Short Film: Genre Research

For this upcoming short film project, I would like the genre of my short film to be a Drama. My last short film was a noir and I want this new film to feel nostalgic. I recently saw October Sky its whole nostalgic 1950s/1960s tone was incredibly welcoming. Clearly I was not born in that time period, but I still felt a connection with the characters and the world they were living in. It is also a film about self discovery through real friends. At its heart, it is coming of age story where the main character is trying to gain the respect of his father, but at the same time wants to follow his own dreams in the science field.

Since the short film will be a coming of age story, one of the conventions that it will have to follow is that the chain character has to be a teenager approaching adulthood. This age would also need to bring forth a challenge that he had never had to face in his childhood life before. Although love is a popular theme in this sub-genre, I don't want to go on the course of pregnancy or love triangles. Instead, I'd like to focus on friendship or even self-discovery at the expense of

the displeasure of others. In order to do any of that, I would have to follow another convention of showing the home-life of the main character. A film that I have that did a great job at this is Super 8. Within the first few minutes, the audience learns the main character's struggles at home which includes an overbearing father figure. That father figure in itself is another genre convention. Another convention I'd could follow is adventure. There needs to be some sort of adventure the main character goes on with his friends like in the movie Stand By Me. 

Like Stand By Me, the acting would have to feel natural because the relationship between the main character and his friends needs to be believable. The character doesn't have to be a full on jock or a nerd. He could be a normal person in a normal world. Yes that doesn't sound compelling, but I do not want the film to be full of cliches. 

I imagine the cinematography to also feel natural. I believe that lengthy camera movements when the character deliver lines would probably be the rest. However, at our level it is difficult to find actors with the ability to deliver long lines in one take. Considering cinematography, the movie would take place in a small town so the shots would need to feel as if the characters are cramped in world they cannot escape. The lighting would have to be minimal or unnoticeable. I'd like the cinematography to be like Jeff Cronenweth's work on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I appreciate it when cinematographers don't to show off too much with their different lighting styles. Cronenweth does exactly this; every shot in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo feels natural. There is no dynamic lighting and everything feels gloomy. I want the short film to also have this sense of gloom. Even Eduardo Serra from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has accomplished this same feeling of gloom, destruction, and loss. Serra manages to make the magical world of Harry Potter look and feel normal. 

Sound design wise, I want the film to be mostly silent. I do want it to have a score, but it cannot be overbearing. I'd rather have the film have more organic sound that rather bad music just like No Country for Old Men. That is movie is a lot more quiet than it seems. This quietness helps create a sense of isolationism, which is what I would like to also include in my film. 

Logline: After hearing from his teacher that he will never account to anything, an orphan boy goes on an adventure with his friends to take down his teacher.