Tarantino Wannabe Syndrome

I was watching a video titled "The Secret Sauce for Writing Short Films" when I was brutally attacked. Look at this: 

Now, I would NEVER do such a thing as become a Tarantino wannabe. Wait...

So a quick look at my blog shows that I may in fact be a chronic sufferer of this illness.

Anyway, the last research post I did was dedicated towards comedies that I really enjoyed watching. If you can recall, comedy is the genre that I could probably do the best job with. However, it's not the genre I am most interested by. I'm not really sure how to describe the genre, maybe a drama/dark comedy. Trust me, that's very different from comedy, I promise. Look at films like Baby Driver, or maybe Pulp Fiction ironically. They kind of border on the lines of drama, thriller, and comedy. These can be pretty hard to make, but I found a few short films that kind of fit into it. 

Room 101

This definitely isn't the perfect short film, but I really like the vibe that is gives. It shows this girl check into a hotel, and just start really enjoying life. She's kicking back and relaxing, enjoying her magazines, jamming to music, and doesn't seem to have a care in the world. Which seems very concerning when the radio reveals there is a serial killer in the neighborhood. 

She walks out of the shower, seemingly oblivious to the man who has creeped into her hotel room. Until the man is right behind her. Then she smiles.

Bang. 

As the woman walks away covered in blood, you begin to realize that she was the killer all along. She goes back into enjoying her life, music blasting, merrily cleaning off the blood and hiding the body. And at the very end, she checks in to another hotel, asking for another hotel room for one.

What I love about this film is the twist. It perfectly sets up the expectation that she will fall victim to the a killer in her hotel room, just like the classic psycho scene, and then it completely subverts it. I do think that the film drags on afterwards a little bit longer than it should. Personally, I believe that the twist in a short film should happen more towards the end, but here it happens practically right in the middle. 

I once read somewhere that a good short film should be written like a joke. You spend most of the time building up to something, then the twist is the punchline. I think that is something that films in this weird genre I'm looking at are great for, and if I pursue this genre(which I really want to I just don't have an idea yet), then that is the main thing I am looking to achieve. 

Finishing up on Room 101, I really loved how stylistic this film was. I believe the creator definitely has at least a mild case of Tarantino Wannabe Syndrome(TWS), with the old music and aesthetic being very much from the 50s, much like Pulp Fiction, but they clearly were able to divert from that a decent amount, adding their own visual flare. The editing is very fast and well paced, and I really enjoyed all the visual aspects of the film. 

Schism

I FRICKING LOVE THIS FILM OH MY GOD

I think this creator may also suffer from TWS, however he's able to almost eliminate the W part from his condition. I think people try a lot to imitate his style of dialogue, which tends to include characters in the middle of what can pass for a normal conversation between friends. It's so satisfying to listen to because it feels like you're just hearing a these characters on a normal day. However, this kind of dialogue just doesn't work in short films. Look at the Pulp Fiction royale with cheese conversation. 

Yeah this is really funny to listen to, and it establishes the relationship between the characters, but this has almost nothing to do with the plot of the actual movie. It works in Pulp Fiction, because it has time for this, but in a short film with under ten minutes of run time, you're just taking up space. 

Now lets take a look at the dialogue in Schism. It still feels like a very normal conversation, and it's definitely something you could picture these two characters having. However, their conversation is about the event that we just witnessed. 

After the main character (Tripp) smiles so much for the waiter taking their order, his partner (Jay) asks him why he pretends to be all nice and jolly when he really isn't. Tripp argues that it doesn't hurt to act nice for people, but Jay thinks that putting on a fake face for people isn't good. 

Their conversation then mentions the job they are doing, which we don't know what it is, and how you have to accept what the job is and kill the part of yourself that denies it. This dialogue works so well, because it does a great job at being natural, while also not having a single word wasted. 

As the waitress returns with their milkshakes, a knocking sound starts coming from the trunk, causing them to speed off, while also hinting at the grotesque nature of what they are doing. As we see Tripp getting ready to finish the job, we see him look at the trunk in shock. He tells his partner to come check something out, but all he responds with is "just kill him already". Finally, we see that inside the trunk...

is himself. His partner was right, for this job, he really does have to kill that part of himself, so he does.

 

As the film ends, we get to see that empathetic version of him is now gone.

I think what I love about this film so much is that it's just such a well built story. It manages to build up to that ending perfectly without you even realizing everything was leading up to that point. The plot twist was really cool, and it becomes kind of philosophical without taking it too far. Amazing. 

These are the kinds of films I really really love, and it's what I really want to try to create. I think the real obstacle in doing that is that I just don't have an idea that could work with that yet... but if I manage to come up with something good then I absolutely will go for it.