Just recently, I've entered another contest called Interpretations. It's a short film initiative contest that encourages aspiring filmmakers to develop their own original and unique voice. All participants create a short film using the same original script consisting of just four lines:
"It's not something I'd do."
"Well?"
"It's not what I expected."
"You sure?"
The film must only have these four dialogues and nothing else. They must be used in the exact order, and the film must be 3 minutes or less. After devoting some time to brainstorming and studying the script, here's a story that we came up with. It was shot in just two hours with a cast and crew only consisting of just two people and with a $4.00 budget.
THE CONCEPT
Based on the four lines of dialogue given, we came up with a unique and creative story revolving around one topic.... luck. In our story, two friends, EJ and Justin, spend their afternoon hiking until they came across a supposedly dead frog.
There are some cultures in the world that believe frogs bring luck (i.e.: In Japan, frogs are the symbols of "Good Luck"). So we portrayed luck from a frog in an unusually funny way. Both of them think that this frog may bring luck and so they attempt to obtain that luck. The first line of the dialogue, "It's not something I'd do," portrays the sense that the stench of the supposedly dead frog and the feeling of touching it is not even worth the effort of finding that luck. However, Justin encourages him to give it a try.
And after breaking through his hesitation and fears, EJ reaches inside the frog's mouth and pulls out a dollar coin. Still gagging but relieved and surprised that he struck luck, he hands the coin over to Justin, who too is surprised and never expected to find a dollar coin in the frog's mouth. At the end of the story, EJ's last line of dialogue, "You sure?" shows that he accepted the fact that this is a very unusual frog. The croaking sound that the frog made to reveal that it was still alive supports EJ's point that the frog is indeed... unusual...
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