I've been to some truly painful short film festivals. Shorts have a tendency to meander and go down rabbit holes without a clear idea being communicated. The filmmaker gets preoccupied with some aspect of a shot and spends too long lingering on it, losing sight of its context within the larger story and what the audience should be drawing from the scene.

I get it! I get the temptation when you spend a long time on a scene or detail and want people to be able to see it and have time to appreciate it, but usually this stuff is painful for an audience. Unless youre some kind of genius that can make meandering and dream-like super compelling, your best bet is to keep it tight and focused.

If your goal is to have a strong brisk narrative, you have to be very un-precious with your own work and be extra ruthless with trimming the fat, especially on a short film. Everything you do is within the context of a short window of time, and needs to be tightly considered.

Everything you show needs to be in service of the larger context of the story and themes youre trying to convey. The occasional detail can be lingered on, but only to the point that it adds the right amount of seasoning. Overdo it and it leaves a bad or confusing taste.

An example in TEMPER of a detail I added and gave a bit of screen time to is a handheld video-game the boy plays while hes waiting for his leg to heal. Its like those old crappy LCD handhelds you could buy in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

My selfish artist side wanted to design a game of this style and show it long enough to prove it could actually be a real game. Theres not any real reason for it to exist within the larger themes of the story and its just a fun detail I wanted to add to season the story with something personal that reminded me of my childhood. I think it works though, because it conveys his boredom, as the game doesnt look particularly deep or even fun to play, which was intentional on my part. This is what hes stuck doing while he heals. And to make matters worse, while hes playing this you will hear in the sound design that his mom is heading outside to work on her project, leaving him alone in the habitat, which amplifies his frustration and boredom.

Maybe it doesnt work and was a mistake to spend so long designing that little game, I dont know. It was fun though, and I think (hope!) others will find it fun too. Its a little bit of detail and flavor that the film wouldnt otherwise have. 

I guess when its time for me to do the final edit and REALLY get serious about trimming this thing, we’ll see how it fares!