A few weeks ago, as part of Diminished Responsibility Films, once again I had a hand in making a short film for the Sci-Fi London 48 hour film challenge.
You can read more about Sci-Fi London and the challenge here
As always, at the start of the challenge we’re given a series of prompts to work with:
Title: OUT IN THE COLD
Prop/action: A character uses a device to scan another character's face or eye.
Dialogue: "Do anything special on pay day?"
Optional science idea: A year long eclipse occurs which changes the world forever
This year’s Out in The Cold is an atmospheric horror piece, drawing on elements of Greek myth!). The initial idea was developed by the cast and crew in a brainstorming session on Saturday morning (with a lot of the key concepts coming from Sam, our Assistant Director), first draft of the script written on Saturday morning then redrafted later in the day.
We hit a few roadblocks this year – a delay in the prompts coming through form Sci-Fi London created a lot of anxiety, and kind of threw me out of writing mode, meaning I had a tough time with the first draft of the script. It took a long time, and felt kind of “flat”- like it hit all the story beats but had no soul. Thankfully some input from Austin (the Director) and a bit of time to work on a second draft and it started to come to life a bit.
Being at the shoot on the Sunday was exciting – the actors are really amazing, I love how the characters they’ve created give hints of a bigger story outside this tiny slice of life. I love how despite the generally tense and serious narrative there are little bits of humour. And it looks awesome – the camera and lighting are beautiful. And Francesca’s music (also inspired by Greek tragedy) is incredibly cool.
The thing with a five-minute film made in a 48 hour time limit is that it’s never going to be perfect, there are always little continuity errors, little plot holes, things that don’t quite make sense if you think about it too much. But what I love about this one is that I don’t feel like it matters too much – it’s a little piece of intense action within a wider story. I can actually imagine it as part of a bigger narrative and keep thinking about the backstory of these characters, and the possibility of other films or stories featuring them. We also discussed a couple of alternative endings for the film, and I’d love to explore those one day.
So here is the film – enjoy:
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