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myMovie: Edition 4

For my second project, I shot another short film. Like the first, this one was also conceived as something I could shoot entirely by myself in a short period of time. It took about 30 minutes to do the initial shoot, 10 minutes for reshoots, and an hour to edit.

What's most interesting about this film is that it's a failure. I intended it to be a Twilight Zone-esque short with a surprising "shock" ending, but due to lack of planning, not only is the "twist" not a shock, it doesn't make any sense at all.

However, as someone much wiser than me said, all failures are learning experiences, and by seeing what didn't work this time, I can correct that next time.

The story, then, as I conceived it in my head:

1. A guy comes home and sees his apartment is unlocked.
2. Thinking that it's a burglar, he sneaks in cautiously.
3. He hears the sound of running water from his kitchen, and investigates, picking up a pair of scissors in case he has to defend himself.
4. He peers around the corner, and sees himself, doing the dishes (duh duh duuuuuuuuuhn!)
5. Terrified by this, he backs up to figure out what's going on.
6. He is grabbed from behind and stabbed.
7. We see that he has been killed by a third version of himself, who suddenly realizes what he's done.
8. The kitchen self comes out and finds an empty living room.
9. He locks his front door to keep out burglars.

Okay, it ain't Shakespeare, but as something that I could shoot by myself, quickly, I didn't think it was too bad.

My first mistake was that, as soon as I got the idea, I immediately grabbed the camera and started shooting. I simply ran with the idea in my head, without planning it out, and most importantly, without scripting or storyboarding the film out.

As a result of this, I didn't think about the film as an audience member would see it. I didn't step back and look at it objectively, but assumed that things would make sense because it made sense in my head.

The Shoot:

I shot this in my apartment building (obviously). I got extremely lucky in that no one came out into the hall while I was shooting out there; particularly since the camera tripod was standing in front of the door people use to get to the laundry room.

Again, since I was working entirely on my own, I had to use the camera's LCD screen to check and see if I was on screen. This became awkward once I moved into the apartment's narrow hallways, and made worse by the fact that I was still using the tripod with the wonky leg that kept collapsing (note: get new tripod).

Once I got to the scene where Me 1 gets stabbed by Me 3, I ran into my first difficulty: how to shoot me stabbing myself. I had planned on doing that similar to the way that you can pantomime strangling yourself; standing at a door, you act as if you're fighting someone else, and simply hide your elbows behind the door, while you grab your own throat. In practice, however, making it look like someone else is grabbing your mouth from behind just doesn't work.

Pressing on, I decided to come up with a different shocking twist; instead of getting stabbed by a third me, the first me would simply dissolve, and the second me would find my clothes laying on the floor. Brilliant! This had the additional benefit of putting neither a hole nor blood (ketchup) on my coat. I reshot the scene a couple of times, trying to get more of a look of fear on my face.

I wanted to try a few POV shots as I crept through the apartment as well. I took the camera off the tripod for this, and the jittery, hand-held look works for this, I felt.

Editing:

Editing went quickly; again, too quickly. I wasn't looking at the film objectively, but just wanted to get it done so that I could feel I had accomplished something.

The editing is, in fact, probably the best thing about the film. The edits come much more quickly, and shots don't linger too long. What's interesting is that as I do these things, I find out that the insert shots (putting the coat in the closet, locking the door) are almost more challenging to shoot. They're not inherently interesting in and of themselves, and it's difficult to gauge how much time to take with them. Will it be clear to the audience? Do I need to take more time to show what's happening? So far, the answer seems to be that the shots will register very quickly, in some cases less than a second.

Analysis:

Starting with the positive, I think the editing is much stronger with this piece, as I said before.

The thing that worked especially well was that since I had a very clear picture in my head what I wanted the final project to look like, I didn't shoot a lot of footage that I didn't use. Now, if I can just combine this clear idea with a more compelling, clear story, I think I'll have something.

Continuity is pretty good, with a few exceptions. There's no shot of me actually going into the apartment, for example. The hand-held shot looking around the corner is pretty effective, and gives it a claustrophobic feel.

The big problem, of course, is that twist isn't clear, which is what the entire thing hinges on. I expect the audience to make a leap of logic that a.) they'll realize that the guy who entered the apartment and the guy who entered the kitchen are one in the same, in different "time periods," or whatever the hell they're supposed to be (See? Even I'm confused!) and b.) the guy who entered the apartment simply disappeared.

Contributing to this problem, I was wearing a ballcap that covered a lot of my head, pulled own almost over my eyes, making it difficult to figure out that they were the same guy. Also, when the first guy disappears, he leaves his hat and coat behind, but none of his other clothes! Lazy. Simply lazy.

I probably would have realized these problems if I'd take the time to storyboard the idea out. I might have even come up with an idea to solve these problems, rather than simply chucking it away as unshootable.

Still, I'm glad I did it, if only for the experience. Mistakes were made, but there were...

Lessons Learned:

• I made sure to have the microphone on for this one. Go me.
• It is possible to shoot too quickly.
• Storyboard an idea out, and look at it from an objective point of view: will this make sense to someone else? Have I given the audience enough information?

Things to Work On:

• Plan out the story. Look at it from an audience member's perspective.
• Shooting alone is convenient (built entirely around my schedule), but limiting and frankly not much fun. Time to start working on larger projects.

Unlocked, Unchained (.mov)

Edition 5: Coming Soon

Edition 3: Day of the Lagomorph: A Tale of Domestic Terror