Directing Ideas

[WFUJerseyJon]

So I'm in a directing workshop, and I need to come up with a 2-4 minute shot that tells a story. The camera can move however I want it to, but there can't be a script and there should be minimal dialog. The main emphasis for this project is to understand how a camera can tell the story.

I attempted to turn it in today, shooting two people playing poker, but my professor just tore it to shreds. While that is partly because the camera I rented from the school came with a dead battery and I had to rush to do it between classes today, the resulting product was still crap. Personally, I'm better at interpreting existing stories/screen plays/material and turning them into a visual. I suck at coming up with stories.

Anybody have any ideas that may work? I now have to redo it because my first was so bad.

[lauren<3s music]

you need a simple story that is based on reactions. i'm not at all artsy and i took a film class where we shot on the old school film cameras [bolex maybe] and we had one where a guy followed around a girl bc he liked her and then at the end realized she was with someone else (he kept trying to give her flowers we had assigned props). my final was about a girl who thinks her friend's spirit was haunting her. it was easy to do bc youd just have to have things "appear" mine weren't so creative but the one thing i remembered from that class was simplicity and the way you shoot things is what matters more so than the script. my best friend is really good with this nonsense if she's on later i'll point her this way

[gloriousmuse]

If it were my project I would focus on facial expressions (but not too much) because there's always a story in someone's face whether the person knows it or not.


I think the poker game is a great example of a story with little dialogue that can tell a story. :shrug:

[aminorthreat55]

Rip off Dziga Vertov or Vsevolod Pudovkin and you'll get a good grade.

[williek311]

I've always wanted to direct a movie telling the story of a lighter and the many different things it can be used for. And have the lighter be exchanged between people and each person use it for a different activity. And it would be set to the song Golden Brown by The Stranglers.

[Ailite]

I'd probably do a woman in her garden, and shots of beautiful nature right in her backyard. Focus on the woman very little.

[Halloween413]

I was in a film class last semester and one of my classmates had a pretty good video about someone just walking through a normal day but everything was going terribly wrong for him (it was set to the song "dont worry be happy"). Simple yet effective. Focusing on human emotions might be a start.

[reductiondesign]

Rip off Dziga Vertov or Vsevolod Pudovkin and you'll get a good grade.

Mother II.

Or strap the camera to a train.


He probably didn't like the poker idea because the story doesn't go anywhere. It's just a poker game.

Try to have at least three different locations, and have the story unfold over the course of a day or two.

Watch some silent cinema for ideas. Pretend you have no microphone.

[pshh]

the morning routine

[gloriousmuse]

the morning routine

No. That is extremely overused.

[aminorthreat55]

Watch some silent cinema for ideas. Pretend you have no microphone.
Yep. Anyone in an intro to film class should assume this in order to properly develop their skills.

[WFUJerseyJon]

thanks for all the input, i definitely think i'm going to try to use some of these ideas.

[Wolf I Am!]

its all about camera angles use them and show objects to show meaning and emotion to a character in the story, I wish I could take a class like that... good luck

[reductiondesign]

Chase scenes, as overused as they are, work great for this type of assignment. No dialogue, so you can play around with different angles and such.

[Spicoli hey bud]

Porn.

[thatsignant]

show people dancing to no music, it is hilarious

[aminorthreat55]

Thanks to this thread I came up with a complete short film (probably about 5 minutes if I were to film it) in the course of walking to my car after class. So thanks for the motivation.