Just Kidding Things Aren't Going To Get Spooky

Coming back from the weekend, I still wasn't completely sold on my narrative. I consulted my teacher and friends and have decided to take revamp an old narrative of mine. As I mentioned before, I made a short film at the end of last school year for a class. I faced some issues so I was never satisfied with it. By using the narrative for this project, it will give me the chance to go back and fix the mistakes I made, using all of knowledge and skills that I've learned in the past year. So rather than attempting the thriller genre, I'm going back to my favorite genre to watch and make, drama. Writing for dramas is difficult but also really fun because you get to convey and evoke emotions in your audience.

In my narrative from last year, it centered around a girl that was going through a very emotional time in her life and the only way she knew to distract herself from it was to run, hence why I called the film "RUN" (very creative I know). Unable to sleep on night, she gets out a of bed and starts running to the different places where she has memories with her boyfriend. When she arrives at these different places, she has flashbacks to the memories. She finally reaches the last place, where her boyfriend was hit by and car and died on his way to see her. She then has a moment of clarity where she realizes that she can't keep running away from her issues, that she has to face them head on so she can have closure.

Looking back at it, the narrative and the way I executed it where both a bit cringe-worthy. Instead of having the main character start off in her bed (like every other amateur film), I want to immediately start with her running. I also want to cut out the love story component of the narrative. It takes away from the main character's inner struggle, and also that means I need one less actor. Though, I want to keep the same idea of someone using running as a catharsis to deal with their emotions. To make reference to her past struggles, I'm going to incorporate inserts that act as little bursts of memories. I will have to use fast paced editing to create a sense of chaos within the character.

I want to start off with a black screen, with some beginning credits, and all that is heard is the diegetic sounds of the main character running, like footsteps and heavy breathing. I'm imagining the first shot as an extreme close up of the girls eyes which then zooms out into a long shot of her running. To break up this shot, because it's going to be on the longer side, this is where the first little inserts happen, but then it will cut back to main shot, as the camera gets farther away from her.

As for mise-en-scene, I still want to play with juxtaposing color schemes. The running scenes will have cooler hues, to convey her dark and sad emotional state. The inserted memories will have warmer hues, to imply a simpler time and innocence. My favorite example of a film that utilizes warm and cool colors is Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. 

The main character from Gia Coppola's Palo Alto, April,
was often dressed in yellow. 

As for the main character, I want the main character to look like a mess. Her hair would be down and really messy, her makeup would be smeared. I could also use makeup to give her under eye circles, implying she hasn't been sleeping well.  For costuming, I always like how it looks when a character is dressed in yellow, which is a bit unusual in films. Yellow usually conveys happiness and innocence, so in this case it will be reminiscent of the characters old self, which she is trying to get back to.




There were certain techniques that I used in my short film that I really liked, and want to use again in my film opening. I had put together the parts from the short film in one video so I can reference back to it when filming. From the beginning, I liked the voiceover and some of the shots that I got of the main character running. In the ending I used inserts, and as I mentioned, I want to use that technique in this project.

I have also attached a piece from my screenplay for the short film. I will probably use a voiceover again so this will give me some inspiration!

Scene 1

ELLA is laying in bed, tossing and turning. She sits up in bed to look at her clock-radio and check the time, which is 2:00 AM. She sighs and throws herself back into bed and tries to go to sleep.

ELLA (V.O.)

I’ve been having trouble sleeping. I don’t think I’ve slept consecutively for more than three hours in months. But I’m not tired. You’d think I’d be exhausted, but I’m not. I go to bed because I like the warmth. It makes me feel safe when I just lay there. I like that feeling, so I stay awake and enjoy those hours. But sometimes, no matter how hard I try not to think about him, about Drew, he pops into my mind. And then I can’t relax. I can’t feel safe because all I can think about is him.

ELLA jolts up, grabs her pillow and throws it across the room. Her head falls into her hands. She sits up and pushes her hair back. She starts to breathe heavily.

ELLA (V.O.)

Then I’ll get this overwhelming feeling inside of me that just makes me want to run away. And I do that sometimes. I run away.

ELLA hops out of her bed and without putting shoes on, she runs out of her room. She runs out the front door of her house and slams the door behind her.