Silent Film - Four Hour Film Challenge

 

This was a short film project taking the form of a 'Four Hour Film Challenge' where my group were given the day to plan and film a short film of under ten minutes.

The details of the brief for this particular challenge was to create a silent film in the style of or inspired by the silent films common in theatres before audio recording was common place, and to take inspiration from a fairy tale story.

My filming group decided to create a somewhat authentic looking silent film with the use of longer shot lengths, mostly static camera set ups using a tripod, a lack of close-up shots, and post-production effects to recreate the visuals of old film stock, authentic looking title cards (pictured above), and increased playback speed.

 

And to fulfil the fairy tale element of the brief we decided on a modern adaptation of the Three Billy Goats Gruff children's story.

 

In our adaptation the same key plot points of the classic story remain, while the goats are substituted for young human brothers, the nicer grass across the river is substituted for a better nightclub than the one they had previously come from, the bridge is swapped out for the entrance to the better night club, and a bouncer takes the place of a troll. A bag of an unnamed, generic drug was also added to the story simply as a plot device to give a reason for a bouncer to refuse entry of the young men into the club.

The tone of this short film, much like the original films it was inspired by such as those by Charlie Chaplin, is and was fully intended to be comedic. We conveyed this through melodramatic actions in our acting, ironically verbose dialogue in the title cards as a parody of early 20th Century formality, and a choice of whimsy music to be played over the top. Most of all, we based our adaptation on a not unrealistic scenario, but portrayed it using absurd dialogue and action for such a context, as well as melodramatic acting. These all combined to present a serious scenario ironically and comically, in line with how original silent film makers often created their stories.

An example of our silent film inspiration for this project is Charlie Chaplin's Lion Cage scene (clip below) from The Circus (1928).

Audience feedback for our short film included a mix of positive comments and some very valid criticisms. Key among the positives was that much of the audience liked the use of the 'cloning' effect to allow one of us to play two characters who needed to be in the same shot because it was unique and reasonably well executed. However, some did note that this was not a typical effect used in silent films, which I agree with. Along with this and the use of many shorter shots in the second half of the film, I would agree with our audience feedback that the film could have been more authentic to the original style.

A universal piece of positive feedback from the audience was that they enjoyed the comedic tone of the film and that it was a good replication of the type of comedy used in older silent films such as the one mentioned above - albeit perhaps with a modern twist.

Overall, I am sure that this was a very successful attempt at producing a short film in accordance with the brief. While I agree with criticisms from our audience, they also pointed out many positives, seeing value in how we were faithful to the silent comedy genre of films popular in the 1920s through our videography, creative direction and my editing (when discussing my edit of the footage). Our aim was in some ways to create a fusion of old genres of storytelling and modern themes, so the use of some modern filming and editing techniques can, in my opinion, also be considered a success.