The Story Line

My short film is the documentation of a fictional character's birthday, showcasing his lonely life style in a comedic way and the effects of living life this way. Majority of the scenes will be shot in my character's bedroom,  where he spends most of his time alone and doesn't often leave. By shooting most of the scenes in the bedroom it will reflect the character's lifestyle and emphasise the lonely life he chooses. He will also be the only character shown in the short film to add to this effect.

Here is the plot to my short film and what will happen:

The opening scene will show the main character waking up on his birthday. He stands up and takes his vitamins which are placed neatly on a cabinet beside his bed (The use of vitamins and supplements reflects his deteriorating health and growing anxiety issues). For both, comedy value and to insinuate realism the character will then use the toilet as any other human would, once they have woken. Simple quirks like this will portray the characters routine in a dull and unexciting way, however, also humour the audience, which is what I am aiming to do. The character then walks downstairs to check for post and there finds an envelope with his own name on it and then returns upstairs to his room to open the envelope. The envelope contains a birthday card from his mother. The character then proceeds to play his favourite vinyl record and his record player... as he does every day; I have not yet decided what music will be playing, however I know it will be something that could be considered to have negative or emotional connotations to fit with the style of the film and particularly the character. The character then sits on his bed just listening to music. I will have to find a way to portray the passing of time through camera shots, cutting and editing to do this, it will hopefully be achieved after experimentation with different techniques. After a small passing of time, the character then begins to draw/sketch an image of himself. I decided to show him drawing as it is often stereotyped that introverted individuals are often creative minded people. However, to further portray the life of the character, the drawing will be a portrait of himself with exaggerated and unflattering features, to show the anxieties and the little to non self confidence he has. As the character draws, his pencil snaps and he let's out a sigh to show disappointment. he then sharpens the pencil, but once again the pencil breaks and his time the character give out a groan of anger, showing how something so little can effect upon him and his mood heavily due to his overall misery. The camera will then show the man sat on his bed looking agitated.
The camera will then cut to later on in the day, showing the man in low light with only a candle placed upon his birthday cake lighting the room. The character then sings 'Happy Birthday' to himself in celebration of his birthday, This is the climax of the short film where it's truly shown how lonely and depressing the character's life is, as he blows out the candle leaving him in complete darkness.