Eyes - The New Short Film Idea

Here I discuss my new short film idea.

Rather symbolically, I came up with my new idea, Eyes, on the same day as our first Creative Enterprise Project seminar. It is not a full-fledged plot yet, but rather just a starting idea that presents multiple possibilities of stories to be told around it. It’s an idea that very much builds on the themes of looking, watching and invasion of privacy that I explored in Busybody. 

The Characters spy on another character as we spy on them. From the first adaptation of Busybody.

The idea is of a character who likes to collect eyes and, when I say collect eyes, I don’t mean he physically pries them out of people’s heads. Rather, this character likes to go up to people and ask them if he can take a photo of their more interesting eye – he collects photos of people’s eyes.

The character is called Boris; he's a male photographer this time, because I had a female photographer in ‘Busybody’. He’s also named after Boris Karloff not Boris Johnson (although, he’s equally as legendary).

Boris Karloff, The Mummy (1932).

Boris Johnson, no explanation required.

I’m very keen to stick to this starting point idea! Like the hidden camera idea that I started from with Busybody, this idea is presenting just as many story possibilities that interest me. It deals with something I know: taking photographs on a persistent basis, as I’ve been doing with my 366 Project; it’s about looking, and I’ve always been more of a watcher than a talker. Also I think in general people don’t look enough; they rely too much on listening to all the crap that pours from the mouths of others. Rarely do people say what they’re actually thinking or feeling, but the eyes can always discern the truth – you just have to look! Obviously, it’s a very visual idea I can see it working very well in a story that is told with a visual medium – my mouth is watering with all the possibilities. 

A high definition image of a Human eye.

A key conflict that is stopping me from nailing down a plot is the fact that I don’t know whether the film should be a solid fiction film or a mocukumentary. Both avenues are presenting equal amounts of tantalising possibilities! It might be worth developing an idea for both avenues and then pick the one that is better?

I may not have a plot but I’m getting a feel for the tone of the story. The idea of someone who likes to collect eyes can come across as a very sinister idea but my instinct is telling me that Boris (like Geoff) is not a sinister person. I think Boris is a very admirable person who somehow encounters a complication due to his eye obsession. My subconscious is mercilessly recycling Busybody here! Maybe I should just make Boris an overtly evil character?

David Lynch on how narrow adult imagination is.

Matt has even suggested that it could be a love story where Boris meets someone who has an obsession with lips. Certainly, it makes sense that Boris would be attracted to someone who had their own obsession. It also presents potential for conflict through resentment. However, I have to be careful with the love story angle. It’s not that I’m adverse to it being a love story but there are countless examples where the ‘strange’ love story has already been done to death. 

Human lips.

I will keep working on it, though. I’ve made myself a deal - If I haven’t got a full-fledged plot within the next couple of weeks I will drop the project!

A&B - The First Short Film Idea

Here I discuss the first idea I had for my CE project.

During the Summer I was developing a short film script idea called A&B (Anxiety & Boredom). I like how boredom and anxiety are both negative forces but each contradicts each other. You have anxiety where your blood pressure is very high, you become over-sensitive and you’re jumping about all over the place trying to get things done but not really getting anything done. Then you have boredom which is just numbness, but is equally as counter-productive. As all drama is built on conflict, I figured anxiety and boredom could come together to create a very dramatic story. This said, the resulting ideas were all pretty terrible, cliché-ridden and flat. They didn't really solidify into any further on from the basic themes of anxiety and boredom, hence the title.

The first scene would have been someone answering their front door to be confronted by one of those really irritating, two-faced charity promoters. I tried to develop the script from this starting point with someone who was over-emphatically trying to sell their cause to someone who just didn’t care but doesn’t have the willpower to say no. On it’s own it would have made a nice scene but it just didn’t ignite a story I wanted to tell.

However, In terms of style and the feasibility of making another student short film, I invested much thought and consideration.

A&B I was very keen to be presented in black and white and that came from a film I had watched called Radio On, a British road move made in the 1970s. When talking about it, the director said the reason he shot it in black and white was not because he was trying to create a pretentiously artistic film but rather because he didn’t like the colour of Britain in the 1970s. By shooting the film in black and white he was able to avoid the brown blandness of the countries recession induced colour palette. 

Radio On Trailer

With A&B, as it most probably wouldn’t have been shot until after Christmas, my thinking was much the same. I wanted to avoid the very cold, lowlight look of winter. Also, using black and white allows much more freedom with the use of artificial lighting, because you don’t have to maintain the realistic integrity of the full colour spectrum (and I’ve always been a fan of film noir and German Expressionism). 

Film noir. Alan Ladd, This Gun For Hire (1942).

German Expressionism. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).

I was keen to use more outdoor locations! I don’t have access to many indoor ones and my thinking is it is easier to get your hands on outdoor ones (although, I’m sure the logic of that thinking would’ve been tested). Bath is full of varied of architectural designs and shapes and I was keen for the visuals of the film to convey the film’s mood and under lying themes as much as possible. Also, with Where will it all stop and One Door Opened the majority of filming had been done inside. I wanted to try something different this time. I wanted to let my film breath and give the visuals some depth of field!

I tried to keep the cast list to a minimum, at one point there were only three characters. I was keen to incorporate more improvisation into the performances to develop the story beyond the script. The smaller the cast list the better, because it would’ve given me more time with each actor.

I thought about how I could use the camera. At one point I considered setting a rule where I would only be allowed to use extreme close-ups and long shots to tell the story! I also wanted to use more movement with the camera. I was not keen on the very obviously handheld style (Paul Greengrass) but I still wanted to incorporate movement, while still trying to maintain the smoothness of a well-mounted static shot. Then I began to think about how I could use the camera to tell the story and be apart of the story more so than the main character, I liked the idea of a free roaming eye.

However, I’ve decided not to pursue A&B anything further as it wasn’t going anywhere and I’ve since come up with a better idea. But the technical and feasibility considerations done for A&B will most definitely filter through into the new idea.

EYES of a Stoyteller: NOW OPEN!

This is where I'll introduce you to my new blog!

My name is Peter O'Brien and I'm currently in my final year of my undergraduate degree, Creative Writing with Film and Screen Studies, at Bath Spa University. The modules I'm taking this year are Film Dissertation, Short Form Documentary Making and Creative Enterprise Project. For my interests check out my Pinterest boards. 

Me: looking smug (Ignore the name badge).

I've created this blog, EYES of a Storyteller, specifically to chronicle the development of my Creative Enterprise Project. The CEP module is pretty much what it says on the tin: you have to produce a Creative Enterprise Project for the module. As this blog will form a part of my final grade, I fully intend to put a lot of work into it. 

I've already written a number of posts for the Facebook group I created for my CE project. These posts will be re-posted on this blog in their original chronological order and on the dates I originally posted them in the Facebook group. 

I originally put them in the Facebook group because I wanted to spend a bit of time putting this blog together and I felt it was important to record my ideas and opinions down somewhere, opposed to just letting them float away. Putting them in the Facebook group also enabled me to share my ideas with anyone who was interested in getting involved with my CE project. 

The Introduction posts for the Facebook group

I won't spend any time detailing the ideas I have for my project in this post, as this is clearly laid out in the posts I have already written. I will put together a "About the Project" page which I will add to the navigation bar under the blog banner and which will provide a brief overview of my project (an overview which will probably change).

This blog should be thought of as a notebook (the blog design itself is still a work in progress). Therefore, as much as there will be well-written and thought-out posts, there will be an equal amount of not so well-written and thought-out posts (I seem to be leaning more towards abstract thinking and stream-of-consciousness writing these days). Although, I will make it as interesting and entertaining as possible. 

Me: writing this post and freezing to death - the joys of being a student!

I will post links, articles, videos, photos, etc - anything that I come across that has an influence on my CE project will be posted on this blog. This blog is the hub-notebook-chronicler for my CE project, do not expect it to be War and Peace!

If anyone happens to stumble on this blog and is interested with its content, then they are more than welcome to interact with the content and myself with opinions and suggestions (just comment on a post). I am also very interested in hooking up with other people and blogs that are running their own creative enterprise projects.

For anyone who is interested, I also have two other blogs.

366 FRAMES 2012: My 366 Project 

(this one is updated daily, more or less).

Something to do with Film 

(this one is updated not so daily). 

Check the side bar for my other online profiles, I like networking. 

Thanks for reading and keep those eyes open.