#08-267 Short Film Reflection – Practical Digital Filmmaking

Inspiration

#08-267 was inspired by my childhood growing up in a strict family. My parents were extremely strict to me when it comes to academics and i was expected to excel in all subjects. As a child growing up in such an environment was not ideal and I constantly felt pressure and hated going home. The thought of running away from home never strayed far from my mind however i never did run away from home as a kid. Writing the script for this short film i wanted to explore what it would’ve been like for a young man to run away from home and fend for himself in the outside world without the protection from his family.

Synopsis

The short film explores a polytechnic dropout that had enough of his mother’s treatment towards him and his studies. We take a look back at Sherwin’s past as a kid when he fails his mathematics test and his mother would punish him by using physical abuse. The tension created in this scene would justify the next when Sherwin is older and believes that he can fend for himself. He leaves home after dropping out of school. As a result of his lack of qualifications, Sherwin has to resolve to selling insurance by going to people’s homes in search of redemption.

I created the short film and implanted the symbolism of doors within the film to portray irony. Sherwin first leaves home by closing a door on himself, and now being an insurance agent he is desperately knocking on doors in hopes of someone to accept him. Ultimately he has to go back to the one door that he shut himself out of realising that even when everyone rejects you, your family will always accept you back home.

Difficulties Faced

The script for the short film had 16 scenes and scheduling the shoot  was not easy. Overall the film had to be separately shot over a span of 2 weeks as there were many locations involved in filming. Maintaining continuity was a major consideration and with careful planning and help of my group members we managed to ensure smooth continuity throughout the film. The montage scene for the closing of doors was also difficult to execute. Having no prior experience in montages, I just shot multiple takes at every door and tried different cuts in post. One of my concerns for the montage was balancing the number of doors closing. I didn’t want the scene to be too draggy and i also didn’t want it to be too short to portray Sherwin’s feeling of rejection.

Fortunately for me I was able to use my old house where most of my childhood was spent to film and the memories of just being in that space really inspired me to want to create this short film.

The title sequence where Sherwin was waking up sounded too empty so i composed my own music to incorporate with the beeping of the alarm.

A lot of sound design was considered for this short film, from the reverb and echo of Sherwin screaming for his mother to stop hitting him, to the doors closing. I wanted to use my background in sound design to support the storytelling of this short film.

Conclusion

It was extremely fulfilling to see the short film come to life starting from a fresh sheet of paper from day 0 a few months prior to filming it. Watching it on the big screen and receiving compliments from my classmates was a pleasant experience that will motivate me to want to continue telling stories through motion pictures.

 

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