ASSIGNMENT #4 – Short Film

Still Shot From Short Film (God’s Help)
Still Shot From Short Film (God’s Help)

Written, Filmed and Directed By Austar Vannak

God’s Help is a short film about a breadwinner of a household, Kate who suddenly falls sick one day. During a hospital visit that her friend insisted, she accidentally falls into the trap that her friend and her friend’s twin sister set up. With thinking that she’ll be visiting the hospital for a normal health check-up, she accidentally falls into the trap as a victim. The supposedly owned “hospital” that her friend’s twin sister works at turns out to be an illegal transplant facility As Kate visited.


Short Film Reflection

 

For this assignment project of my chosen media two studio course, Getting Into Character. We were required to individually write and direct our own short film. This assignment was introduced and assigned to us from week seven til the ending of our teaching period of week twelve. Before the filming and production process, we were task to form and present a pitch presentation to Sarah-Jane Woulahan and Tim Williams, both of whom were industry professionals during the second class of week nine. For this pitch presentation, we are required to not exceed our presentation over 5 minutes. In addition, after we have presented our pitch ideas, we will also be gaining feedback and ideas on how we would want to improve our written characters, storyline or film process from both of them as well. To identify and help form the characters archetypes for the upcoming short film, I referred to Vogler, The Writer’s Journey that was also included in our course modules. This has helped me categorise and create a unique persona for each of the characters that I had written to appear in my short film. Furthermore, the aim of this pitch presentation was for us to just only receive feedback and improve on our storyline and use of our characters. Likewise, this assignment was also for us to gain experience in presenting a film pitch presentation as well. Undoubtedly, I was quite nervous and worried about whether I would go over the limited time constraints. Consequently, I did go over a limited time. As a result, I hurriedly summarised my pitch and wasn’t able to completely introduce and fully present my short film pitch presentation. Nevertheless, it was a unique and educational experience as I got to meet and gain feedback from professionals who are actively working in the industry that I would be working within the future time. After the presentation, we were set to write or finalise and proceed to plan elements such as writing the script, the storyboard and shot list as well for our short film project.

Upon producing this short film, at first, I had big ideas for the storyline of the film. The first storyline idea that I had for the film was to be about a woman named Kate who lives from paycheck to paycheck. She provides financially both for herself and her family. However, she suddenly fell sick and was diagnosed with cancer. With her life falling downhill as one of God’s helpers, Elvis was sent on a mission to help her. But little did she know he’ll be needing her help as well. The genre of this film was to be a sad yet happy film as it was about a friendship between a normal human being and an immortal being. I wanted the film to express a ‘happy’ kind of feeling and not just a sentimental, sorrowful vibe towards the audience of this film. This was quite a big and elaborate storyline idea to produce a short film that is limited to three to five minutes. On the contrary, during the feedback session, one of the professionals asked me whether I might fit this elaborate storyline into a three to five-minute short film. Upon identifying that this might be an issue, I modified the original idea and decreased the storyline into perhaps a maybe simpler one. The modified version of the storyline was similar to the original idea however, I would be concluding the film at Kate’s visit to the hospital. The second and final storyline that I had for the film was that Kate goes for the check-up that her friend insisted she has. Little did she know that the hospital that she would be the last place ever that she’ll be visiting or is seen. She accidentally falls into the trap that her friend and her friend’s twin sister set up. As Kate visited the supposedly owned “hospital” that her friend’s twin sister works at. This recommended hospital turned out to be an illegal transplant facility. Thus, my film storyline idea diverted from being a happy yet sad kind of film to a jarring and thriller film. Overall, I’m satisfied with this updated idea as I’ve always enjoyed watching those on the edge, thriller movies. Even though this was still quite a big short film idea, in my opinion, I’m hopeful that this film idea wouldn’t exceed the time constraints that we were required to follow through to produce the film.

Due to the COVID restrictions that we are countering, some of us who are located in Melbourne had to work under limited restrictions. Hence, we weren’t able to borrow extra film equipment from the university nor the ability to freely film outdoors unless we were to fill in the form that was attached in the assignment module. Nevertheless, I was fortunate enough to have a DSLR camera and microphone on hand to help aid the filming process. As I live alone in an apartment, I only had myself to act and work with. I had my friends as well but they were either not located in the country and or are busy with school work. Therefore, since there were several characters that appear in the film. I decided to shoot this short film in a point of view perspective or also known as POV in Kate’s view, the main character. The filming process that I had planned was quite simple and can all be filmed in a day. As the week of assignments was approaching, I took the initiative and filmed the required scenes beforehand starting during the second class of week eleven. Soon after, I then will be editing the collected footage on the day before the screening session that will occur during the second class of week twelve. However, as it was the day that I am to edit, combine and assemble the collected footages. I happen to experience some technical difficulties as I realised that I missed some scene that was required and the filmed scenes that I’ve shot had no audio as the mic that I had connected onto the camera wasn’t plugged incorrectly. As a result, I had to repeat and film all of the scenes all over again which was a quite time-consuming process.

To conclude, I personally have quite a bit of a hard time writing and producing this film and the process within it as well. There were quite a few obstacles that I had to overcome. Namely, the storyline modification that I had to make, lack of my time management skills and the technical error that I had experienced whilst the filming process as well. The result of the short film didn’t satisfy me as well, I felt that I could do better. If I could re-do this short film assignment again, I would aim for a simpler and less complicated storyline likewise, the filming process as well. Nonetheless, I’m glad that I got to produce this film and expand my knowledge likewise on my creative process as well. In spite of having to complete this assignment under limited conditions, I got to communicate and meet professional people in the industry. Moreover, I got the chance to build a strong bond with the tutor and get to know the people that were in my discussion group as well. I’m happy to say that I’m glad to choose this media studio, Getting Into Character as my chosen media two studio course.

1244 words

Reference List

Dictionary.com 2020, POV, Dictionary.com, viewed 14 October 2020, <https://www.dictionary.com/browse/pov>.

Vogler, C 2007, The Writer’s Journey, “Archetypes”, CA: Michael Wiese Productions, viewed 14 October 2020, <https://rmit.instructure.com/courses/75862/files/13693333/download?wrap=1>.

0 comments on “ASSIGNMENT #4 – Short FilmAdd yours →

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *



To prove you are a person (not a spam script), type the words from the following picture or audio file.