I’m going to be attempting to breakdown the short film ‘Necktie’

3 ACT STRUCTURE

Act 1: We are introduced to the first character, a young girl with blonde hair, standing in the woods. We are shortly after, shown the two pairs of legs next to a tree, whom we find out are two young boys. As they walk towards the girl, we also see another pair of girls legs by the tree.

The boys present the girl with a choice of two guns. She picks the one on the left.

END OF ACT 1

Act 2: The boys walk to the other side and while we don’t see the exchange actually happen, there is another girl whom is presented with the remaining gun.

We can at this point also see that they’re all wearing school uniforms, which besides the almost ritualistic manner in which they are carrying out this event, adds a certain air of decorum.

They are readied for the stand-off, and are signalled to shoot by the girl next to the tree.

They fire off their pistols and the blonde girl is shot and collapses.

END OF ACT 2

Act 3: The girl, now wounded, laying on the ground delivers a line and then appears to die. She is then carried off down a dirt road along with everyone else walking out of the woods.

END OF ACT 3

I chose Necktie, as it came off as a Black/Dark comedy to me. Especially with the over the top line delivered at the girls death, the sudden dramatic music blaring in, and the way the credits speed by. The surreal nature of the whole event, especially how the children react and even came to do such a peculiar event, also pushes this idea of a black comedy to me.

#1 – One-shot House Raid black comedy
Side in sideways from door into a HDB house
From this angle, you can see straight from the living room to the dining table to the kitchen and there’s a toilet at the right hand side (HDB layout)
Then a guy walks into the toilet casually, people/family sitting at the aforementioned places
while he’s in the toilet, a group of masked people, come in and kill the family/take them away
after all this chaos, the house is in a mess and the atmosphere is completely changed.
the guy then strolls out of the bathroom and is struck by the sudden event.

My focus here is mainly on the shift in atmosphere that takes places, as well as the dark comedy pay off at the end.

——
#2 – Animation – Dungeon
(Black and White/Stylized)
A kid wakes up in a sort of dungeon type place, doesn’t know what’s going on, can’t remember anything. He basically investigates around the place, finds some clues, deals with traps and other stuff. He eventually makes his way out, but when he gets out, he sees a whole bunch of people that are like him, but they all seem to be trapped in this other place (sort of hinting at a bigger story)

———

#3 – Mind

(Black and White)

Guy wakes up, neat place, he goes to make breakfast, but while doing so finds a note, written in a cryptic but poetic manner. The message piques his interest, and ponders over it, while munching on breakfast. Going around various spots in the house, he eventually gets it right. We see him spending the day following the messages around the place, eventually he seems to get stumped at one and decides to stop for the day and go back to sleep.
The next morning he gets up and goes to make breakfast. While doing so, he finds a note.

Cut to a psych, discussing his case trying to figure out how to jog his memory again.

(Wondering how to make the ending slightly more satisfying, especially why the notes are written the way they are. Thinking of making his wife be the one writing the notes and they’re both poets and in doing so, hopefully jog his memory as he can’t remember anyone anymore.)

I kind of want to also do a more abstract type of film. Visually a mix between Tetsuo the Iron Man and Mothlight. Slightly jittery and sporadic. But feels a little too far out and indulgent to work on with another person. Hence I’m trying to do so, in doing one take shots, black and white or stylizing the whole thing.

This is a compilation of visual references that director Paul Thomas Anderson used in his movie ‘The Master’

It made me realize that it was okay to take reference/inspiration from other sources. A huge problem I had before, was trying to brainstorm of something new, and that took more time than I had.

Another video I like is

I like the stylization and how great it is at such short a length.

I was reminded of this video from the Blackwater Gospel animation, which I like a lot too.

MIchel Gondry’s music video for The Chemical Bros – Star Guitar is also really nice in concept and execution.

add. vids I like are Chris Cunningham’s various Aphex Twin music videos. They can be NSFWish at times, but they’re so unique and bizarre that I find myself drawn to them.