Synopsis for short film

Synopsis of our short film 

Our short film is set in a dark lounge lit by low key lighting. The main two characters will be the patient and the psychiatrist although the psychiatrist’s identity will remain a mystery throughout the short film which adds an element of enigma. The main story line will be about a man who suffers with the symptoms of schizophrenia, this will haunt him so much that he struggles with everyday life activities. The audience will be able to sympathise with him due to a number of flashbacks he has which will help to illustrate his illness.

The man who haunts him on a daily basis will also be left to the imagination as his identity will be covered up. This will give an eerie approach to our short film and we believe this will keep the audience engaged throughout guessing about who this masked character could be. The psychiatrist will be asking the patient all sorts of questions about this masked figure who stalks him and whether or not he is a danger to him. The patient will fall in and out of flash backs about this character. There will be scenes of how this stalking started and how it has got progressively worse for him too. The scenes in our short film will show the progression of disruption caused to this patient. We will use a variety of different shots to keep the audience involved and also so we can use techniques like dramatic irony.

We also plan for a small twist at the end and this is why some character’s identities are being left to the audience’s imagination. We believe this will create impact and will help the audience to remember our short film. 

This table below was created before our filming but never actually got put onto the blog. It helped us a lot with our organisation whilst filming due to its detail in reference to each shot. 

Shot number	Shot time (s)	Shot type/ angle	Action in shot	Dialogue / sound / script
1	5	Black screen	n/a	‘tell me about him’
2	5	Title screen	n/a
3	4	Close up	Tapping of prop on against table (suggests being anxious	Patient is heard to be panting heavily in distress
4	3	Over the shoulder shot	Patient looking on the floor uninterested	Uninterested in conversation/ continues to tap pen
5	2	Close up	Shows how tired and sad he is	‘I can’t explain’
6	2	Close up of clock	Shows how late it is	Ticking of clock
7	5	Extreme close up of patient, side angle	Character is shown from the side still looking distressed	Psychiatrist ‘I want to help you, but you have to want to help yourself’
8	4	Extreme close up	Heavy staring	Hear the faint tapping of the pen and clock ticking
9	2	Close up	Pen slowly stops tapping. Then finally stops. Shows how his attention is drawn to psychiatrist	Pen tapping against table
10	5	Extreme close up	Patient looking down and upset/ shows extreme emotion	High pitched ringing sound (suggests he’s going into a flashback)
11	5	Two shot	Shows two characters walking together (one tired and the other energetic and happy)	‘How’s it going why are you so down?’
12	5	Two shot close up	Comparison of faces shows how miserable the patient is	Patient sighing
13	6	Over the shoulder	Shows a dark figure far in the distance behind him	Eerie music
14	6	Two shot close up	Patient tells friend what he saw	‘What! Did you just see that man?’
15	5	Over the shoulder of the two characters	When they both turn around to see the dark character is gone	‘No, what are you on about? I can’t see anyone mate’
16	4	Close up	Character looking shocked, looking anxious, looking side to side or behind him	Gasps in shock, breathing heavy
17	8	Over the should shot / high angle	Hiding psychiatrist’s face using lighting adds mystery	‘what happened, you haven’t said anything for a while, tell me about him’
18	6	Medium side shot	Patient talking to psychiatrist, although he is struggling to talk	‘I’m finding this hard, it’s difficult to describe when its someone you don’t really know’
19	7	Medium shot pans into a long shot	Patient walking at night (second flashback, indicated by fade to white) The ‘faceless man’	Patter of footsteps High pitched ringing sound – gives impression of flashback
20	8	Over the shoulder shot / shallow depth of field	Reveals faceless man following him; however with use of the camera when the patient goes to look back he is gone.	‘who’s there’ (turning around quickly) Russel of bushes or patter of footsteps
21	4	Close up	Foot tapping as if the patient is agitated	Foley sound of shoe tapping Patient says ‘why is he after me Doctor, why me!’
22	9	Close up	Psychiatrist scratches his beard (his tie and part of his lower face is shown, however none of his main facial features are shown)	‘You have to remain calm, I know this is hard but remember you have to push these bad thoughts out. We have spoken about this before, remember?’
23	6	Close up	Tapping of his hands up and down on the table. Shows his watch to show wealth	‘You need to talk to me, is he with us now?’
24	12	Series of different close up shots from different angles (a montage	Character gritting teeth looking angry	Patient agitatedly grits teeth and growls ‘grrrr’ with anger
25	5	Close up	Characters fist clenching with anger	The cracking of knuckles
26	8	Over the shoulder shot	Shows patient looking anxious trying to explain	‘Yeah he is here, you know he’s here’
27	10	High angle just over psychiatrist’s head	Psychiatrist shown to be assessing patient, scratching his head and writing what he says down’	‘tell me about other times you’ve seen this man, talk to me’
28	5	Extreme close up	Patient looking shocked again	High pitched ringing sound again fades in
29	7	Medium shot	Shows patient asleep in bed, wakes up dramatically as if he has had a nightmare	Screams ‘argghh’
30	7	POV	Shows character wanting to get some fresh air. Opens the curtains and looks out his window.	‘what’
31	6	Over the shoulder shot	Shows faceless man looking up at him through the window by the street lamp.	Gasps with shock
32	5	Long shot	Shows character closing the curtains quickly	Eerie sound with high pitched sound
33	7	Front on shot of patient	This shows the faceless man behind him in the room	Scratching sound
34	5	Over the shoulder shot	This shows how the patient quickly turns around expecting there to be something there, however he’s gone.	High pitched sound
35	6	Side profile shot / ecu	Shows character engaging more with the psychiatrist	‘I am insane Doctor or is this actually happening to me, its pissing me off’