“Flash” (2020) Short Film Case Study
Project Announcement
FLASH was always, even in it's earliest iteration, a straight-up horror film. Soon after finishing GARGANTUA, which held a few horror-like elements that focused on male anxiety and loneliness, I've never written or directed a 'straight' horror film; a story that could totally exist within the constraints within the genre. I've made music videos that had horror-like elements, gore and suspense to bolster the style of the music but I'd never focused my efforts into a horror film. It's probably due to my own lack of experience and the lack of a decent idea. It's not that I've never had concepts worth exploring, as it always seemed like a rite of passage to make a zombie film (as tired as I find the genre in my opinion) as I'd written something in that vein that felt different enough yet lacked the funds to produce.
Talking about ideas (which is something I tend to do more that actually following through on them) was where FLASH germinated. My partner, Laura, and myself watch a tonne of films and for the most part, we'll settle on a horror that tends to be easy watching and sometimes of such low quality, will be entertaining regardless. A concept that had been bounced around included a horror concept using a disposable camera. Originally, the story revolved around a woman who is given the camera at a wedding and mistakenly takes it home (usually the camera would remain at the wedding party) and keeps it in her bag. Earlier, the character was more interested in taking photos and using old technologies which soon tired. What I developed was that the character, who was victim to some creepy happenings at her home, found herself in a situation; at night, be it in a wood or dark location where the camera is used to light her way. The film focused on this one main moment that would build tension through the sound and atmosphere as she stumbled her way through to safety, all the while implying that she's being followed by some physical force. As she is able to leave and no harm comes to her, upon developing the camera roll she realises the breadth of the force that was following her (a non defined monster/creature) as it appears in the pictures always in view. This brings about a horrible feeling of dread and the insinuation that the creature is still around her. As much of the discussion began just after finishing GARGANTUA, literally a few months before I was getting on a plane to the US, any development of the idea, at this point half-baked, halted. Obviously, by the time we landed, lock-down afforded the opportunity to develop the concept and FLASH was effectively born.
Written in as few as 3 drafts as more of a camera script (which I don't do often), the script took the original concept, dropped the 'monster/creature' and focused on a 'home-invader' as the main adversary. As the story developed, it made more sense that the main character was escaping a situation that was beginning to creep back into her life; a very real and actual threat that could be much more menacing that some mystical, unknown force, certainly on the zero-budget concerned. Finding the camera among her personal belongings when she moves into a new home, she's amused by the novelty of the device. The camera is used maybe once, the flash's bright light showing a figure in the reflection of the TV and is not seen again until the films finale. The camera is used as a weapon, something that helps to light her way in the dark hallways of her home to deter the person who has invaded her home. Similarly, when she goes to develop the camera roll, she realises that the camera has been taking more than the photos she personally did, adding another element of fear and grief to the already troubled and abused main character. This was the strongest form of the concept that I could produce. As the third film I've made during quarantine, it's coincidentally become an extension of the themes I explored in GARGANTUA.
Written as more of a camera script, as a shot list, the script lacked the emotional weight due to being tech focused. Ordinarily, I wouldn't write a script like that as it comes across as cold but as I would be the one shooting it as well, it really didn't matter in the long run. I was sketching the shots as I was writing the film which, consequently, as the film was being shot, was constantly being developed and adapted, adding a total of two scenes to the original 7. The way the film was going to be shot was incredibly important, utilizing long tracking shots to maintain the sense of dread and build tension in the scenes. With the storyboards and script in hand, I was ready to shoot FLASH quickly after wrapping SQUIGLEY.
Here are the portrait and landscape style versions of the final poster design for FLASH. After a mock-up that I felt had become the final posters, I'd taken the time to revisit them and remove them from promotion online. To be honest, they weren't great. They were too cluttered, busy and compositionally failed in my humble opinion and I can be harsh about it as I made them to begin with. I'd been looking at posters online and seeing what others had done, certainly for short films and my favorite staple of horror films.
I like the pop-art-y, painted style, which I could have put some effort into producing myself in my own art style but I guess what I settled for was what I had seen in other posters of the same ilk; 'simplicity'. Stripping away the originals more complex and busy ideas, I kept it to bare minimum with slight flourishes. Again, this is a poster for a horror film, about the dark and what seemingly lies within that is out of sight. So, to begin with, the poster had to be dark. I've kept some of the flourishes that are contained in the film but only slightly highlighting them. You can tell below (in the phase one poster designs) what stayed and what obviously left.
Sketching out the design, like with every poster design I've undertaken, It's about how the composition of the imagery works in the frame (portrait or landscape). The diamond shape replaced the triangle that would be a montage of images from the film, with a shadowy figure bang centre to continue the symmetry. It was meant to be a more a graphic design, replicating the design of posters I had made for 'DRIFT', 'THE BICYCLE MAN' and more recently 'GARGANTUA' and 'BUTTERING' that were less literal and more designed to be fun and representative of the main theme of the film. I still feel the best example of that is 'DRIFT' and 'GARGANTUA'. But really, they were straight dramas made in my style other than GARGANTUA, which had horror-like elements interwoven into the narrative. overall, its a garbled mess; the hands are too far apart, the levitating head with totally action-less hair, the overlaid elements that look like fire dominate the foreground and an overall mixture of things that just don't marry together well.
But with the need to revisit it was about quality control. What I feel I have come up with far surpasses what I had produced before, more fitting of the standard of quality we've achieved with the film.
Teaser Reveal
To accompany the release of the final poster designs and the coming final film, which will be soon after this post, I had put together a quick teaser. With having very little in the way of a definite concept in where to take the teaser trailer. The main idea of the film is in the use of the camera so it was decided that it be something that revolved around that key idea.
It made for the basis of a clever teaser that revealed very little by showing images like quick exposures that fade away. The sound was important as we hear the camera being loaded and clicked to show each exposure. The stark sharpness of the sound effects, from the racking of the camera roll to the snapping of the shutter was intended to build tension. The atmospheric music, composed by AMU (who scored the film) helps to build that tension and create a sense of unease. For the lack of the imagery in the teaser, which I feel best fits the theme.
Below is final teaser.
Director’s Notes
FLASH is an exploration of loneliness. Much like what I have explored in my more in-depth short film work; CHASE, DRIFT, THE BICYCLE MAN and GARGANTUA, the narratives focus' on a sole (main) character that's battling the monotony of their current life and feels isolated. In most cases they are fixated on a past event that has characterized their actions at this time in their life. In the case of FLASH, we centre on Jess who, after moving away to start her new life, sets up home in a new apartment and whilst sifting through some old possessions stumbles upon an old disposable camera. The camera houses some old memories but, what Jess does not realize, is that it will become the instrumental tool to her sanctuary when her past comes back to haunt her. In short, this is a straight-up horror/thriller/drama that adopts much from the "home invader" sect of the genre.
For the most part, FLASH is a very technical piece of filmmaking. Its primary focus was always on how it looked and would illicit emotion and tension in how it was shot. Even through its many iterations, the film retained certain visual traits that persisted through the drafts; the woman at the window, the sliding of the photos that unfold a dark series of events ad the eponymous image holding the camera that effectively saves her but reveals it's ghastly use. Everything else was from a necessity of the environment I could draw from, the location and whoever I had access to. FLASH was my third film made during quarantine and finding myself in a situation like many of the characters in my films, I drew effectively from the environment I had been confined to months. The feeling of isolation and confinement also brings about a sense of comfort within the monotony.
The main idea behind FLASH is that 'that comfort' is threatened when someone invades her personal space and manipulates for their own gains. We are not sure of the reasons behind this persons' motivation to stalk and harass Jess in the story but, for me, it didn't really matter. By not knowing or even completing the arc of the story with a hopeful resolution that sees the man 'dealt with', ready to continue his series of crimes, I found the fear to be deeper and more malicious. It's difficult in a film narrative, namely a short, to effectively wrap up that resolution so I really just decided to just not, as in life, some things are never truly explained to their fullest. Its cruel that Jess may never find peace but in the world we now live in, a total lack of compassion and empathy is commonplace.
FLASH utilized minimal shooting, as I held to my mantra of not shooting above what a scene absolutely needed. There are several oner's in the film and roaming shots that hold for long periods of time. There was a feeling that I needed to emphasize the amount of negative space within scenes. Jess had to appear as if she was alone in a big, quiet abode. The camera pushes in more often in the film as if it's closing in on her as her anxiety and tension increases. As a result of that though, by slowing everything down and focusing on these aspects that are not benefitted by a series of short, quick cuts, the length of the film increased. But really, it was a juggling act to maintain the sense of tension and how the character was feeling from scene to scene.
But the main aspect of the film, the "home invader", a mostly unseen force that really did not exist until the stills are presented at the films' climax. In that case, the film developed ways that the camera suggested that "a presence". There are a few shots, performed deliberately that suspend camera movement to allow the audience to look at a doorway or a corridor as character actions occur off-screen or off-centre as if something may be present there. Only after a few seconds, does the camera move to focus on the point of attention but its about leaving a lingering feeling in the audience by subjecting camera movement, certainly, as the movement up until those points has focused on the character centre in frame. For the most part, the films look and colors remain natural with dashes of bright primary colour highlights within certain scenes. Lit to maintain the level of dark and high-contrast within the images where each set-up used a much more dimmed, lower f-stop ratio, beginning with how dark frames were that added small pockets of light. The films' look revolves around how dark the images are, as a way of conveying how isolated Jess, as a character, becomes, as her home becomes more and more enveloped in darkness. The use of light, or lack of, is the confining factor to illicit the mood and sense of the unknown.
The presence of the "unknown" is the fundamental aspect in this film. The "stranger" is rarely explained or even shown but through the strength of the soundtrack. The stranger is effectively created through the soundtrack. The scariest aspect of the adversary in the film is that he is never seen and when he is, it's so brief that any assumption can be created. He is however, heard; in his footsteps, the camera clicking and more creepily in his breathing. By not giving the figure a voice, it immediately dehumanizes them. As a necessity of the shooting, being effectively a two-person production, there wasn't the chance to have more of the stranger in the film. The issue I have with current horror experiences is that the danger seems always present, begins as a scary thought but ends up being far too revelatory. The point was creating the fear through the use of the sound effects that this very human threat becomes an inhuman presence. It makes the threat something that appears as lacking compassion or empathy. The bigger narrative issue with the film is that Jess never receives sanctuary and resolution but more that it incentivizes that she'll continue to suffer at this person's hand. It takes the dread and anxiety of this character and amplifies it, where the story seemingly does not comes to an end with happiness, focusing on the attic opening where the man may still be living. As she walks into the doorway the sound and music drop and all we can hear is her breathing, it's almost as if she'll be living in fear for a long time to come, acting as an allegory to the present state of the world right now.
Storyboard to Screen Comparison
FLASH had taken a couple of forms before its final incarnation. I guess the main aim of the film was to be as dynamic as possible in the shot choices but to also hint at certain things in the cinematography to heighten the sense of tension within the film. As a film that hinged on the use of the sound and music to get across a sense of the drama within the storytelling, the cinematography and number of shots chosen were deliberately sparse and limited, using shots that developed much longer over time that cut less over over a longer period of time to allow the sound to develop. For a 15 minute-plus short film, each scene comprised of no more than 5-6 shots each, negating the last scene which is longer as it spanned the whole distance of the apartment that was covered in more detail. I feel the sparsity of shot usage is something I've developed over the years making music videos that demand a sharp and short cutting period, my films don't feel as much need to cut away when two shots (a developing main and a reaction) or a oner can just tell the scene. I find that being as better director means you can tell your story in less shorts. It's not an exact science but it feels more right to me. Below are the edited storyboards, which means that they were constantly being developed as I was shooting. As the shooting took over the course of 7 days to finish, some times only shooting one shot/scene a day, the dedication to the shooting confirmed that I could continue to make films of this shooting quality in the future. I can shoot quickly, but when I take the time as I did with shorts I made back in college, the results were improved ten-fold. I will include the final film below but as always, the shots and shot choices are as exact as they were determined in the storyboard stages.
