also felt that the liminality of lucid dreaming would also be parallel to the characters position in life. Being stuck in a dead end job and on the cusp of conquering his own fears, even if those fears may destroy him.
These are some stories from people who lucid dream: http://luciddreamingstories.com/
Some films that I found inspiration from that explore the same themes of the horror/psychological thriller include Insidious, Shutter Island, A nightmare on Elm Street,The Babadook and The Butterfly Effect.
Character- The main protagonist of my narrative is Ezra Frost, a mid-30's failed artist working in a dead end job who missed out on a promotion that could have changed his life for the better. His therapist offers him a lucid dream inducing pill (being aware of your dream state giving you control of your dreams), and upon taking this pill he is pulled into a world of childhood fears and isolation. Ezra Frost is a failure in his life and I chose him to represent the established need for men to succeed in life. Ezra's corner stone that drives him throughout the narrative is his failed life and the traumatic experience when his parents died as he woke up one night to find his parents dead. In the narrative I will be representing Ezra as "The Every man", a character used in narratives that the audience can relate to and are put in extraordinary circumstances. I had several characters that inspired the creation of Ezra such as Josh Warren from Insidious and Edward Daniels from Shutter Island but the biggest inspiration for Ezra was the exterior context of Norman Bates from Psycho
Josh Warren (Insidious)
Norman Bates (Psycho)Location- The most used and well known locations or settings in horror movies include:
-A haunted house
-A cabin in the woods
-Haunted hotel
-Everyday locations i.e schools, houses
-Abandoned locations
I decided to set my narrative in a domestic area and set the dream sequences in the following three locations:
-A cellar/Basement
-A school
-A boiler room
I decided to film in such average and intimate locations in order to create the sense of isolation within the main protagonists, creating the affect of him feeling trapped, in order to juxtapose with the ideology of "Escapism" within the subtext of the film. Another reason I chose these locations is to create the impression on the audience that the domestic environment would be a safe location and catch them of guard in the scenes of horror. This type of horror in used in the best films from the horror genre. Such films include Insidious, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Poltergeist and most of The Ring.
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