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Ideas for a Film Festival..

eraserhead_in_time

eraserhead_in_time

Hey guys,
I have decided to enter this festival.http://www.shortfilmcenter.org/
It has two categories - International and Environmental.
Anything goes in either (fiction/documentary etc) and run time is 30 min or less.

Now I have an idea that I wanna run by you guys.

I'm thinking of making a 3-4min film which shows a dark dilapidated world where water has dried out. There is no water left except for rich and influentials. As in Society has been divided on water.
So water smuggling and black market trading is in full swing. This is the backdrop. I might put this info in one text screen or maybe not at all.

The story starts with a guy who is in some alley doing shady deals. He looks around to make sure that no cops are present and then this other guys comes with a handful of pills and coke. Main guy takes a sip of water and takes the drugs. As he takes the drugs cops see him and he starts running.
This leads to a chase sequence in which he runs through a world that is grungy..dried...dead.. (Through use of various scenery/matte paintings/set extension)...

At the end of the chase.. we see a sniper shoot him down..as he falls the drugs and his belongings cascade down in front of him and the cop slowly bends down to pick something up..till now audience will be made to blve that they were after drugs...but the hand is shown picking up water bottle instead of pills lying next to it...hero succumbs in the background...

then we see a newspaper blowing in the wind that reads "Govt has made possession of water illegal" or something to that effect.

Do you guys like this idea??
Do you think it will go in the Normal or Environmental Category?

Any other ideas welcome too

Thanks a lot

Ash:)
 
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Cool idea.

And yeah, in environmental.

Problem is, water is likely to become TOO plentiful. As global warming kicks in, scientists predict the polar ice caps will melt and inundate land areas currently above water. Hence movies like "Waterworld."

I suppose if you wanted to go hundreds of thousands of years into the future (or maybe millions of years), it's possible that the sun will expand enough to fry the world's standing water away. But if that's the case, life will be unlivable in such intense heat, anyways, so your characters would be dry ash husks.
 
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I like it, but I would maybe give the end a double twist.

Cop picks up the water, looks at it and gives a thumbs up to the sniper (Or says something to him via radio, like “Looks pure!” so maybe water purity is also in the mix, yet has a drug like connotation as well) then the cop looks down and says something smug to the dead or dying guy that shows even the cops are on the water take, then when the cop turns all satisfied with himself STAB! (Some low life sticks him, jacks the water and scurries off.)

-Thanks-
 
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thanks for the replies guys...
@Adeimantus... hear me out..ok?..lol
polar ice caps melts...flood everywhere...coastlines of countries massively reduced...millions and millions die in flooding... population becomes concentrated in the centre of landmasses...migration causes too many ppl living in too less of land... govt loses resources and countries collapse.. not enough money (or not imp enuff) to spend on salt water treatment... world war 3 starts for acquiring land masses.. nuclear bombs render sea water contaminated.. world slumps further...
govt legalizes drugs to control depressed population and kill dem off... water becomes the new world's OIL... world war 4 looks certain...
then my story comes in....
ehhehe...see how hard i tried there??? :D

@buddy.. though i like ur double twist thingie..since it is for a fest that wants environmental messgae i think ending it there wud get the message across better u know...maybe..dunno..purple
 
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Adeimantus said:
Cool idea.

And yeah, in environmental.

Problem is, water is likely to become TOO plentiful. As global warming kicks in, scientists predict the polar ice caps will melt and inundate land areas currently above water. Hence movies like "Waterworld."

I suppose if you wanted to go hundreds of thousands of years into the future (or maybe millions of years), it's possible that the sun will expand enough to fry the world's standing water away. But if that's the case, life will be unlivable in such intense heat, anyways, so your characters would be dry ash husks.
Click to expand...

dude there are millions of people who lives without access to clean or even ANY water. people have to walk hours to a little shitty creak and carry home a pale of dirty water.

although there probably wouldnt be a lot of water 'smuggling' going on in an impoverished country. or anywhere at anytime really... but beside that I was just going to say instead of telling us about the state of the country why dont you just show it. you can show dry dead wastelands, and dirty creeks and dry dusty poor people, lots of them, and show like the bourgouis types having their exclusive water parties or something. (it seems like you were kind of going for like a class struggle type scenario) so people see that and are like damn that sucks then with your little story of cops cracking down on water dealing, we see that not only do all the rich people have water and they poor dont, the rich are actually using force to keep water away from the people! :D:eek:

My other recommendation is to articulate the situation more and try to develop the characters a bit. I know it has to be under 30 min but I think you would have a better chance if it was a little longer. That gives you time to make something a little deeper and powerful rather than just a little burst for a quick shock or something you know?

good luck
 
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