Research & Inspiration

The idea its self was not taken from anything I had previously seen, however, with the idea formulated there are a number of short and feature length films from which shooting style can be examined and imitated.

I found this short film on Vimeo. What I like so much about it is its simple introduction the the main character, the shots immediatly connote who this character is and to an extent what he's like. The cheery song layered over the top emphasis's the lighthearted nature of the film and alongside the stylised and simple yet well written V.O does well to further round up the protagonists personality.
  

The choice of voice actor was clearly taken into consideration for this film, the somewhat nasally sounding voice fits perfectly with the comical side of the piece, the fact that the voice is somewhat 'funny' sounding works a lot better than if the same film used a well spoken, deep and meaningful 'James Bond' style of voice.
This is relevant to the drama brief as it will be essential to get the V.O sounding right otherwise that images just wont match up.


The second piece of inspiration is from The Social Network. The scene in which Mark is blogging about the break up with his girlfriend is useful as its similar to what we're aiming for during the V.O/blogging narration. By using the sounds of typing as used in this scene along side the V.O, it wont always be necessary to see our character physically typing the narration, the sounds will act as a audible signifier and the audience will be able to work out and accept that he's blogging and not talking directly to them.

Below is a useful video for taking inspiration from. It highlights the kind of things a 'bad' online dating video might include, helpful for writing the screenplay.

The film Clerks was a great film to watch in order to gain ideas as to what can be done with very simple, static cinematography. Due to our equipment list being restricted, its impressive to see what can be done with essentially just a tripod. This style of shooting will be one we hope to imitate, the long takes and simple editing goes well with the well written dialogue and forces the characters to move the narrative along and keep an audience entertained.
   

The scene in which Dante is getting ready for work is simple and precise, there is little 'fat' and through the editing the audience gets to know quite a lot about the character despite the sequence being just under three minuets long (titles included). This way of progressing the story is something I plan to emulate, when watching a character get dressed, there is no need to show every part of the procedure. In the clip above for example, simply leaving the bedroom, putting on shoes, making coffee and getting into his car is all that's needed to ensure the narrative moves along quickly. Even with so few shots, the audience is able to connect the events, fill in the blanks and accept what Dante is doing.  

The simple shots also connote the atmosphere in which the two friends work. The mundane day to day chore that it is to work in such a business is represented in the static shots and the symmetrical, even framing.  Nothing (other than a few of the odd characters that come into the shop) is out of the ordinary, just another average day for Dante.