Patrick Bateman is a bad person, and that is very bad

 I guess with american psychoo the effect of "Ohh he is not a bad person" doesn't exist unless you are like 13 years old and watch to many edits on tik tok- but can still provide useful info sinse it keeps proving a point. Direct contact with audience, even from the worst character on the planet can create some sort of conection. 

American Psychoo edit that a 13 year old would watch

(https://youtu.be/x19FimfBfOo?si=qphZJ9HxALtNNyDJ)

Patrick narrates his world with extreme seriousness. His skincare routine is described with the intensity of a philosophical manifesto. His obsession with business cards is framed as the end of the world for him. This is the beggining of the dark comedy, a superficial man giving importance to meaningless stuff. And that’s the joke, the film doesn’t ask us to laugh at violence. It asks us to laugh at vanity. Thanks to the first person (which is a primitive less direct and narratively acceptable breaking of the fourth wall) we are inside his perspective and we don't fully absorb it. Sinse what he narrates is just funny. The humor comes from exaggeration wrapped in normalcy, does some of the creepy and illegal things he does which are also carried within this hyperbolic and satiric way, can be funny as well.

His character has another trait that would be useful to research and it is his vanity and egocentrism that are similiar to what would be nice to portray in our main character. American Psycho builds its dark comedy almost entirely on Patrick Bateman’s egocentrism. I like how he explains music trends as if he personally understands cultural evolution better than everyone else. All his actions are very in character. One of the traits I wanted to have for our character was that he just came from a very traumatic moment of his life but he overcomed it, and as he did, the camera started following him. And he becomes aware of the camera. So due to the cameras attention and his arc of evolution he believes he is this superperfect person so he tries to help everyone and bla bla. This is somenthing we can constantly portray through different little moments like it is done in american psycho. 

American Psycho (2000)

Like look at his face he looks and is annoying. 

This deep mechanism of dark comedy and first person narration together.... I feel it, Im going somewhere. Like im tracking how it works. I just need to do more indeep research that its kinda hard to do because of my trip to STN. 

Ferris Buller is a bad person, and thats awesome

 One of the most amazing films ever made, with one of the scenes I replay the most in my head

(Ferris Buller Day Off 1986)

Its gonna be fun to revisit it for investigation. 

The film is a story about rebellious kid. He speaks directly to the audience, rotagonist and narrator, Ferris is a goddamn icon. I was thinking that this movie was only going to be good for the fourth wall but it also will help in kinda portraying a bad person in a comedic way. Because guys, Ferris is lowkey an asshole. He is such an asshole to Cameron, but he is so charismatic. I think maybe portraying somenthing like this, and then the looose of his charisma might be the route for the character arc I want to portray. 

Ferris constantly uses the fourth wall to make comentaries about his friend, which are mean, but the situation and medium of breakinbg the fourth wall also gives that extra layer that adds up to the dark comedy. Ferris is being rude to his friend as he talks to him over the phone, but only the audience hears. Trully trully the complicity and the dark comedy combo are somenthing that Im liking. They go very well together. 

(Ferris Buller Day Off 1986)

This guy is cruelty hidden behind charm. And it is soooooo well done, that I don't often hear people calling him an asshole. Like a lot of poeple just stay on the oh he is soo funny, ohh he is so charming, oh he is the goat. But that is what makes this movie brilliant. Ferris works because his charm never fully cracks. Even when things go wrong — especially with Cameron’s breakdown — Ferris still maintains that composed, self-aware presence. Im very interested on making a film that esxplores a facet of a character like this but that breaks down, and all his evil assholness scapes. 

Genre: comedy but not so comedy

 

 

ComEdy

1. professional entertainment consisting of jokes and satirical sketches, intended to make an audience laugh.

tragedy 

1. a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character.

Mixing this two genres is something common, but it is also commonly done wrong, more when what is seeked to be done is a dark comedy. This is what we are trying to do. I believe that for our type of narrative were the fourth wall is broken is very likely that we will have to add some comedic elements. On a short film the audience doesn't have enough time to get use to non-traditional elements, and any fourth wall breaking that I can think of is comedic but one.

Funny Games (1997)

Im not saying funny games is a dark comedy btw (even though the name is 100% a relly dark joke) It still carries a critic under its overall style. I guess this would be the gameplan foor our shortfilm. Dark comedy tasks audiences to laugh at subjects that would normally provoke discomfort due to maybe an immoral nature. We would have a very useful element to use the dark comedy and it is the breaking of the fourth wall. It's a direct medium to chanalize the comedy and as a chracteristic trait of a single character we can make sure we are capable of doing somenthing that is very important, making sure we portray the character that's going to be incharged of the dark comedic elements as bad person. You don't want to come across like you are supporting bad behaviours. We are planning on having a very narcisistic main character so I guess it isn't somenthing that can get superoffensive, but it's still important to do so. 

Somenthing cool I saw on a video essay a long time ago about "Funny games" was how the breaking of the fourth wall shifts the audience from viewing to complicity. I watched the video a very long time ago so I couldn't find it, but it is a thought that came to my mind when we came with the idea for this project. 

I'll do some research probably one movie that breaks the fourth wall and two dark comedies. 

Project planning

 

Planning and I... arent the best friends. Many times setting deadlines change how the creative proccess goes, but is somenthing that I have gotten a lot more used to. I'm a person who at the moment of writting, usually takes his sweet time making sure every aspect of the story flows well on their head, before writting, and this can affect things. If maybe they look a little different on paper, wwell you have to start change stuff. But also if you just start writting like a mad man, well... that first draft will be way worse. This is somenthing that lowkey applies to every stage of production. 

So with that in mind after planning during Wednesday, we have decided to use a 2 - 2 - 2. Two weeks to write, two weeks to shot, and the rest for postproduction. This talks a lot of the main product being the shortfilm. But the social media campaign and the other marketing properties are included here. This will give us our sweet time to dont rush anything, and if we finish faster, well is extra time we get to use on improving the next stage, or more time for the marketing aspect of the project. 

The distribution of tasks will also be crucial. Having a good comunication so as the story takes a route so does the marketing will save us a lot of time in preproduction. 

We will use this few days before the 26, day that all our teammembers and I have a fieldtrip to STN, to plan a clear route for the story. So once we come back we can lock in, in working from it. 

I will like to give my all during planning so once we start doing the project, I wont feel that we could've made it better. Sinse we are giving our best. 

Project Introduction

This was a nobrainer for me. Even though it was amazing to make a doc for this class, and the trailer and music video were tons of fun as well, allowing me to explore different types of projects that I usually dont persue on my own. Allowing me to grow different aspects of my storytelling skills. In the doc, I got to structure interviews in order to compell an overall idea, which was hard (since I'm not used to news) but rewarding work. In the trailer I got to do a lot of the cinematography, work Im usually not incharged of. 

But on a full short film I'll get a lot more of possibilities. And I  just think everytime there is an excuse to make a film with a team, is an opportunity that I like to take. I'll be also working with friends that I've already worked, and despite Stoklosa saying that somentimes working with other people with strong ideas is hard (it is) we know how to make it work. 

It is also important to highlight that the project for AS level was just a film opening, so I still have that desire of making a complete production for this class. 

Talking with my group on wednesday we all agreed on making a shortfilm and after doing some basic squedules during wednesday's class, we decided to think of our plot and other aspects of the story later on, so we didn't rush them. 

After talking a little bit later on we decided some elements that could carry some aspects of the narrative, without still defining a clear plot. So one of our friends has a ridiculous obsession with Fleabag, a show were the fourth wall is broken in very creative ways. He really really likes this show, so he really wants to make somenthing like this. 

As a very characteristic and unique element of the show, we didn't want it to be too similar. It is an element that persoanally I haven't seen a lot of people do, mainly because of course it breaks conventions of cinema being experienced in third person, but it's okay to experimentate around it. We set some limits on how to give it our own approach, involving other elements, like music, camera movents, and more. And we will see how they fall into place, with our plot.  

Im excited.