I am considering three different ideas, but tasked with choosing only one. As usual, I want it all. The three topics I’ve been juggling in my indecisive state are: Rain, coffee and success. Let me quickly tick off the reasons why I’ve eliminated rain and coffee.
Rain. Quintessentially northwest. Puddles, faces looking through drop-splattered windows, fantastic nat sound for almost any shot. The flip side, of course, is wet equipment, reliance on weather, and potentially dreary scenery and/or action. I’m out.
All right, then, let’s try coffee. Can’t you just hear it? The grinding, the beans pouring, the steam rising. Oh, wait. I’ve already heard, and seen that, so many times before. This absolutely Seattle theme has been pounded into the ground(s) and I’m afraid that, with so many new transplants to the Seattle area in our class, the project would turn into a great, big Starbucks commercial. Let’s not.
That leaves “success.” This topic is so open-ended that it begs for the director to slip on her imagination and run with it. Success could be an ant moving a crumb one foot into safety. It could be a dog catching a Frisbee. It could be a teenager driving away in a car for the first time.
Success is an individual theme, living against the backdrop of the director’s life and experience. It is also focused enough to allow the class to create a series of shorts that will knit together beautifully, and clearly, for the viewer. The theme also allows success to be defined by the antithesis — failure — opening up even more material and ideas.
I want to work with an idea that is broad enough for 1000 ideas, but obvious enough for viewer accessibility without relying on a narrator’s guidance. I think “success” meets all of that. It has the added bonus of undoubtedly leaving the viewer with a smile and, hey, who doesn’t want one of those?
