Ideas For Short Movie?

[favian]

At school as a summer project, we have to make a short movie. Our group was given the topic to make a sad movie (others have to make comedy, action, thriller, etc) because in class we're exploring how to make cinema effective with sound, and different screen shots. Anyway my group consists of 3 guys and 2 girls, including me. We have to make a 30 minute movie on any topic, but it has to be sad. I need some help with ideas, here are a few of my own:

- two best friends, one of them gets cancer, the film is about her last days, and how her friend deals with her death

- a young girl addicted to drugs, she is kicked out of her home and has to sell her body on the streets to get money for her drugs. She befriends another girl in a similar situation, the other girl dies, and seeing this the girl gives up drugs.

- A young girl on the edge of a breakdown. she overdoses, and you see her thoughts, hopes dreams and regrets pass through her mind before she dies.

any suggestion, i really need some inspiration thanks

[egann]

Not every sad movie has to be about death.

[adusa37]

I really love the first two. Here's some too.

-a girl sits on the couch and starts to feel stomach pains. Her dresser gets knocked down and she realizes that it's a ghost. She deals with it and at the end notices it's her dead mother.

- A (person) is taking a bath, she washes her hair and starts to drown. You see her experience going through heaven.(or hell) she wakes up in a hospital and dies.

-a girl goes shoe shopping and the workers are evil. She shoes come to life and kick her to death. Her dog rescues her and she lives. But the dog doesn't make it.

[arrigo]

In my opinion, get melodramatic with a short film and you're going to have a lot of factors acting against you.

If you have no experience with this sort of thing, you are very likely going to come off as laughably dramatic, and needlessly morose. Unless you are an experienced writer, your audience likely won't have any time to connect with your characters in a meaningful way, and so it just becomes random characters in soap opera-esque situations.

The "short" part of short films is both an advantage and a disadvantage.

In the end, it's all up to you, but I would seriously suggest going for something a little less straightforward than a "someone has cancer," "someone is addicted to drugs" storyline.

Your third idea could be interesting though. You could get creative with that, even a little avant-garde.

That's just my view on the whole thing though. It's all up to you.

[seager]

In my opinion, get melodramatic with a short film and you're going to have a lot of factors acting against you.

If you have no experience with this sort of thing, you are very likely going to come off as laughably dramatic, and needlessly morose. Unless you are an experienced writer, your audience likely won't have any time to connect with your characters in a meaningful way, and so it just becomes random characters in soap opera-esque situations.

The "short" part of short films is both an advantage and a disadvantage.

In the end, it's all up to you, but I would seriously suggest going for something a little less straightforward than a "someone has cancer," "someone is addicted to drugs" storyline.

Your third idea could be interesting though. You could get creative with that, even a little avant-garde.

That's just my view on the whole thing though. It's all up to you.

something like the lovely bones!
Or: a girl finds out she has cancer but it too scared to tell anyone, she makes a list of everything she wants to do before her 9 months are up so she and her sister look at the list and manage to do everything and the girl only tells the sister the reason she wanted to do the stuff shes just done as shes dying. u get to see her funeral and her just floating around as a ghost wanting to see who decided to come and mourn her. u like my idea?