Pitch your concept to your partner. Like we did before, a classic pitch is usually a summary of the story idea in twenty five words or less that conveys the exposition (who, where, and when), the inciting incident (what has happened) and hopefully hooks your audience. You want the excite them on your idea, getting them to exclaim “Now THAT is a movie I need to see!” After you’ve verbally pitched the idea, take a few minutes to read over each script, discuss the merits of each, considering qualitative traits (“your idea is so funny!”) and technical traits (“my idea is on the moon with two robots, which might be too difficult for this project”) to decide on which of the two scripts you want to produce.
2. Revise Script Together
Edit, edit, and edit some more! Work together to polish it into a final script. If you need more time, you may need to work on it from home. It should be roughly two to three pages long. Time it out to see if it is too long or too short to see if you need to bulk it up or edit it down. We will aim to complete the final draft tomorrow. Finish early? Start working on your storyboard!
Take some time today to discuss your ideas for possible suspense films! If you have one you feel strongly about, you can begin writing it. Next week, we will be writing our drafts, pairing up, and pitching concepts to our partners.
2. Write Rough First Outline
You’ll have the remainder of the block to complete an outline or even get started on the draft.
We will be producing a short suspense film where we have an idea of what is happening but are dreading it coming but still don’t know precisely how it might play out. Content should be PG and school appropriate. You don’t have to, but if you want to make things easier, try to use the school setting to your advantage and think of things that you have experienced that are suspenseful (i.e. running out of time on a test, being late for the bus, talking to a cute boy/girl) that don’t necessarily have your character(s) in mortal danger. Each group will have two shooting days and will likely need two split their film to be set in two or more locations. Lets look at some of your (not so terrible) ideas from last week.
Easier To Produce
Hard To Produce
A young man is stalked by a guy in a hoodie who has rented the room next to him, where, at night, a strange sound emanates…
After a couple gets married, the wife finds out that her husband always has some strange behaviors and he is hiding a big secret.
A boy has a crush on his lab partner. Unfortunately for him, she is an alien.
A father puts bomb in his estranged wife’s car after a very violent custody battle. What he didn’t plan was for his kid to also be in the car.
A group of people go to camping. Each day there is one person missing.
There are horrible events continue happen in this town. A person is being eaten at midnight every night. The girl finds out that the killer is her boyfriend.
A women found a diary and it is about her daily life. She discovered someone is watching her every day. Who could it be?
A girl who cannot tell the difference between dreams and reality.
Set at school, not violent, doesn’t require too many actors, props, or locations, easy setup, scope is appropriate for a story told in 90-180 seconds, doesn’t require too many special effects.
Requires challenging settings, violence, requires many adult and/or child actors, too many props or locations, scope is too large for 90-180 seconds, complex setup process, excessive number of special effects.
2. Suspense Project Overview
Over the next several weeks, we will be producing a 90-180 second film that builds suspense well through the use of cinematography, lighting, writing, performances, sound, and music. We will be working in pairs to produce this film that follows the plot chart we used previously including…
exposition (establishing location and characters)
inciting incident (or conflict that deviates from normal events)
rising action (as the stakes increase or the conflict intensifies)
climax (where the solution is found), falling action (where intensity declines)
resolution (that ties up the story nicely and helps clarify the themes, morals, or lessons learned)
The four primary areas of focus for this project are:
We don’t know what is happening. Who did it? Where are they? What happened?
We have an idea what is happening but are dreading it coming. We still don’t know precisely how it might play out.
We are surprised and shocked by things that we may not have expected.
Today we will be watching some suspenseful old TV shows and talk about what techniques they use effectively. We will be starting with “The Eye of the Beholder” (Wiki) from the original Twilight Zone, a mysterious story about a disfigured woman stuck in her hospital bed.
We are going to be making a short film in the genre of your choosing. In the process, we will learn about various aspects of pre-production such as screenwriting, storyboarding, art design, and production planning.
“Good artists copy; great artists steal.”
We are going to steal from some of the best. Today we will begin our focused studies by viewing and analyzing clips from a handful of great films from a variety of genres. We will be emulating and employing some of the techniques in our own projects to help build suspense.
Your homework for the week? Watch a “scary” movie! I have created a suggested viewing list here of great Thriller (suspense!) films, but you can choose any film you would like, as long as it contains some element of suspense. Try to pay special attention to the techniques that are used to build suspense. Please be prepared to potentially give a brief written or spoken statement to the class or within small groups about the successful techniques used on Monday.
