It was initially useful to recap this, as a summer away gives a lot of time to get your head cleared of anything useful, and I also found it interesting how the Restorative Film Structure can be tweaked and applied to the structure of the short film (a type of film which I have never really studied theoretically).
These are characteristics of most short films and the ways in which the restorative film structure can be applied to the genre:
- Sub-Plots are pretty much (but not always) non-existant
- The exposition is not shown on-screen
- The film starts with the inciting incident
- Brief establishment of the Status-Quo
- Characters kept to a minimum
- Development is shorter
- 3rd act may be very short
- Turning points are not as impacting or reversive
- The plot is not as frantic as a feature film
- They cover only a short period of time
- A Short Story to the Novel is analogous to the Short Film and a Feature Film
- Not enough time to get 'into' a character so radical character development is not believable
- Unity of action is present
- Often but not always both a protagonist and antagonist
- Lower key conflict
- Characters are less goal-driven
- The stakes are not as high
It was interesting how the story, while initially seeming too short, could be applied to the Hollywood structure and as discussed beforehand, certain characteristics, such as the Third Act being much shorter, and the stakes not being as high were evident. I also found it interesting, how even though the film was only around ten minutes in length, there were still deep-running themes (race and class division, prejudice) and character traits (prejudice and 'self-righteousness' almost), exposition and personality aspects which were shown visually in the actions. Were it a short film, these aspects could be stated, but due to the time 'limit' they were visually implied. This definitely intrigued me and got me thinking about how I could put across themes and aspects of a film visually, given a short time constraint.
- The World around you
- 'Stories'
- Cultural Stories
- Myths
- Legends
- Fables
- Fairytales
- Experience
- Your own
- The experience of others (from an objective point of view)
- Additionally, it is important to know what you write
- Dreams
- Things you overhear
- The News
- Other places or 'things' you experience daily whether direct or not
We then did an exercise in which on the spot, we came up with a character, and wrote about their external (physical) and internal (i.e. personality) traits. This ended up being a lot more difficult than I though, as I had never really thought that in depth about a character's personality before, and I found it especially difficult to do on the spot.
After this, we watched the French film 'Gare du Nord', and discussed the 'Journey' and 'Ritual Occasion' structure of short film.
as the 'Journey' structure was the one I had encountered the most previously, I was really intrigued by the idea of the Ritual Occasion film, in which a character doesn't actively seek a goal, until an event happens to them. 'Gare du Nord' was a Ritual Occasion film, as the woman, while dissatisfied with her life didn't do anything to change it, until the man encountered her. As it is a short film no large change happens, but given her shock at the random man's suicide, whether he was real or imagined, it is implied that she may be, for example, more spontaneous in the future. Or, possibly, the ending is more melancholic and the moral could be that if you don't take a chance when it comes along, you could be stuck in a rut forever.
I also enjoyed the fiarytale/dreamlike quality the film had once the woman left her apartment and encountered the man.
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