Ideas-Change of Plan

We have decided to change our idea for a short film. This is because, from both the feedback in our production pitch and our own discussions as a group, it would be very difficult to make our first idea work, without it seeming cheesy and bland. Comedy is a very difficult genre to get right, and we are worried that we would not be able to achieve the best grade that we could if we stuck with this plan.

Our new idea:

We have decided to go with a modern take on a classic spaghetti western film. We like the idea of having the antagonist as a psychopath, as this will allow us to be creative in the way that we introduce and develop that character. We have had the idea of him chasing a group of people (perhaps 5), and the film will end with a western style stand-off between the antagonist and this group.

The most obvious challenge that we face with this idea is making scenes shot in rural Oxfordshire feel like they belong in a western, however we do not want to copy this genre like-for-like, but instead take conventions other that the location such as the shots and the dialogue, and create a film that is a western how it would be if it happened in England.

We like the film No Country for Old Men, by Ethan and Joel Coen, and in particular the scene in the shop:

In this scene, we can see the antagonist character, Anton Chigurh,  played by Javier Bardem. He is the sort of character that inspired us for our own antagonist. Aspects in this scene such as the tension when the telephone rings, and the game that Anton plays with the shop keeper, are what makes the scene interesting.