Researching Short Films - The Plan

This short film is was a very simplistic piece based on a young man who quits his job, leaves his girlfriend and drives to Vegas to gamble all his savings. The entire film was set in black and white and had a very philological feel to it as the main character was very reflective in his narration. There are only two central characters in this short film. The main character is the young male with whom the audience travel along with on his journey and the supporting role is the mysterious girl he meets whilst travelling who later becomes the love interest. I believe the intention of this producer when they created this film was purely for entertainment, perhaps with an underlying moral along the lines of 'live life to the full' or 'take risks and do the unexpected.'

Judging by the plot as well as the central characters in this film I would assume that the target audience was teenagers and young adults in their 20's. This is because I think the storyline of fleeing your home and driving to a foreign place to risk all your money on a gamble is something that would appeal to younger audiences who are more interested in 'thrill-seeking.'

The film is set in unknown locations presumably places the young man passes on his way to Las Vegas. The young man never seems to be in a recognisable location for any length of time which ties is with his urgency to get to Vegas. However, the main focus of this piece is the road and what it symbolises; freedom, independence and a journey. I think this would appeal to teenagers and young adults who still have some sort of restraint in their lives and would love to have the courage to do the same thing.

The music starts off with a very upbeat and light-hearted tune using either a keyboard or xylophone to achieve this. However, when something goes wrong half-way through the film the music changes to an eerie female vocal which then develops into a instrumental piece performed by strings, presumably Cellos. At the climax of the film, the instrument used sounds like a Church Bell being beaten ever so slowly. This slow, dull, 'dong' is often associated with execution and death as it is often heard when someone is awaiting their death. This ties in with the seriousness of the gamble the young man has taken as it could be seen as the end of his life is he loses.

The film contains camera techniques which give the film a 'fly-on-the-wall' documentary feel. By using the unsteady camera technique it makes it look as though someone else has filmed it without the characters knowing. Due to the amount of editing skills and creative filming used for this short film I would suggest that it be distributed at a Film Festival in order to broadcast the producers creative film-making skills.

The plot of this story could be suitable for anyone of any age, but the use of taboo language and adult content e.g. gambling and swearing would raise the certificate significantly. The two uses of the 'F word' would immediately raise the certificate up to a 15 and would be unsuitable for anyone under that age.