BVA 203 S1W5 : Proposal Presentation

I knew that for this project I wanted to make a short film, but it's a medium that I have always struggled to get a grasp on. The question I ended up formulating came about in an attempt to make some narrative cliches of short stories fresh again. Some research into the field of short films and short narratives in general let some negatively regarded tropes onto my path. The chief one that stood out to me was a character always waking up at the start of a short film, where we get to see some of their morning routine – a recurring feature in shorts that doesn't add much to the story and makes the entire narrative drag. The second is a typical twist of short stories – the "it was all a dream" reveal that almost always leaves the audience or reader unsatisfied. I also wanted to explore the reverse chronology structure of films like Memento, which I felt had very limited application. These elements combined and produced an idea: what if a film where the main character wakes up at the beginning is told in reverse?​

​

So my question became: How can I use narrative structure in a short film to make the audience feel like they are remembering a dream?​

​

Key word if feel, because I want the audience to subjectively experience what it is like to remember a dream, where the last thing that happened is what you remember first. My project proposes to explore how I could achieve this effect.

Most of my effort so far has been spent developing the story and structure, the challenge is that the film has to work when told in chronological order as well as in the way it'll be shown to the audience – that being in reverse. I settled on making the setting for the dream a party because of the way in functions both forwards and backwards. For my film forwards sees a lively party die down, this in reverse will act as strangers slowly filling the protagonists' house. Quite similar premise to the movie Mother by Darren Arnonofsky – where random people slowly invade and destroy a couple's household.​

​

A big thing that I said I wanted to explore in the film was the character's psyche. Through his subconscious we can illustrate his fears and insecurities. I decided that the story would center on a going away party of a loved one. The fear of losing the person and them forgetting the protagonist work well with the party setting – he literally loses the person in the crowd, when he finds them they can't remember him. This also gives some motivation and direction for the start of the story, the audience will assume he loses the person and has to find them while random strangers start filling his house.​

​

The main challenge so far in making the film a reality has been the writing of it, specifically the dialogue. I have found some ease in writing the opening scene – where the main character wakes up – but once he transitions into the dream world I start to stumble. Here I have attached some pages of the script, the part I'm happy with I have also story-boarded and feel confident in.

My inspiration for the structure obviously comes from Memento, it also helps me in how to handle the reveal. To help with dialogue and tone I am looking at Charlie Kaufmann, a writer whose stories often explore the subconscious but which also have a good comedic foundation. His stories see characters get themselves into socially awkward situations and explore his dialogue often explore miscommunication. My character is weak and his main obstacle is his own insecurities and lack of self confidence, this is well represented in Kaufmann's work, as such I am taking a lot of inspiration from him.