This is a really basic two-minute short I put together as a proof of concept for a longer film just for fun with a close friend of mine. I'd been watching a bunch of '70s vigilante movies at the time like 'Rolling Thunder' or 'Dirty Harry' and I wanted to see if I could create something similar with a super short runtime.
Trying to cram a convincing narrative into two minutes was really quite challenging, but I feel that the initial script I produced was actually pretty good given the constraints in terms of time and budget I had to deal with.
Ultimately, when committed to film the little plot that was in the script was certainly lost. It was an important lesson for me and I'm glad I encountered this with my first proper short rather than later on down the line.
For instance, when the protagonist opens the suitcase, I'd initially planned for a very dramatic shot revealing the contents, during writing this flipped from drugs to money to bars of gold - just to name a few ideas, until we realised that none of these things could be replicated convincingly with the resources we had. In the end, we elected to insert a card marked 'Missing Reel', an idea borrowed from 'Planet Terror' and 'Death Proof'. I don't particularly like either film, but at the time having the big reveal cut out of a hypothetical film print seemed a novel solution. I regret it now, as it makes the story more confusing, alas it was the best I could do then.
On a more positive note, I'm still pleased with 'Point Blank' - it gave me the confidence to continue with other projects and experiment with cinematography for the first time, despite story and sound mixing issues.
'Felt TV' ended up being a follow-up to 'Point Blank' in the sense that the length was the same, and I made the short mainly to experiment with solutions to problems I'd encountered making the last film - primarily issues around audio mixing for dialogue, but the tone and style is completely different. This is because I also wanted to assess the feasibility of working with puppets on camera, having done some puppetry work on stage, and being a lifelong admirer of Jim Henson's work.
Initially, 'Felt TV' began as a handful of short clips for social media with puppets telling deliberately cheesy jokes as a bit of fun to be shared with close friends. As I began to make these, I realised that they may have potential edited together as a short film after finishing 'Point Blank'.
As a result, I selected a few of the best clips I'd originally put together and reshot these in widescreen, in an attempt to get them looking as best as I was able to at the time. I also added some additional scenes at the beginning and end of the film in order to give a reason for the puppet (called Fuzz) to be telling a series of random jokes over an extended period of time.
With hindsight, the film doesn't look particularly brilliant visually, mainly due to the difficulties I had in properly lighting scenes, which hadn't been as much of an issue with 'Point Blank', and the limits in terms of areas I was able to shoot - I always had to be hidden behind a countertop, sofa, or bed in order to operate the puppet in a convincing manner.
In an attempt to fix the poor audio mixing I'd encountered with 'Point Blank' as well, I ultimately elected to rerecord all of the dialogue for every scene after filming, hoping that the experience would be closer to mixing audio for music - which I have had far more experience with. Unfortunately, the audio quality wasn't as good as I had originally anticipated due to some missteps I'd made in selecting audio equipment for the recording process. As I didn't have enough time to do a second go at recording the dialogue, I had do the best job I could in cleaning up the material I had.
Despite these issues, there were still some successes that came from this little project. For instance, I think the basic plot for this film is much clearer and easier to understand when compared to that of 'Point Blank', according to the feedback I received from those who had viewed both shorts. I also believe that despite some limitations, that the puppetry for this film was ultimately successful, and this outcome has made me feel more comfortable with utilising puppetry in my future projects where appropriate.