The Script

This has been about 3 weeks in the making. Ever since me and Alejandro landed on the idea, we've been writing out a script, as I feel just forcing myself to write as opposed to sitting around and brainstorming is the easiest way to get a complete idea of what the heck we're planning to do. 

Also, we recently did a project in class centering around film distribution, involving making a trailer, a teaser, a screenplay for a 5 minute excerpt, which yours truly assumed more of a role in, and a distribution plan for a story we were assigned. I found that after around 30 minutes or so of writing screenplays it's pretty easy to enter "flow state". You can probably imagine what this is or have heard it being used online by people who definitely don't know what a real "flow state" is as they've never seen me 30 minutes into working on a screenplay. But basically its where you get so immersed into the plot you see it unfolding before your eyes and your fingers fly and struggle to keep up with your thoughts and what your mind is imagining at that particular moment.

Once I reached about 2/3rds of the way through the screenplay, I had an epiphany to incorporate perhaps the most mindboggling plot twist since The Usual Suspects (1995), which I saw pretty recently and was pretty awesome. But anyway, instead of giving the whole twist away right now I think it's best if you read my screenplay to get the complete effect. You'll notice I took inspiration from thriller-comedies I researched like "Put Your Shopping Cart Away" as I tried to balance out even the most intense moments with some comedic inflections, but to where they still felt honest to the characters. I sincerely hope you find some enjoyment in this script.

 INT. SCHOOL BUILDING- NIGHT

A wide shot a long hallway. The only sounds heard are the buzz of the fluorescent lights and footsteps in the distance. Bobert step into frame, a middle aged custodian, mopping the floor mopily - he's a custodian after all. He looks up at a portrait of himself on the wall labeled "Custodian of the month". Reinvigorated, he mops the floor excitedly and stops in front of the bathroom for a break, forgetting to leave a sign. Melancholic, honest music plays in the background. 

HIGH ANGLE SHOT FROM BEHIND BOBERT IN URINAL CUT TO POV LOW ANGLE SHOT FROM URINAL LOOKING AT BOBERT'S RELIEVED EXPRESSION

Distant chatter and footsteps are heard in the background. A deep, raspy voice draws nearer, and then...

*THUMP* - Music instantly cuts out

He jumps, startled, and his keys fall in the urinal. Bobert's expression goes cold. He slowly steps outside the bathroom. A POV shot of Bobert slowly reveals a lifeless body laying on the floor. He starts freaking out.

                BOBERT

    SSHHHHHITT.

Bobert scrambles to the lifeless body and tries to wake him up.

                BOBERT

        (Whining, nervous)

    Come on man wake up wake up please come on

Bobert continues shaking the lifeless body, to no avail, and glances up at the employee of the month sign. He crumples to the floor, defeated and anguished.

                BOBERT

        (Defeated)

    Awwwww man.

Bobert lies on the floor, frozen and staring at the wall. He pulls out his wallet, opens it, and stares at a picture of his daughter. He begins crying. He looks next to the body to see a live phone call has been ongoing for the past minute with "Bae heart emoji". He scrambles over and puts the phone to his ear.

                TEACHER'S WIFE

        (Crying incessantly)

    Schnookums???? What happened??? ARE YOU OKAY?

Bobert hesitates, what will he do? This is where he decides who he is. He takes a deep breath

                BOBERT

        (Passionately)

    Schnookums - um - uh you're breaking up kkkkkkkkkk - I can't hear you kkkkkkk - Ill be home soon kkkkkkkkk.

Bobert hangs up the phone and sits back against the wall. He doesn't know what he just did but at least he can catch his breath. The jingling of keys and distant footsteps are heard drawing closer. Robert - back literally against the wall - only has one choice. He must hide the body. The footsteps - revealed to be a fellow custodian, LEWIS - steps into frame, he stares at the spot where the body once lied, only to see Bobert mopping the floor as if nothing has happened. Lewis heads towards the bathroom

                LEWIS

    Oh hey Bobby.

                BOBERT

    Hey Lewis, listen, I just cleaned the bathroom would you mind-

                LEWIS

    Man i really gotta go man

                BOBERT

    I know Lewis, and that's okay but we each have our own designated spots and I would really appreciate it

                LEWIS

        (Clenching, aggravated)

    Alright fine dude whatever.

Bobert waits patiently for Lewis to leave the building before walking up to a bathroom stall.

                BOBERT

    *INCREDIBLY DEEP BREATH* haaaaaaaaaaa

                

EAGLE EYE SHOT

BOBERT clasps the rag-dolled body, and jump cuts detail him desperately attempting to drag the body out of the stall. He eventually gets the body to the school door, reaches to unlock it, but remembers his keys fell in the stall.

                BOBERT

    Ahhh f-

Quick cut to Bobert using the lifeless body to fish his keys out of the stall. Quick cuts form a montage-like sequence of Bobert dragging the body back to the door. Once he reaches the door, bright, blinding headlights pull up through the window, Bobert has to act fast, but he doesn't have enough time. The Teacher's Wife bolts up to the door, pounding agressively against the closed door.

                TEACHER'S WIFE

    Sir! Sir! Have you seen my schnookums???

                BOBERT

    (Startled) JESUS CHRIST!

Bobert opens the door, he must remain calm.

                BOBERT

    Um uh, ma'am I'm truly sorry I think you just missed him.

                TEACHER'S WIFE

    Is that so? He should still be here? It says it on his phone?

                BOBERT

    (Starting to lose composure) Yea I'm pretty sure he's gone actually, he only left a few minutes ago I know phones these days are kind of slow to update especially with the locations and everything.

                TEACHER'S WIFE

    Oh okay Bob, thanks anyway

                BOBERT

    Yea know problem have a great night.

Bobert turns his back only to quickly turn back towards the wie

                BOBERT

        (Suspiciously)

    How did you know that was my name?

                WIFE

        (Stumbling over words)

    Um uh what? Did I say that? I just uh. I figured it respectful to know the names of custodians in town, I mean its truly a disrespected profession these days.

Bobert is deeply unconvinced, and his look shows it. The camera zooms in to his perplexed and suspicious expression.

                WIFE (O.S.)

    (Sinister tone and look)

    I had to make sure it all went according to plan.

Wife steps into the hallway, slowly inching forward as Bobert backs up.

                WIFE

    (EVIL LAUGH ENSUING)

    And it really, really did! I mean who are people going to believe? The harmless, innocent, betrayed

Wife glances over disgustedly at the trash bag the teacher's body is in.

                WIFE

    widowed wife or Bob, the janitor? Seriously!

                BOBERT

    You did this?! He didn't slip on the floor?

                WIFE

    I don't know what the hell you're talking about. This is your fault.

                BOBERT

        (Tearing up)

    Why would you do this to me? I don't understand.

                WIFE

    Who else's life would be better spent rotting away in prison, Lewis?

                BOBERT

    Uh, yea that guy sucks.

The teacher groans and starts making pained noises while moving around in the body bag, this distracts the wife.

                WIFE

    (Enraged)

    No. NO, NO, NO! He's supposed to be dead! Rotting in hell right where he-

Bobert, back once again against the wall, locates the caution wet floor sign, picks it up and hits the wife on the head, knocking her unconcious. He throws the sign to the floor and runs over to the struggling teacher, kneeling down beside the bag and fishing out his head from inside the bag.

                TEACHER

        (Lifeless, breath fading)

    Ugh what the hell? Why are my clothes wet, where am I? Is that my wife?

                BOBERT

    Hey hey teach. Its a long story, basically your wife found out you cheated on her and tried to kill you and wanted to frame me for the murder.

                TEACHER

    What? I told her I was talking to my mom. I just still call her mommy.

                BOBERT

    (Confused expression)

    You call your mom-nevermind teach you've gotta stop talking so much.

Bobert reaches behind the teacher's head, to see his hand now covered in blood.

                BOBERT

(Shakingly)

    You're losing a lot of blood.

                TEACHER

    Man I just want my mommy, tell her I love her.

                BOBERT

    (Tearing up)

    Teach, stay with me please, please!

                TEACHER

    (Slowly and finally)

    You were always my favorite janitor.

The teacher goes unconscious, life leaving his body. Bobert sits with the teacher in his arms, hugging him and crying. He's just as heartbroken as he is disgusted with himself. Cut to caution wet floor sign leaned up against the wall.

INT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAYS LATER

Bobert grabs the caution wet floor sign from the wall, and places it in the middle of the hallway. Melancholic theme music returns. He steps into the bathroom slowly, out of frame.

END

Musical Ideas and Deliberations

 Remember when I talked about my super ambitious and original idea to score my short film a while ago? I feel like I've gone long enough without really doing anything to further my journey towards completing this aspect, so today I'll be showing you guys how the sound aspect of my planning process has been coming so far. I've got 3 or so different ideas, and the goal of these pieces would be to serve as the sort of theme for my production, playing at the beginning and end. I recorded all 3 of these from my phone so obviously they are not recorded properly, let alone ready to insert directly into my film, but I hope to give you guys an idea of what exactly it is that I'm looking for.

This is probably my favorite one and in the lead right now. I wrote this over the summer and have been hoping to find a way to make something out of it, as it doesn't really feel like vocals would fit but it would be pretty boring as an instrumental track. The melancholic tone certain aspects of my piece call for however, would be perfectly embodied by this track. It reminds me a bit of duster, and their sound is distinctively slow and melancholic, pioneering the whole 'slowcore' genre and something that sounds like them would work well as a recurring theme.

This one is cool and I can definitely make something out of it if I add some more ambience and make it sound less like a solo guitar piece. It's kind of Mk.gee inspired,  and he always describes his sound as 'liminal' and sort of distant, which could have its place in the background of certain parts of my production, but I don't really see this being the main theme to my production. It lacks a specific tone to drive the melancholic mood I'd be aiming for at my production's beginning and end.

This one's also cool, but not in the lead for being chosen as my theme idea. It feels a little uninteresting and unmotivated, and I don't feel like it really works to set a particular tone. However, I do think that the chord progression itself is cool and could be used as some sort of ambient pad on a keyboard during the more dialogue heavy sequences to fill the background.

Overall, the top song is definitely what I'm leaning towards for my film's 'theme'. Not only have I been hoping to find a way to use this idea for a while, but it also is the most melancholic out of these 3, and in my opinion, the most cinematic sounding as well. Once we wrap filming, I'm planning on using a lesser quality recording to play over parts of the film to see if the piece matches tonally, and if it does which I'm fairly confident will be the case, I'll record the track for real on Ableton Live and make it sound like it wasn't recorded on an iPhone.

Group Meeting #1

 Today in class we held our group meetings. Basically, we were broken up into groups and had meetings where we discussed our portfolio projects in their current state, and offered constructive criticism, opinions, or even ideas in terms of plot development and branding for certain projects. First, I'll talk about my group members' projects, and then talk about what was said about my production.

Renn

-Making a short film about a girl who gets over her overwhelming school experience mirrored by a flower growing. It is super mise-en-scene heavy and relies upon match cuts of the flower prop to represent how no matter how much goes on in her life, she's still just an extension of the same person she always was. It seemed like Renn had a super clear idea of the story they were going to illustrate, certainly more than I do. The only real issue she faced was coming up with a name for the short film, but they said they would prefer until they get farther into the production to settle on a name.

Joaquin

-Making a short film about a girl whose tired of being powerless, and joins a satanist cult and goes on a satanist crusade, killing and tormenting different people. He illustrated the story as a dark comedy through its commentary on our desire for approval and gratification. We helped Joaquin work through different ways to carry out his vision, and he told us about his desire to blend illustration with real footage, creating a unique, stylized look. He also talked about certain costuming/mise-en-scene aspects he wished to include, one of them being one of these hats. 

Once he got more into the intricacies of the plot, we all pretty much unanimously told him that it seemed too dense, long, and hard to follow, and to which he acknowledged, but claimed it would make a lot more sense upon actually viewing the film.

Robert

-Robert is making a funny short film about a failed tennis player who is the son of a tennis legend. Upon turning on the radio one day, he hears of someone entering competitions, pretending to be himself. He then starts training relentlessly until he eventually finds himself one on one against his doppelganger in the final round of a tournament. We helped Robbie work out his vision to have the reveal of the main character be funnier, as its essentially a sports comedy, such as having the doppelganger look absolutely nothing like the main character, and Robbie claimed he had a friend in mind who would tower over the protagonist, making the reveal even funnier. The only real issue Robert was facing was how he would plan to end the short film. After deliberating with us for a while, he settled on a more lighthearted ending that added a comedic twist - the doppelganger apologizes and admits he only did it because he doesn't know his dad and has always looked up to the protagonist's father.

Zach

Zach is also making a short film, but his approach is vastly different from anyone else from our discussion. He doesn't exactly have a plot narrowed down yet, so our discussions with him were more of brainstorming and exchanging ideas, but he did have one key idea in mind. The entire short film would be a POV shot from the point of view of an actual camera, which was involved in a sort of love triangle with 2 human beings. It's a really cool and original idea, but right now, his group just lacks direction and a complete understanding of what story they want to tell. We offered ideas like how the film could be a commentary on our obsession with perfecting simulated depictions of ourselves, a sort of postmodern commentary, and Zach liked this idea, but once again didn't really know the story he would attach this to. Most of the conversations went like this:

"So like in this world is it normal for cameras to have sentience? Is this camera even sentient or is just an inanimate object?"

"I don't know"

"How are you going to make it clear we are looking from a camera's POV?"

"I don't know"

So yea unfortunately we weren't able to help with this one as much as we would have liked, but Zack has some cool ideas in his head and just needs to finish a story to implement them into.

Samara

-Documentary about hispanic culture bringing people together, where each episode highlights different aspects of the culture. We talked about how this approach would make the documentary feel too much like listing different cultures, and Samara talked about how she could fix this by deep diving into the topic of the episode, incorporating various indirect interviews from one culture sliced together to give a more complete story. However, beyond this, we even discussed changing the approach from focusing on one country at a time, and then the next, to treating each episode like a story, seeing how one aspect of culture was introduced in one country and how this created a ripple effect and how it stands in hispanic culture today, such as how mambo and cha-cha-cha turned into salsa at some point. We also discussed the availability for really creative branding because of the awesome flags made available by looking at hispanic flags.

I mean look

But yeah we talked about how she could use these flags in the doc intro like some kind of spin the wheel with different flags on it and aspects of culture, and this could be how each episode would start.

RYAN
Because I am so humble and everything I actually ended up going last in group discussions, which unfortunately meant I only had about 7 minutes to discuss my project with everyone, but the information I got was actually pretty valuable. After pitching my idea, they asked how I planned on shooting in the dark, and not being a filmmaking expert I said "I don't know", but Zach did. In his words I need to get a "Large Ass Blue Light" and a "small white light" in order to make the subject as clear as possible. They also gave me some funny slapstick ideas like the teacher waking up once Bob thinks he's dead, and Bob's first reaction being to slap the teacher across the face, actually killing him.

Renn also told me about this short film they researched called brothergirls which they felt aligned with the tone I was going for as it centers around 3 girls breaking into an exes house to retrieve a belonging. Unfortunately, this all we were really able to cover, but I got some valuable information I can definitely make use of once I finish my script this weekend.

Gaby

-Gaby is doing the music project, and decided to do it centering around pop singer Abby LeMasters. Unfortunately, a pretty big obstacle of hers is the fact that Abby lives in Nashville, so its not very possible to do a promotional music video. But, she worked around this by opting to do a storytelling music video. She told us one of her biggest issues with this is figuring out how to keep the music video engaging, to avoid feeling repetitive when each chorus comes around. We offered the solution of cutting to lyrics on screen in a stylized font, over a different setting each time so that the story never felt too repetitive, especially since there were no promotional aspects to balance out the story. Gaby also talked about how she's able to work around not being able to physically meet up with the artist, as she can send her a photo example, something she would like to post on social media or use as the album cover, and have Abby recreate the photo as she sent it.

I really enjoyed meeting up with everyone in groups to discuss our project. Last year in AS level, the conversations felt kind of forced and the feedback wasn't super quality, but this year it feels like we all really want to help each other, and therefore the feedback I gave others, and what they gave me, helped us all clear some things up and give us important info to keep in mind going forwards.

I'm the one with the thumbs up

Social media thriller research

 Today, in class we were tasked with researching 3 social media pages that would reflect the social media page we would end up creating for our own portfolio project, so me and Alejandro decided to go in different directions. He'd research comedy short film social media pages while I'd research thriller short film social media pages and we'd share our findings to create the ultimate thriller-comedy social media page synergy.

Media text: Crash Site (@crashsiteshort)

Social media tool: Instagram

Description of types of posts: Posts typically highlight milestones the film reached after its release, and audience reactions to the post via YouTube comments. 2 brief trailers and teasers were incorporated, appealing to the unique sci-fi aspects of the thriller production. Some attempts at behind the scenes process was included, but these were low effort and seemed to be posted for the sake of being posted rather than appealing to the audience's interests, like a picture of the characters on production day as opposed to behind the scenes video.

Description of how branding is developed (or not): This short film's Instagram marketing made it very clear what not to do when marketing my own film. To its advantage, renowned actor Steven Yeun starred in the production, meaning audiences would be naturally gravitated and the film did not require relentless, excessive marketing. The only posts working to develop any sort of branding are the trailers, and release date reveal. The release date reveal had stylized text that fit the color scheme and sci-fi styled branding of the piece itself, and the trailers each focus on separate aspects, one the thriller aspects and one the comedic aspects.

Posts such as this serve absolutely no purpose to develop branding, and instead conflict with the intense, high stakes nature of the teasers, creating branding that reads as ambiguous.

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence: I will certainly incorporate teasers of the production, and an original element I can incorporate from Crash Site's social media is two teasers organized very differently from one another, one emphasizing the comedic nature of the film, and another emphasizing the thriller aspects to appeal to both ranges of my genre's target audience. I will also ensure, before making any post, if it works to either further develop my branding, or serves any other significant purpose that would market my film more effectively as opposed to posting for the sake of posting and entirely diminishing the creation of a cohesive brand within my production.

Media Text: Format (@formatthefilm)

Social Media Tool: Instagram

Description of Types of Posts: The very first post took place before any production had begun whatsoever, simply announcing that the film was in it's preproduction phase, giving a brief plot synopsis and introduction to the short film. As the creators grew farther into the production process, interview-format videos with actors and directors were used to reveal more about the content of the short film as well as the process used to bring it to life. Individual posts are designated to casting decisions for each major character, and any short film nominations were given their own individual postings. Only one real post was incorporated closer to the release date that functioned as a teaser, and worked to establish tone and mood as opposed to giving virtually anything away regarding the plot.

Description of how branding is developed (or not): The branding of this particular piece did not seem to become clear until the creators were clearly far along in the post-production process. Before a clear brand was evident, posts seemed kind of random and uninspired, focusing solely upon behind the scenes images. However, branding was eventually made super clear in the later half of their postings through a consistent color scheme, visual style, and text font. Most images on the cover of posts did not make it clear what exactly we as the audience are supposed to be looking at, but demonstrated a clear, consistent style and chilling mood that would intrigue a sci-fi thriller driven audience to want to watch the production. 

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence: The use of visually stylized stills from my film to accompany any important information, like new film festival screenings, or special events would ensure that as I draw closer to release day, by branding grows more and more cohesive. Additionally, my teasers can lean more into conventions of the genre and developing tone as opposed to focusing on the plot of the film to keep it ambiguous. Early on in the production, behind the scenes type content, while detracting from the creation of a clear band from start to finish, appears excusable as the intention of these posts was not to reinforce or emphasize the film's style, but rather to  humanize the production and break it down into clear phases for the audience to understand. I can mirror this aspect through making one or 2 posts highlighting the creation of my original score as this would clearly depict what effort went into the production, beyond what the audience sees on the screen.

Media text: Spoor (@spoorshortfilm)

Social media tool: Instagram

Description of types of posts: Jarring, uniquely framed shots from the film are set as standalone posts when announcing important information such as film festival announcements. Brief teasers that serve to establish an eerie tone through hollow sound design and abstract shots rather than outline the plot. Pictures of the cast and crewmembers at festivals after the films release. Some behind the scenes editing is included but not a lot of emphasis on the production process.

Description of how branding is developed (or not): Consistent color scheme across all posts and the repeated emphasis on jarring, outright odd shots creates a clear discomforting branding. The brand being developed is made so clear by the repetition of the orange, warm color scheme and chilling shots that the story is virtually irrelevant, and the audience of abstract psychological thriller lovers are intrigued by the consistency in branding alone.

Analysis of how you will use this to develop your own social media presence: This page served to show me just how important repetition and consistency are in the creation of a cohesively branded social media page. The other pages I researched made some attempt at developing branding, but this short film understood the vision it wished to reflect and embodied it within each post. Thus, me and Alejandro will decide on the vision we wish to reflect for our project before setting out on churning out different posts, as not only will this drive the social media page, but constantly having our branding in mind will help drive the overall look of our production as well to ensure branding is consistent across all 3 components of our project.

Having a Good Time (Thriller Analysis)

 Today is an intense day. Today I'll be talking about and critiquing one of my favorite thrillers of all time, Good Time. I know I've talked about this production before, but I didn't really go into as much as depth as I would have in an analysis, and this piece is something I'm heavily inspired by, both thematically and stylistically. 

Good Time follows a young man Connie, and his brother Nick, who has a mental disability. Connie elects to rob a bank with his brother to get enough money to leave town, which ends up triggering a sequence of events that doesn't let up until the movie concludes. After a successful heist, Nick opens up the bag with money in it, only to find it has been rigged with explosive paint, causing him to start panicking until the commotion eventually draws cops, and Nick is arrested while Connie barely escapes.

Two elements I am most inspired by are the overall look of the production, and the way it manages to blur the lines of what is moral and what is not.

As in many other of their films, including Marty Supreme and Uncut Gems, The Safdie brothers have an iconic, grainy, gritty look which adds to the overall intense tone that defines all of these productions. Whether this have to do with a specific camera or post-production is something I'll be sure to delve into in my planning phase, but this look truly elevates these films from a story to what feels like an experience.

What further immerses the audience into the Safdie style is their immersive dialogue, characterized by mundane realism, and often interruption and characters speaking over one another to the point where it grows overbearing.

They also use immersive long takes focusing on one specific action to make the experience of their films grow more immersive, even on the most simple, seemingly insignificant tasks, such as when Connie dies his hair to conceal his identity.

Connie goes to extreme lengths in order to attempt to free his brother from jail, even breaking into the hospital in which he stay in attempt to break him out. However, after doing so he realizes he broke out the complete wrong person, and instead uses him to get enough money to pay Nick's bail. This, to me, embodies the concept of blurring the lines between morality, as his overwhelming love and worry for his brother forces him to commit felonies and even steal people's identities in hopes to even potentially help his brother escape. 

In my own short film, an idea me and alejandro have been messing around with is the image of a school custodian who forgets to put up a wet floor sign late after hours, resulting in the death of an employee, forcing him to hide the body. He has some sort of ulterior motivation to keep the job like keeping his family fed or something along those lines, and he fears losing his job. I think it would be really interesting to explore the concept of what is moral and what isn't like the Safdie brothers in this scenario and simultaneously see just how intense I can make it. 

Comedy Short Film Analyses

Today, I'll be watching two short films that fall primarily within the comedy genre and analyzing how they recreate this genre most effectively.

Lie Detector:

This film was hilarious. It essentially follows a man as he undergoes a job interview, but as you might've guessed, he is attached to a lie detector which obnoxiously beeps whenever anyone in the room tells a lie. 

The mise-en-scene elements work to assert the environment quite vividly, as both the costume and set design make the office setting come to life, and it is truly believable that this could be a real job interview.

For the most part, the use of editing is limited, but extremely motivated, as whenever a character has a notable reaction or response, the continuous two shot cuts to one of their faces on a close up. However, something that this film does that I would really like to create is the interruption of some sort of third party on a continuous sequence, as this serves as a nice break up from the continuous dialogue while also reinforcing the comedic aspects

The repeated interruption of the lie detector in response to anything separate from the truth helps the short film use this repetition to its comedic advantage. The lie detector even turns on the interviewer as his boss comes in to ask if he's finished an assignment, to which he must reveal he hasn't. 

Overall, this film is hilarious not only because of the writing, but also in part to its masterful use of deadpan delivery to make certain lines all the more hilarious.

Stapler:

This film was very over the top and best serves as an example of the power physical comedy holds on creating absurdity and humor. It follows two office employees as they discover that they are both out of stables, and engage in an extreme face off to let fate decide who ultimately deserves the staples retrieved from the other side of the office.

It uses really unique visuals to amplify the overall absurdity of the film, such as following the staples as they fly through the office like bullets. The use of action-packed, fast paced music accompanying these absurd shots reinforce the degree of action. The overall juxtaposition of two such unlike concepts, an office building and a high-stakes fight sequence works most effectively to create the level of ironic humor this short film contains.

Something I really enjoyed and can take inspiration from is the ending. The film ends just how it started, only this time, both employees realize they are out of coffee, ending on a cliffhanger suggesting these unlikely and over the top fights are seemingly a neverrending cycle. I feel like the thrillers I watch that most stick with me are the ones with inconclusive endings, so incorporating something like this into my own production would be cool.

Thriller-Comedy Short Film Analyses

 I've decided it would be best for me to first research short films that blend thriller and comedy aspects, and then research short films that are more comedic and more thriller-like rather than a blend of the two to ensure I get an equal balance of both of these aspects. Today I'll analyze two thriller-comedies.

"Put Your Shopping Cart Away"

This short film follows a man who shops at a grocery store late at night and decides to not return his shopping cart after loading his car, despite a sign clearly asking all customers to do so. An employee is then seen menacingly staring straight at the protagonist, who then terrorizes him and his family for the rest of the piece, dismantling their home and even killing his wife. At the end of the film, the main character is homeless and sleeps outside of the grocery store and sees another man decide to not return his shopping cart, and before being able to warn him, the same employee holds him back and gives rge man the same menacing stare.

The thriller elements of this film come most directly from the soundtrack and lighting, as whenever the protagonist feels as if his antagonizing cart-pusher is nearing, a bone-chilling, eerie score is heard in the background. The combination of this with low-key lighting such as when he sees his wife's lifeless body laying on the ground ultimately work to create unsettling sequences with claustrophobic and seemingly unescapable circumstances, aligning with thriller conventions.

The comedic aspects of the film come from its overall absurdity in terms of plot, and physical comedy as well. I mean the entire concept of having a cart-pushing, psychotic killer is pretty absurd in and of itself. Additionally, the concept of dragging out aspects of everyday life to completely new extremes is evident here, as it is common knowledge that grocery store employees are inconvenienced by those who refuse to return their carts, but this film questions how psychotic this aspect of everyday life could possibly make someone

The protagonists questionable and often abnormal response to the terror he is experiencing also add to the overall comedy in the film. For example, when he hears his wife and daughter screaming and begging for help, when he sees his wife recording, his first response is to fix his hair in the mirror as opposed to rushing in to help them. 

Overall, it feels like this film's absurdity in terms of plot help reinforce both its degree of being a comedy and being a thriller, as the plot is equally as comedic as it is intense

CROOK$:

This film centers around two friends who decide to rob a liquor store for reasons that aren't made abundantly clear, but have something to do with their dog Heisenberg's health. Once they infiltrate the store, however, they find that the cashier is actually another robber who was knocked out and taken the place of the actual cashier, and therefore can't access the cash register. Alarmed, the girls flee the scene, but ultimately decide to return to defeat robber and claim all the liquor in the store for themselves.

The most clear convention of thriller followed by this film is how it blends the line between good and bad, as obviously robbery is a crime and moral wrongdoing, but it is difficult not to sympathize with 2 friends who just wish to help their dog. Thriller is further reinforced through intense visuals and the use of violence, such as when the girls break a bottle over the robber's head.

The reveal of the unconscious body behind the cash register is equally as intense, and the change in sound from completely diegetic and empty sound to a haunting score help intensify this reveal and make it clear that the threat of another criminal is deathly close.

The comedic aspects of the film come almost entirely from the use of dialogue. For example, in the very opening sequence of the film, the two friends argue over whether or not they'll wear a mask during the robbery as the other friend wishes to look 'cute' on camera. Continuous, uninterrupted 2 shots where you can clearly see both character's expressions help enhance the comedic effect of this particular sequence.

Despite clear attempts at it, I feel this film falls a little short in terms of its degree of comedy. Just relying on dialogue rather than working some funny elements into the story itself is pretty risky unless you know for a fact your dialogue is hilarious, which in this case, quite honestly it felt kind of unnatural and unnecessary.

Overall, from my delving into hybrid thriller-comedies, I've found that the most engaging and enjoyable ones find a way for the plot itself to create the comedy and thriller instead of forcing one aspect for the sake of forcing it. I'll be sure to keep this in mind as I continue crafting my finalized narrative for my short film.