Short Film Synopsis

When first looking at creating a short film, I, with a group, began coming up with some ideas. These are the synopsis that I came up with, we then discussed all these synopsis and used our survey results to decided that the best film to make is this first one, Deluca.

Deluca

Synopsis

Deluca is a modern psychological thriller, which mostly takes place within the back streets of a small British town. The film follows a central character, Edward Stevenson, though often, in actual reality, he is called Peter Deluca. The film opens with Edward’s brutal murder of his girlfriend, Sarah. Soon after he receives a phone call from the very same girl he has just murdered. Neither Edward nor Sarah can no longer hear each other over the phone. Here Edward admits to killing Sarah, under the name Edward Stevenson. After this Edward meets with Hugo, his boyfriend who tries to convince Edward to kill Sarah. It then returns to Edward standing over Sarah’s body. Here Sarah appears to him, and whilst Edward is talking to her the body disappears. Sarah takes Edward by the hand and shows him on old home, which she calls ‘our home’. Later Edward meets up with Hugo, who asks him whether he had killed Sarah yet. Here he kills Hugo, in much the same style as he killed Sarah in the beginning. It ends with Edward standing in front of the home, admitting to the murder of Hugo, using the name Deluca.

  

Deluca is a psychological thriller, aimed for males aged 16-25 that follows many of the conventions of the popular feature length films of this genre, focusing on the mind of the central character, Edward Stevenson/Peter Deluca, who does not quite see what is real. It is similar in tone and style to films like Shutter Island. While it is a film of psychological thriller, the conventions of this genre and horror and so, to some extent has similar conventions to the horror genre, with films like The Shining, which is a slight mix between the two genres, primarily being horror, but also focusing on psychology of the characters. The film is designed to skip between reality and Edward’s ‘reality’, never really making it clear which ‘reality’ is real or even if any of them are real. This is specifically designed to confuse the audience slightly, much like Edward becomes confused by much of the story. This is done through the ‘unreliable narrator’ of Edward. It also skips through time; again, never making it clear which sequence of events is correct.

The Last Dayz

 A man wakes up on a beach, all he has is a pistol, with a backpack containing some beans, a flash light and some ammo. I the distance he can see a small house. He travels towards, every so often he hears some rustling in the bushes. Followed by groans. When he arrives at the house he sees it has all been barricaded up. He knocks on the door as it swings open. He calls out and then a young girl runs down some stairs. They must then travel to a small town a few miles away. As they begin to travel he discovers that he awoke in a zombie apocalypse. In the city they must survive from a small amount of zombies wondering around. On the edge they find a broken car. They must look for the missing parts. Along the way they discover two other survivors who help them to survive. At the end the young girl accidently alerts a large horde and they eat her. The others then have to fight off the horde from a nearby abandoned house.

The film starts off with a peaceful looking scene. Geoff on a beach. This part will help the film follow Todrov’s theory. Starting with equilibrium and then he finds Mia and this starts off the disruption when he discovers that there is actually a zombie apocalypse. They then find others and stay in a house. They must then defend themselves from a zombie horde. The end of the fight would be the resolution. The ones that survive would rest at the house, brining back the equilibrium. 

Anserhek

The leader of the KAS, Piran, begins to realise that they are about to lose everything they have fought for. He begins to worry his friend Petroc, who has fought by his side since the very beginning of the rebellion, about the end to come. Six of the final members fight against the English in their final stronghold of Cotehele. After Piran is killed in the first attack, Petroc must take control of what is left of the KAS, Cotehele and a few farms on the moor. Petroc sends Brioc and Austol off to defend the nearby gardens, whilst he goes with Ia, his partner, who lost a child together in the war, to defend the house with Felec. Petroc hears a high-pitched sound whilst watching around the corner of the house, after hearing the sound of footsteps near. He finds himself in a strange dream-like forested area where he sees the image of a young girl who takes a bite out of a pasty, which then begins to bleed, symbolising the downfall of the KAS and the idea of an independent Cornwall. Felec and Ia watch as Petroc has fallen to the ground, grasping onto his head. Felec expresses his doubts in Petroc to Ia. Petroc ‘awakes’ after he is shot by a gun that just appears in front of him. He rushes over to Ia, who appears to be clean and dressed in normal, street clothes. He tells her that he has spoken to Petroc again; who has told him the war has been won. Petroc is convinced that Ia and him are at home. Felec tells Petroc that he is right and that they have won. Ia watches as Felec kicks Petroc to the ground. Felec holds his gun to Petroc’s head, though Petroc shoots himself first. It ends as Brioc comes from behind and shoots Ia, who has fallen to Petroc’s side, weeping for him.

  

This film, whilst primarily about the mental state the characters have moved into, it is set against the backdrop of a modern Cornish Rebellion. The genre of this film would be classed as a physiological thriller, with parts of the war genre. It will have a target audience of men aged 15-30.

In terms of the visual style of the film it will look slightly gritty and realistic, with use of filters to give it a certain visual style, which will most closely resemble war films like Saving Private Ryan. The film would use many close up shots, but would also use a couple of shaky long shots during times of suspense and action, particularly the end section. The vision scenes of Petroc would be much brighter and possibly have an adjust contrast to give it a very different feel, creating juxtaposition with both the other scenes, and what is happening within these scenes. This would be rather like the juxtaposition created by the dark story and events placed against the beauty of the gardens and house of Cotehele.