Developing Other Ideas

    After a while of pondering, I realized I simply am not able to develop a story based on a (toxic) relationship. Though these situations and concepts are typically very interesting to others, I am not able to connect or really resonate fully with anything involving drama, romance, or something similar to these genres (though last year's project for my film opening was romance-based. I did struggle then with the writing). 

    I found myself more interested in the mystery and psychological genres while exploring short film examples and I came across some mystery films that made me realize I wanted to do exactly that. Mysteries are also good at engaging the audience, keeping the audience thinking and on their toes. I originally wanted to incorporate a morally gray main character to engage the audience, but mystery can do the same. I'm not too sure how to incorporate a morally gray character this way. I think I could incorporate the ambiguous nature of the main character, but it just cannot be the focus of the film as I was planning for my first idea.

    A good mystery typically involves a shocking crime with a crime solver and a suspenseful plot. These are known to be quite realistic (referring to the way characters would act as well as the crime itself, though it may vary depending on the narrative world).

    Some short film examples I thought may give me inspiration to write are as follows: 

 (A Short Detective Thriller)

- This piece is quite complex for me to pick apart upon my first watch, but after a couple more viewings I was able to understand. I like how the lighting was very dark and almost uncomfortable throughout the production, with a lack of sun to represent the lack of positive emotions, keeping the production's mood very dull and depressing to match the case that the detective cracks.

 (The Vision)

- This suspense kept me on the edge of my seat. There were so many questions that came up throughout the production, not that it was particularly confusing or difficult to understand the (well it was, but it was as if we were put in the character's shoes, especially being in a limited 3rd person point of view and not being able to see what truly is going on until the ending came up), but it was mostly the suspense keeping me engaged until the resolution was revealed.

 (Whittling Away)

- I really enjoyed how suspenseful the plot was, leading the audience to believe that something bad had happened to the daughter, just as her father was panicking. It was really interesting to me how they were able to completely make me think a certain way and make assumptions which were entirely wrong just by incorporating clips that conceal a bit more context. 

 (MISSING)

- I liked the mood set for this production with the color. It is dark and provokes peoples fears of the unknown, and it especially becomes prominent over the course of the production as it seems like the setting changed from afternoon or evening to dusk and night. The overall production is very eerie, especially with the incorporation of the crackling radio and the mysterious figures flying around and finally the sudden disappearance of our protagonist in front of our very eyes.

I'm also thinking of using these productions for my social media research, which will be discussed in the next post.