First short,help add conflict to story

B

baoliun

Member
Hello guys!

I am currently in the pre-production of my first short (under 5min).
The idea was to make art-housish,black and white film,with lots of weird/insane visuals.
The action so to speak is set mostly in one location - kitchen, and there is only one character.
As I was thinking/re-writing my script I started to realise that it is going in the direction
of a standard boring amateurish monologue type of indie.

My question is what are the techniques to introducing conflicts into narration,but with 1 character only and in 1 location?
If you could give me some examples that would be great.

My thoughts are a little bit all over the place,sorry for that :p
Thanks!
 
Come up with a situation the character faces and must make a decision. The greater the importance of his decision (life or death, losing a loved one, etc) and how he faces that situation creates the drama.

To me, flawed characters with realistic situations always beats out super hero's saving the world in over-the-top life threatening situations.

And a personal belief of mine is that the visuals should be able to carry the story by themselves. Imagine your story (before you shoot it) with no dialog at all. Can the viewer follow what's happening and become emotionally entangled in the story? If not, it's not ready to shoot. IMHO. Once you can tell the story visually, the sound and dialog and music will all just reinforce the visuals and create a greater experience.
 
You can do just about anything with a short short, you do not even need conflict. It can be purely artsy, philosophical, humorous, bizarre, whatever you want. As long as you entertain. I recall a few years ago at my city's local shorts (5 minutes or under) film festival one short film that placed, it was titled Potato Man or something like that; black and white, one guy in a kitchen, no dialogue, just narration voiceover that was very artsy philosophical, as the actor got a potato out of the fridge then sat and ate it.

Conflict with 1 char 1 location? You can get inventive-- man versus machine (kitchen appliance), man versus nature (leaking roof or faucet, electrical, etc), man versus self, man versus chaos, character confronts doppelganger hallucination of himself if he is mentally unstable (plausible if an extreme loner, lol), man versus creature (mice or rat or mosquito or fly that has invaded his kitchen), man versus knock at the door (or a caller to his phone) and we never see who is knocking/calling (remember The Strangers? When a Stranger Calls?)

Use or lose, just ideas, thoughts.
R
 
fill out this form:

crisis: the problem that the story is about

(idea: he is going mad. sorry thats all i got now. invent a problem for one guy in one room or use that i wont be mad)

climax: it gets worse till it looks like all is lost- if its about a guy going crazy this is the part where the room is spinning and all is haywire or whatever

resolution: he solves or is defeated by the problem-- in an interesting, or surprising, or bittersweet (half good/half bad) way and/ or a way that he changes as a person.

there you go - bang your head against that.

a longer story is a bunch of these crisis beats chained together in cause and effect- watch movies and study them to see this

storytelling= making trouble for a character- watch movies study the crisis beats, learn to make trouble

pay attention to the endings and how a story resolves in a half good/half bad way to make the ending resonant/interesting/involve sacrifice

dark knight- batman beats the joker but goes into hiding hunted as a criminal
true grit- girl gets vengeance but loses her hand
battle royale (just saw this) kids get off the island but become fugitives

your welcome
 
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Whats the basis of the story you've written? I mean conflict could be parts of the kitchen start talking back to him etc etc yelling at him / fridge confesses its love to him, whatever you think is appropriate to the story. Theres no closed doors.
 
I saw a film at a festival with a pregnant woman about to pop on the hottest day of the year, just trying to stay cool. Heat was the conflict.
 
Yeah, if you only have one character, then logically the conflict has to be with something in the environment, in this case the kitchen. The obvious direction would be the character trying to do something - anything from opening a can of beans to finding a can opener to escaping from giant insects crawling out of the sink to putting out a fire on the stove - depending on your resources and budget (and fire insurance :) ). Your character tries and fails in various imaginative ways (still allowing you your bizarre and surreal shots), before finally succeeding or ultimately failing.

Sure you can do an internal conflict, but that's far more likely to turn into the type of boring arty waffle you're trying to avoid
 
baoliun said:
As I was thinking/re-writing my script I started to realise that it is going in the direction
of a standard boring amateurish monologue type of indie.
Click to expand...


To play devil's advocate...

If it's your first short, then so what? Make a pretentious art film. Better yet set out to make the most pretentious art film (do it ironically?). It doesn't matter if it's crap because, well basically it will be. For your first film the content really doesn't matter, just finish it. It's more about getting to grips with process. Even if it turns out good, odds are you will only be able to see the flaws two or three shorts further down the track. Others might love it but you will most likely hate it. Especially if you put too much expectation into it. A bad film you had fun making has a better chance of remaining close to your heart. The value here is not going to be in your successes but in your mistakes. Can't learn anything from success.

If you've got an idea just run with it. Have fun and just get it done. Play it loose. Experiment. Once you've popped your cherry you can focus on refining your workflow, style and technique in the films that follow. I'm not saying don't put the effort in, just that the first time doesn't have to be special and the longer you hold out for perfection the greater the disappointment.

The others have provided plenty of ideas for conflict. The other angle to consider is that a short doesn't need conflict in the same way that a longer piece does. It simply has to remain interesting enough to hold your viewer for 3-5 minutes. The short short film is to features what poetry is to prose. An effective short encapsulates a single idea or theme and has a great deal more latitude in terms of presentation. While a longer short or feature needs ideas, a short short only needs a notion and an angle.

Interesting visuals can be an end in and of themselves. WTF? is a good attention grabber. Abnormal behavior in ordinary settings creates intrigue. With something more esoteric, some kind of punchline (even a bad one) goes a long way to preventing the viewer feeling cheated.
 
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Egg Born Son said:
... a short doesn't need conflict in the same way that a longer piece does. It simply has to remain interesting....
Click to expand...

Yes. +1. I almost liken an artsy short to some mutated Haiku or ancient wisdom sayings.

Camera held, subject descends like the lotus flower,
always seeking angles, to reach infinity, to seek.
Above the sky, only f-stops, only reshots.
Life is over in an instant.
Fade out.​


I have no idea what I just said, LOL, it has no structure, no subplots.
But many shorts leave me also clueless, So what? if they entertain for a short time, then shorts perform their function.
 
You're looking for the recipe? Make it The Recipe. He's in the kitchen. Recipe from hell. Nothing goes right etc.
 
even in art films the raw basics of story telling (crisis and conflict) are often present-

-in 8 1/2 the character wants to make a film.
-in roshomon the crisis is the rape, the conflict unfolds thru different viewpoints

start practicing and fighting to learn storytelling skills now, if you have plans to continue to make movies.

story: crisis, climax, resolution

fight tooth and nail for your skills
 
Wow guys,tons of helpful advice! Thank you,thank you,thank you all! :happy:

Egg Born Son said:
To play devil's advocate...

If it's your first short, then so what? Make a pretentious art film. Better yet set out to make the most pretentious art film (do it ironically?). It doesn't matter if it's crap because, well basically it will be. For your first film the content really doesn't matter, just finish it. It's more about getting to grips with process. Even if it turns out good, odds are you will only be able to see the flaws two or three shorts further down the track. Others might love it but you will most likely hate it. Especially if you put too much expectation into it. A bad film you had fun making has a better chance of remaining close to your heart. The value here is not going to be in your successes but in your mistakes. Can't learn anything from success.

If you've got an idea just run with it. Have fun and just get it done. Play it loose. Experiment. Once you've popped your cherry you can focus on refining your workflow, style and technique in the films that follow. I'm not saying don't put the effort in, just that the first time doesn't have to be special and the longer you hold out for perfection the greater the disappointment.

The others have provided plenty of ideas for conflict. The other angle to consider is that a short doesn't need conflict in the same way that a longer piece does. It simply has to remain interesting enough to hold your viewer for 3-5 minutes. The short short film is to features what poetry is to prose. An effective short encapsulates a single idea or theme and has a great deal more latitude in terms of presentation. While a longer short or feature needs ideas, a short short only needs a notion and an angle.

Interesting visuals can be an end in and of themselves. WTF? is a good attention grabber. Abnormal behavior in ordinary settings creates intrigue. With something more esoteric, some kind of punchline (even a bad one) goes a long way to preventing the viewer feeling cheated.
Click to expand...


I like the idea of WTF short attention grabber,most likely will use that.
I really want to make it perfect however,I would rather shoot some random stuff first or recreate a scene in order to learn the technical side of things ;p

Randall_Oelerich said:
Yes. +1. I almost liken an artsy short to some mutated Haiku or ancient wisdom sayings.

Camera held, subject descends like the lotus flower,
always seeking angles, to reach infinity, to seek.
Above the sky, only f-stops, only reshots.
Life is over in an instant.
Fade out.​


I have no idea what I just said, LOL, it has no structure, no subplots.
But many shorts leave me also clueless, So what? if they entertain for a short time, then shorts perform their function.
Click to expand...

This is amazing ha ha :D

nycineaste said:
even in art films the raw basics of story telling (crisis and conflict) are often present-

-in 8 1/2 the character wants to make a film.
-in roshomon the crisis is the rape, the conflict unfolds thru different viewpoints

start practicing and fighting to learn storytelling skills now, if you have plans to continue to make movies.

story: crisis, climax, resolution

fight tooth and nail for your skills
Click to expand...

Thanks! 8 1/2 is on my watch list!
 
Watch this youtube of a Special K cereal commercial, 30 seconds in length.
The little girl is funny as heck, i love what she does at 11-12 seconds!
In 30 seconds you have most of the elements of typical story structure-- hook/setup/world, antagonist and protagonist with opposing goals, inciting (doorbell), protagonist's goal (sell donuts), conflict, battle, resolution. All in 30 seconds, haha!
Just shows how even in a short you can have classic story structure to a large degree.

 
"time" could be introduced as factor in this scenario - also being kitchen it could be as literal as a timer...

Michael
 
"The action so to speak is set mostly in one location - kitchen, and there is only one character.
As I was thinking/re-writing my script I started to realise that it is going in the direction
of a standard boring amateurish monologue type of indie."

Well every film is different - hopefully. Here watch these:



Is there something about your concept that would naturally attract people's curiosity?

I mean, "Kitten in a Blender" might get some hits on Youweb. But don't use a real kitten... for the blender part anyway...
 
Thanks for Doodlebug. Was very helpful for a dilemma I've been stuck in the middle of, involving how to film in a small space (where even with the camera in the hallway fitted with my widest lens I can only fit knees to top of the head in the frame). This video has given me some important insights into solutions for my dilemma. I had been particularly concerned that I would need an establishing shot to seat all my mids and closeups into but this demonstrates it isn't entirely necessary, with creative editing and shot selection the space can still be effectively realised. Also I'll be including a lot more crouching after seeing this. It's a nice little cheat for getting a full body shot in cramped confines!

Also, even though not it wasn't directly inspired by this short, the general 'eureka' moment/vibe opened up my creative brain a crack and let in an idea that solves the best order to place my collection of scenes in. A thematic device of progressively smaller spaces that will mirror the character's inner journey. Now that I can lock the timeline, I can start assigning injuries to scenes :)

Hopefully this ends the roadblock/procrastination I've been in the vice-like grip of! So thanks for the vid (and to Mr Nolan also...)
 
Randall_Oelerich said:
Conflict with 1 char 1 location? You can get inventive-- man versus machine (kitchen appliance), man versus nature (leaking roof or faucet, electrical, etc), man versus self, man versus chaos, character confronts doppelganger hallucination of himself if he is mentally unstable (plausible if an extreme loner, lol), man versus creature (mice or rat or mosquito or fly that has invaded his kitchen), man versus knock at the door (or a caller to his phone) and we never see who is knocking/calling (remember The Strangers? When a Stranger Calls?)
Click to expand...

I like that.
 
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