Thoughts on film-making - 3rd Exercise

  Working on a thriller concept for an experimental short film is not an easy job, but it was pleasing and quite interesting, especially because I tried to integrate a game concept as well. I knew from the beginning that in experimental films there is no need for a filmmaker to put a lot of details visually, but mingle the meaning with the audio part more.

   In my opinion, a short film needs a really strong connection between image and sound whatever the subject matter would be, because this approach can make the short film more appealing in the eyes of the viewers. That’s why for this 3 minutes short film I created foley, consisting of plenty of different sounds like underground noises, domestic sounds, loud and strong vibrations, in order to build the suspense and tension a thriller film needs.

   Knowing that this type of experimental short film should work with some signs or symbols (placed in close-ups), since it’s based on the shadowed mastermind’s game pattern, I included a few of them portrayed by the Christmas decorations and by a few main city signatures as traffic lights, signs, driveways and so forth. 

   However, when speaking of the lead male character, who is trapped into this suspicious game for his wrong-doings, I tried to make him as peculiar and mysterious as possible, even for myself. The challenges received via cell phone are unknown, as well as the results of his trials, not being aware of his win or loss. Therefore, no one knows why is he trapped in this world from the first place and what does he need to accomplish in order to get closer to his escape.

   When the other slightly similar characters appear on screen, pursuing the seemingly identical design, I aimed for an erroneous and glitchy aspect of the film, trying to indicate that the game is near crashing and that the creator lost control over his own creation. At the moment you start to work on a game and you devise it for one character only, doing a specific set of actions, it’s obvious that if something new appears it can tend to crash multiple times or to simply shut down. In addition to this I want to point out that this is just a testing game, a sample, therefore the non-professional appearance.

  In the process of making the short film ‘Outsider’ I didn’t encounter difficulties or hardship, but stress and sleepless nights. Attempting to make a good short, I presume that it's not that easy for anyone, but because of the fact that I want to make everything beyond perfect, most of the times I overwork myself in order to have the outcome I desire. About this film I can say that I’m quite pleased about its final product, although I think that it could’ve been better a million times..

  I chose the title ‘Outsider’ because I wanted to define the main character’s condition, since he was suddenly thrown into an unknown place for him and transformed into a puppet. Moreover, in the ending cut, when a completely new character shows up and disappears along with the train, it can be understood that maybe at least one of them succeeded in exiting the tremendous game, becoming an actual outsider in the real world.

Link to the short film: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kF1cxKlkv3X8KEPmfrwusrFK5mBkt3Vy