The BFI site gives guidance on writing short films:


The Protagonist:



"Finding the central character of the narrative is critical to any story-driven narrative... 'What does the protagonist want?' The key to answer this question in the short form, though, is to decide on an incident which will form the basis of the film's climax, and/or its narrative action." 


In our short film, the protagonist is William Acton, whose motivation in the narrative is to remove any evidence of his presence at the scene of a murder he committed. Though the killing takes place before the start of the short story we're basing the film on, it is referenced many times as Acton remembers their confrontation and where he left his fingerprints. 


"One of the key questions which helps to focus the first two questions into a potential dramatic narrative is 'Who or what opposes the protagonist?'."


Though Acton's enemy is Huxley, the man he murders, his main opposition is his own paranoia and obsession that lead him to be unable to leave the house and caught by the police. Therefore, we are going to focus on this element of the story in our film and have the climax of the narrative be his loss of control and the police finding him.


Point of view and theme:


"'Whose point of view is the audience being shown the story from?' ... The reason this question is central to short films is the need to address the scale of exposition, and background information, plus character's motivations, in a very small narrative space."


Our film will be from the perspective of Acton, as his personal obsession with cleaning his fingerprints from the crime scene is what the story is centered around, and his own memories of Huxley confronting him fuel this. 


"Finding the theme in any project is critical to giving a film a dramatic unity, which relates directly to the audience's emotions."


The major themes in the original story are obsession and paranoia, as Acton can't leave the house without doubting himself and thinking he has left fingerprints everywhere, which ironically leads to his arrest. We will use much of the time of our short film to build tension and display his overwhelming paranoia. 

Looking at Short Films

To help us create a short film, I've looked at popular short films found on the internet to see what they include and how they are made. 

"I'm a pumpkin. Hello."


'The Life and Death of a Pumpkin' is a five minute comedic short film about Halloween traditions from the pumpkin's perspective, from it being taken from the field to being hollowed out and then thrown away. Despite being very low budget and without any sort of effects, this film is very effective in getting humour from the juxtaposition of the style of a horror film and the light-hearted subject matter. Many aspects of the film reflect the horror style, especially the dark lighting, ominous non-diagetic music, sudden cuts to "shocking" imagery, and the melodramatic voice over of the pumpkin. This creation of a intense atmosphere in an unusual context could be useful for our short film, as it involves a man staying at the scene of a murder he committed due to his growing frenzied obsession with destroying any evidence, while characters usually try to escape. 

“Well, Mike Birbiglia, thank you so much for joining us on this bank heist.”

This 6 minute film by comedian Mike Birbiglia is very funny, fictionalised look at his interview with real life radio show host Terry Gross that veers into absurdity as he tags along with her to post interview coffee, dinner at her home and a violent bank heist with her husband. The realistic style of the film feels appropriate for the grounded events of the first two thirds but are humorously out of place with the bank heist and shooting at the film's conclusion, as is Terry Gross' famous low-key, friendly "interview" with Mike Birbiglia as he lays dying. However, the film's style does change somewhat as the heist begins, with non-diagetic generic action movie music playing and a change of setting to include a darker mise-en-scene until Mike shoots himself and the previous style returns. 

This is a highly inventive five minute film about a prank played on a friend, tricking him into thinking he only has five minutes left to live and leading him to reunite with his girlfriend. The execution of the film is unique and very effective, presented in reverse, showing the audience the film's conclusion and then how the character reached that point. This interesting use of structure could influence some aspects of our film; we chose to use a framing device of shots from the end of Acton's story at the beginning of the film to engage the audience and make them wonder what caused him to become that way, which will then be revealed. 'Tick Tock' is especially impressive due to it being filmed in one shot, emphasising the value of time in the character's last five minutes. Colour is also used effectively, with the optimistic ending of his story at the beginning of the film in full colour, which fades as it progresses back to earlier events and the threat to his life. 

The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl - Plans

Over this month me and Rosie will be making a short film based on the 'The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl' from Ray Bradbury's book 'The Golden Apples of the Sun'. This is a short story about a man, Michael Caine William Acton, who murders someone Poirot but is so obsessed with cleaning evidence of the crime that he can't leave the scene and is eventually caught by the police. 


We've chosen the most important points of the story to fit into our 2-5 minute film and scripted/planned how we could shoot it:


1. We'll use the framing device of a scene of Acton losing his sanity after the murder at the beginning and end. Begins with camera flashes of light over the trashed house moving onto Acton sitting in the room next to the body of Huxley.
2. Earlier, Acton and Huxley argue over a woman, intercut with shot of them fighting until Acton strangles Huxley leaving his body lying on the floor.
3. Acton puts on gloves and polishes the objects he touched e.g. glasses, the fruit, with close ups of his fingers to highlight his idea of his fingerprints being everywhere.
4. Acton becomes obsessed with polishing everything in the house, cleaning everything. 
5. Cuts to the house trashed, a repeat of the first shots of the film.
8. Police officers, the source of the camera flashes, walk through the house and find Acton. They lead him out of the house and he polishes the door handle as he goes.