Short film script help!! (for film class)

[Ryanmv11]

I am in the process of filming this really short film for my film class. Here's a outline.

A group of catholic boys find that fear is something that eats at the human race ,disabling us from living a full, and happy complete life. They take matter into their own hands and follow the concept,"Face your fears" to get one step closer to living their complete lives.They admit each and one of their fears,and put themselves up to the test of that fear. From placing themselves in these tests they place themselves in life threatening situations to simple comedic scenarios.

This film is supposed to be satirical humor.
I'm not the best writer or anything so if any suggestions are out there,they are dinner for my ears.

I originally posted this to ask, if you guys didn't mind but what are some of your fears and phobias?

these will be for specific characters depending if you guys want to share with no embarrassment.

Thanks for reading.
-Ryan

[ChannelReviews]

If it's supposed to be funny....then the best thing would be to make them afraid of stuff, that NOBODY is afraid of.

One guy has a fear of dairy products and so his friends try to help him get over it by planting cheese and milk everywhere, and that would be funny if you added a lot of quick zooms and fisheye shots of the cheeses or milks, the cutting to him being terrified and screaming at a wheel of cheese.

Another guy is afraid of stuffed bunnies. That culumnates with him meeting up with a guy in a bunny suit and he attacks and beats the crap out of the bunny, etc....

Unexpected....overexageration.....lots of camera angles/zooms/quick cuts and sound effects could be very good. See Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz for examples of that style of comedic filming, especially the opening of Hot Fuzz.

[koolpenguin89]

Ok. this is an actual story. A friend of mine is deathly afraid of cotton. He says it has something to do with the way it squeaks. He cant even open new bottles of pills by himself, we have to do it for him because of the layer of cotton. So one day, we all ended up spending the night at my house and he just happened to fall asleep first. We shredded a pillow and took all the cotton and lined his body with it (kind of like the police chalk outlines, but with cotton). Needless to say, when he woke up and saw what we did, he freaked. To this day, i have never heard anyone scream as loud as he did that morning.

So maybe you can use that for an idea. Also, i agree that the opening of Hot Fuzz was absolutely brilliant, i always rewind it and watch it again whenever i watch that movie.

Dylan

[MithrilFox]

One of my biggest fears is being forced to watch dozens of amateur films back-to-back...

Seriously, though, one of the banes of videoland is that we almost invariably end up having to watch others' videos. And, the worst part about that is, these people often make videos that seem very amateurish or particular to a specific crowd. One of my best college mates was the same way; he put together videos with friends, and when I watched them, I just shrugged my shoulders and said, "ehh..." It's obvious it had some inside-humor or humor specific to that group.

If you want your video to be appealing to a broad range of people, you can't go too silly. Silliness in a video is actually extremely hard to do well. We've all seen even professionals mess it up badly. Zoolander, anyone? What a disaster that was...

But doing silly is possible, as long as it isn't "extreme." Extreme silliness only works if you have a well-known actor playing a typical role that is expected of him. You try to have an amateur attempt to pull Jim Carrey humor in an amateur film, and everyone will groan with disgust (most likely).

I'd say, minimize the silliness until you really get a handle on how to do it well without making audiences puke at the production quality.

You have a great concept. Nothing brand new or novel, but something that can be done well and reach a broad range of people. Give them fears that everyone can associate with; that is to say, make sure at least 75% of the population can associate with at least one of the fears.

For example, good ideas might be:

1) Arachnophobia: I mean, for real, how many of us are deadly afraid of spiders? It's a huge issue. Find a friend with a tarantula, and you have a sure "audience grabber." Audiences love seeing scary spiders on TV, even when they're afraid of them.

2) Claustrophobia: this is a biggy for many people. And, shooting it can be pretty easy.

3) Fear of flying. Might not be so interesting, depending on how you do it.

4) Fear of failure in life, especially in regards to employment/relationships.

5) Fear of being alone. Have a character struggle with being alone for a long period of time.

6) Fear of one's [overbearing/abusive] father. Could make the father an alcoholic, but better yet, make him an overbearing yet successful in his endeavors father who demands perfection from his somewhat weak son who never turned out the way he wanted. Have the son finally confront his dad about what he wants to do with his own life. Nothing brand new, but always gets some audience attention.

My best advice is to avoid "niche" humor. Avoid stuff that you and your close buddies find funny, but others might not understand or follow. That's the difference between a great comedy film and an amateur one; the amateurs do what's funny to them, and the great filmmakers make something that is funny to a wide range of people.

Also, you probably already know about this, but just in case, wardrobe and casting. Seriously, I can't even begin to say how many videos I've seen that were horrible because characters didn't dress appropriately. If these are all dedicated Catholic boys, enlisting your pierced, goth-looking friend to play one won't work. Also, if one boy is supposed a pretty "super-geeky" guy, you need to find someone who naturally looks that way, or make sure to dress him in slightly geeky clothes (but not too cliché).

Good luck.

[Numbox]

I'm afraid of spiders and butterflies :hv20-smilie15:



But seriously, why do you want it to be a comedy? It would be ten times better as a thriller. Starts off inocently and ends up a tragedy. What comes to mind is Good Son (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107034/) where you have a child that's seriously messed up. Or better yet, you could make it something along the lines of Stand By Me (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092005/).

All in all, i think you shouldn't do a comedy :)