When all else fails, stab 'em in the eyeball.

So for our film class, we've got make a short (3-5 minutes) film in groups of five. The genre assigned to my group was drama. I was pretty dissappointed with that at first, since most of the ideas I had thought of were better suited to comedy. I think now, however, we've got an idea we can run with. We also have to include several props, namely a skull, a cheese grater, and a guitar, a mime or clown (I'm leaning toward mime), and the lines "Why is this happening to me, on today of all days?" and "It would be best not to talk about that."

So during the brainstorming session in class we came up with a lot of ideas, but, again, they were primarily comedy. There was one idea, however, that I just couldn't get out of my head. Someone, I don't remember who, suggested a story about a girl stalking a boy. When we found out during the class that we had to produce a drama, we pretty much abandoned that idea. For some reason though, my brain wouldn't let go of the idea. I kept thinking about that girl. Who was she, and why was she following this guy? Over the weekend, I figured out the answer. (I'm not going to tell you here, other than that it's a rather surreal idea. You'll find out soon enough.) I proposed my idea and plot outline to the group and they all liked it. Sarah wrote a first draft and sent it to me, and I think things are looking very promising at the moment. We've already got the mime, the props, and one of the lines situated in the script, so we're not losing any time getting going. (I lost some time once. It's always in the last place you'd think to look for it.)

As the director, it's my job to establish the overall feel of the film while we're shooting, so that my editor has a good base to build on. My hope is to create something that is a little suspenseful, a little dreamlike, and a little fun. The whole crew is great and very creative, so I have no doubt we'll be able to achieve whatever we decide to go for. There is one shot in the script however that I'm a little unsure about (and that's my fault, because it was in my outline), and that scene involves someone being hit by a car. Since we don't have access to a lot of special effects technology, and so far I haven't been able to find a willing stuntman (even after I promised to pay the hospital bill), we'll have to use some tricky cuts, POV shots, and the like in order to achieve the scene. I think it's within our abilities, but it's going to require a lot of planning, especially when compared to the rest of the film, which is pretty straightforward, cinematographically speaking. I think that one will be fun to figure out.

Regarding the title of this post, I'm not planning to have anyone stabbed in the eye in this film. I get queasy far too easily for that. I'm actually referring to "Spider", the short film we watched in class. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdj9vMH4BfQ&feature=related) It sets the standard for shocker endings. Not my favorite short film ever, but I can't deny that it's very good.

I guess that's it for now. See you next week.