2013 Post 9- Film Development

For this post I have undergone further research into my short film, looking at the main character's inner conflict, locations and characters.

Inner conflict
I found a post that explains a guide to using and portraying inner conflict, this is relevant and helpful for figuring out how to show my main character's inner conflict, in a way that will keep an audience interested. http://blog.janicehardy.com/2012/08/the-inner-struggle-guides-for-using.html
Below is the post's layout of how major plot points in a narrative could show the character's inner conflict and growth, I have used this as an idea for how my film's story could be developed:

• Inciting event (main character realises friend's have forgotten memories)
• Act one climax (main character brushes off problem)
• Mid-point reversal (realisation he is gaining other's memories, begins to write them down)
• Act two climax (memories too much for main character, avoids contact with people)
• Climax (main character rejected when asking for help, obsessively writes down other's memories to cope)

I found several sections of this post very useful for developing the plot and sequence of my short film as well:
"Whatever the fear is, make things happen that force that character to face and experience that fear. Make that fear the thing they need to overcome to succeed..."

For my main character, their 'fear' would be that people suddenly lose their memories, which he experiences by making physical contact with them. Upon realising that he is the cause for his fear, he will feel the need to overcome it which he does by becoming immune to it. I would like to end the film in this way so that the audience will wonder if the main character had succeeded in overcoming his fear, as the problem would not be resolved.

Locations
I would like the locations for my short film to be based around the main character so that the film remains as realistic as possible. I would like to have sections of a house, e.g his bedroom, in the film as he is living with room-mates away from home, for teenagers this could potentially be messy and small.

A messy bedroom would give the appearance of a casual and laid-back character

Incorporating busy areas, such as a city street or popular park would be ideal for making my main character experience his problem. In these areas he would be more likely to often come into contact with others, thus robbing them of their important memories and creating the sense of a constant surrounding fear for dramatic effect.

Trying to avoid contact here sets the stakes high for my main character

 

Characters
My short film will mainly be focused on the main character as he comes to accept his ability. I imagine him to be an average 17 year-old boy, one that does not fit into a particular stereotype and has no discerning skills, as I believe that this would make the impact of his ability more dramatic. A character I found to be fairly similar was Andrew from 'Chronicle', although he could be seen as a 'loner' and has family issues, this character obtains a strange power and feels guilt for the consequences that come with it, similar to my main character. Despite this, the two deal with their abilities in different ways, Andrew feels as if he is superior and lashes out on the world whereas my character accepts his ability but becomes a recluse.

Andrew enjoys his power but my main character does not

Secondary characters include my main character's room-mates, I imagine them to be similar to Andrew's friends who are very dear to him and get along well,as this would have a more emotional impact on the audience and my main character once they can no longer remember him.

My group and I interviewed members of our target audience, teenagers 14+, for feedback on our short film idea:

Interviewer: What do you think of the plot? Is it a plot which seems fluid and will fit into the 5 minutes we have?

Interviewee: I really like the idea, it's different in a good way? You might have trouble fitting it into 5 minutes though. I really liked the sketch book idea, thought that was awesome.

Interviewer: Is there anything which seems out of place? Or can be changed?

Interviewee: I think that it'd move too quick for someone to understand what's going on, but I guess it depends on dialogue and how much you have in each scene.

Interviewer:You mentioned dialogue, do you think it is important to focus on what is not said rather than what is?

Interviewee: I don't know about dialogue, I think it would probably be more effective without loads of it, but only if you can explain what's going on without it, if that makes sense, so using the actor and locations to the best effectiveness you can.

I also recorded an interview wherein I asked a friend of mine questions about our plot and character idea, they have a strong interest in film and fit into my target audience so I believed that their feedback would provide an interesting perspective.

After gaining feedback on our idea our logline has been improved to hint more towards the Drama genre and create a better sense of intrigue for the audience: 'When a teenage misfit comes to a realisation he's gaining the memories of the people around him, he must decide whether to be selfish or be selfless, as he slowly begins to go insane.'
With this new logline the ending and the main character's choices are still unknown.