StreetVerse

How Not to Make a Student Film

Posted By: Sally Vox
Filed Under: Opinion on February 11, 2011

I was talking to someone on the Admission Board from a film school, and one thing that struck me as interesting was his obvious disdain for watching student films, especially in regards to undergraduate admissions. Besides the rare gem, he said most of them were poorly done and they had at least a few of the following tropes in common.

Buzzing Alarm Clock

Ring! Ring! Yawn, look at the clock! Oh no! I’m late for class…work…ninja training. It usually follows with brushing teeth, eating breakfast, walking to class.

I guess the thought process goes something like “what better way to start a story than at the beginning of a day?”. I do understand the necessity of showing the “ordinary world”, but this opening has really been done to death.

Alternative

What about showing the “ordinary world” by showing something with a little bit more action. Maybe the wannabee chef is chopping onions, maybe the hitman is cleaning his guns, maybe the student is getting drunk at a frat party…keep the viewer interested. Starting with a guy sleeping is going to send some subliminal messages that won’t help your cause.

Endless Walking

Walking down some random road for 3 minutes, or 5 minutes, or 10 minutes. BORING.

How can you think that anyone would ever want to watch this? Remember what Hitchcock said, “fiction is life with all the boring parts removed.” Create conflict, always.

Alternative

Have something happen. Maybe a bum asks him for change, maybe a stripper werewolf attacks him from the bushes, I don’t know. Just make SOMETHING happen.

Domestic Violence

Boyfriend: You mean there’s another man? Well here is another fist for you! Girlfriend: AHH! Please not again!

There is such thing as too much conflict. Domestic Violence, for whatever reason, is a very popular choice for creating something “gritty”, “dark”, or “artsy”. But it ends up being comedic, or just…very wrong. I think a major part of the success of such subjects on the big screen is having good actors and a very carefully written script. Keep it Simple Stupid.

Alternative

Try something more down to earth. Even the most mundane things can be interesting if seen from a unique angle. Writing and acting things that are more familiar to you create much more natural (and watchable) subjects.

Suicide

Narrator: But I was just getting started. A chair falls over and feet are hanging in the air.

Maybe it’s the growing popularity of Justin Bieber, or maybe its something in the water or atmosphere, but students are obsessed with this cliché. Something about taking one’s own life screams “ultimate conflict”, but like domestic violence it is very very rarely done right. It is either painfully pretentious and melodramatic, or it is almost comically bad. Actually, thinking about it, a comedic suicide story doesn’t seem that bad.

Alternative

Anything can create conflict. Losing a sock, a terminal case of chronic masturbation, a raging madman armed with a sack of oranges—the possibilities are endless. Try to choose something that doesn’t scream “I’m an emo teenager who found a video camera.”

Endless Dialogue

Guy One: Oh yeah, so the dog died…mumble mumble…but Petunia…she’s the best…mumble…that time we had those bottles up our…mumble…What do you think? Guy Two: Well, I guess it would start in my mother’s placenta…mumble…the Arabic conundrum…mumble…but then the girl opened her…mumble…pickles over her face.

My god, some students must think they are the next Shakespeare. Talking in films is overrated. Dialogue, for many novices, is a crutch. It allows them to “tell” a lot of story without “showing” it, which is one of the biggest no-no’s in any narrative art form.

Alternative

Show don’t tell. Someone crying is going to show much more story than a sad guy telling his friend how depressed he is. Use dialogue sparsely and only when necessary—see if you can show what you need to show without words first. If you turn the sound off and you can still follow the story…you got a keeper.

Hope these come in handy for your next student project.

-SV

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