Rules etc.
- Thread starter Jarred Land
- Start date
yes.. if you can make a movie in 7 minutes you can do it in 6.. shouldnt be an issue. There is no such thing as character arcs in horror flicks anyways 
Domino Harvey
Active member
<.<
>.>
Ive never done one of these before, so feel free to ignore me....but, How can you tell a story in 6 minutes? I mean, how can you get to care for the characters, and have a good story.
Say for instace < Thinks >
These 8 teens go on a road trip, arrive where they do, things start happening, killed off one by one, blahdy blahdy blah. The end. How could you tell that in 6 minutes? I mean...I just dont know how you could.
( Not that its my plot im just using it as a example >. >)
Would you just include the last 6 minutes of the film like some sort of intense sequence
Is it cheating to look at previous horror films made in the competition to get an idea of what Its like?
< Feels like an idiot - Im gonna go back to my alchol now >
>.>
Ive never done one of these before, so feel free to ignore me....but, How can you tell a story in 6 minutes? I mean, how can you get to care for the characters, and have a good story.
Say for instace < Thinks >
These 8 teens go on a road trip, arrive where they do, things start happening, killed off one by one, blahdy blahdy blah. The end. How could you tell that in 6 minutes? I mean...I just dont know how you could.
( Not that its my plot im just using it as a example >. >)
Would you just include the last 6 minutes of the film like some sort of intense sequence
Is it cheating to look at previous horror films made in the competition to get an idea of what Its like?
< Feels like an idiot - Im gonna go back to my alchol now >
spooky138
Well-known member
Fret not Domino... Making a short with a six min. time limit may seem daunting but it's very doable. I will use the synopsis to the last horror short contest I entered as an example (time limit was 5 min's btw):
Blackness. Radio static is heard, then a station is tuned in. The broadcaster is talking about a rash of murders in the area recently and reports of two students missing.
Title: GRAVE MATTER
Fade in: A girl is chained to a wall in a decrepit room. As she slowly wakes up the scene comes into focus. In the center of this room is a large black table with a guy chained down to it. (These two kids are, presumably, the two reported missing in the radio broadcast which also stated that they were on their way to a "Future Problem Solvers" competition for their high school when they disappeared)
The girl calls to her friend trying to wake him up. He is out of reach for her so she quietly pleads with him to wake up. As she does this, she looks about the room. The walls are painted a sickly lime green and are peeling and cracked. Various instruments of torture adorn the walls and blood is spattered everywhere. In the corner, is a giant sledgehammer. Also, on a nail in the wall hang a set of keys.
Finally, the guy wakes up. The two try figuring out how they're going to escape their present predicament since they're both locked up in chains. Neither of them remember what happened to'em or how they got there. Finally, using their aforementioned "problem solving" skills, they devise a plan (a chain reaction type thing kinda like that old Mousetrap boardgame) to get ahold of those keys on the wall. Their plan works and the girl gets unchained and just as she goes over to the guy to unchain him, we see on a crappy old surveillance monitor that someone is coming...
Then, all of a sudden, behind the two protagonists, a light bursts on and there stands a large, gruesome looking man silhouetted. He bursts into the room and casts the girl aside... picks up the sledgehammer and smashes the boy's head on the table. The girl runs out of the room screaming as the man persues her.
The last shot is of the girl running into barred doors (like prison doors) and, in a panic, reaching through them trying to escape. Then, from out of the darkness, the man's hands appear and pull her back into the void and a heavy iron door slams shut on the camera.
Roll credits to a foreboding tone.
This actually seemed a bit complicated for a five minute movie to me at the time but we pulled it off and it turned out to be a pretty effective little scare flick. After doing that one, I know that a scary short film CAN be accomplished and I am ecstatic over this upcoming Horrorfest. So... Just do it, Domino! If you're interested, just make it happen. It CAN work if you put some thought into it before you really start scripting. Just keep the time limit in mind the whole time you're working on the story.
Cheers,
Mikey
Blackness. Radio static is heard, then a station is tuned in. The broadcaster is talking about a rash of murders in the area recently and reports of two students missing.
Title: GRAVE MATTER
Fade in: A girl is chained to a wall in a decrepit room. As she slowly wakes up the scene comes into focus. In the center of this room is a large black table with a guy chained down to it. (These two kids are, presumably, the two reported missing in the radio broadcast which also stated that they were on their way to a "Future Problem Solvers" competition for their high school when they disappeared)
The girl calls to her friend trying to wake him up. He is out of reach for her so she quietly pleads with him to wake up. As she does this, she looks about the room. The walls are painted a sickly lime green and are peeling and cracked. Various instruments of torture adorn the walls and blood is spattered everywhere. In the corner, is a giant sledgehammer. Also, on a nail in the wall hang a set of keys.
Finally, the guy wakes up. The two try figuring out how they're going to escape their present predicament since they're both locked up in chains. Neither of them remember what happened to'em or how they got there. Finally, using their aforementioned "problem solving" skills, they devise a plan (a chain reaction type thing kinda like that old Mousetrap boardgame) to get ahold of those keys on the wall. Their plan works and the girl gets unchained and just as she goes over to the guy to unchain him, we see on a crappy old surveillance monitor that someone is coming...
Then, all of a sudden, behind the two protagonists, a light bursts on and there stands a large, gruesome looking man silhouetted. He bursts into the room and casts the girl aside... picks up the sledgehammer and smashes the boy's head on the table. The girl runs out of the room screaming as the man persues her.
The last shot is of the girl running into barred doors (like prison doors) and, in a panic, reaching through them trying to escape. Then, from out of the darkness, the man's hands appear and pull her back into the void and a heavy iron door slams shut on the camera.
Roll credits to a foreboding tone.
This actually seemed a bit complicated for a five minute movie to me at the time but we pulled it off and it turned out to be a pretty effective little scare flick. After doing that one, I know that a scary short film CAN be accomplished and I am ecstatic over this upcoming Horrorfest. So... Just do it, Domino! If you're interested, just make it happen. It CAN work if you put some thought into it before you really start scripting. Just keep the time limit in mind the whole time you're working on the story.
Cheers,
Mikey
Noah
Well-known member
I have to say I agree with Domino for the most part. Spooky, while it is doable to have a complete story, your example fails to meet the criteria. You showed an example of a scene, not a complete film, which is what seems to be, for the most part, what you get in competitions like this. So Domino, while I wouldn't be concerned with having a fleshed out 3-act structure since most viewers (who are also judges) in dvxuser competitions don't need it, I would urge you to try your hardest in having some sort of development. Cache, in herofest, was a great example of this. While it wasn't the complete story, it showed a struggle and a clear change in the character. A very important part to its success was the aspect of it leaving the audience WANTING to see the rest of the story play out.
spooky138 said:
ha ha ha hah ah ha hahaha i love it
I'd thought about that, having six minutes and the fact that it might seem more like an exceprt from a longer short, as opposed to it's own self contained six minute short film.
Maybe it doesn't matter that much? Do what you can in six, and if you can't, do what others are doing: make a longer one and chop a six minute cut out of it.
Maybe it doesn't matter that much? Do what you can in six, and if you can't, do what others are doing: make a longer one and chop a six minute cut out of it.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Watch the winning zombiefest films: Texas Fortune, Shed, etc. They told great stories in a five-minute time limit.
Noah
Well-known member
Barry is right, Texas Fortune does a really good job in five minutes. Maybe this is because the world of zombies is pre-established - mainly the fact that if this creature bites you, you turn into one also, doesn't have to be explained because its assumed the audience already understands. But maybe its not that. Either way, Texas Fortune is a good example of how simple/complex a story can be told in under 5 minutes.
DarkMatter
Veteran
Next question can we submit 2 movies?
logicfilms
Well-known member
Well can we?MOVIE STUNTS said:
Domino Harvey
Active member
And! does it have to be Serious, horror? ::wink
sometime this week
Domino Harvey
Active member
I hate weeks....What day is it?
O.O
O.O
Matthew B. Moore
Well-known member
The 2 film deal is my main question. Basically, can one group of filmmakers make 2 films if the producers and director/writers are different.
I'm not talking about double dipping. This fest has created a lot of hype around hereand many people want to play. Not enough project for all.
I'm not talking about double dipping. This fest has created a lot of hype around hereand many people want to play. Not enough project for all.
2 films is fine.. even if its the same director/crew. Just dont recut old stuff.