need some ideas

Steve Laramie

Steve Laramie

Veteran
im trying to find a way to style my new 10 minute short in a way that makes it feel really stressed and rushed. To make the story line really simple to explain its about a man trying to get out in 8 minutes. Let me know if you have any ideas for angles or anything like that to make it seem very stressful.
 
So the character needs to get out (of something) in eight minutes?

Common things I would want to get out of:

Burning building
sinking ship
crashing plane
turkish prison
shotgun marriage
a dry county on sunday
quicksand
rabid monkey forest
shark infested waters
alimony
French Canada
bad part of town
paying taxes
admitting I have a problem
large gatherings of elderly people
newly weds
the state of Alabama

to name just a few...
 
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haha i like the french canada idea. No he is escaping from a mental institute for reasons that would have to watch it to understand. Basically 8 minutes till theres no more light from the sun
 
Watch that movie Spun. Some scenes in that made me want to just up and run around the living room like a dog with it's tail on fire.
 
The scene at the end of Bram Stoker's Dracula. They keep cutting to shots of the sun going down and shadows growing across the castle walls, intercut with shots of the guys chasing the coffin carriage.
 
yeah, quick cuts, maybe even jump cuts, tight (close) framing, hand-held, steadily rising musical tempo and volume, yeah, that's pretty standard stuff. It works really well. I say be risky, do the opposite and instead of having a linear progression, mix it up - have spikes in the rhythm and pacing. Use suggestive blocking in tight frames to imply action rather detailing it. Maybe include a shot with some under/overcranking. I mean your main character is crazy and wants to get away real bad, so I think he'd be really frantic and wouldn't necessarily think in straightforward terms of order.
 
Buy the song Stress by Justice. Heck, look at the music video for it as well on youtube if you want to see a video that is supposed to be fast and stressed.
 
Do lots of different angled shots of the same thing, compile them: make the shost change quite frequently throughout the movie: that often adds a fairly stressed feel. Like Capt Quirk said, music is key.
 
I'd also recomend some really jumpy looking following shots. Handheld camera guy running after or in front of the actor with no stabilization to get that really urgent feel. Music a given, many good suggestions made. Maybe try some point of view shots from your character, looking from doorway to doorway, etc...
 
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