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Contextual research (short films)

While looking for short films I tried to look for rom-com style films where the guy faces rejection or is really awkward.


One of the first short films that ticked my boxes was Hi-Glow Retro. It's about a high schooler who has a crush on one of the popular girls in school and his main goal is to sleep with her. In order to get laid after the 70's themed school dance he asks his colegue to teach him how to dance. In the end he spends most of the school dance sitting at the table because he was to anxious to go dancing and when he finally steps on the dancefloor he embaresses himself in front of everyone there. However he end up with his colegue instead of the girl he was crushing on.

I really liked the fast pace editing (especially 4:32-4:36) and I tried to mimic it within my script. Here characters are geting ready to start the dance lesson, while I tried to show my main character getting ready for a morning run.  


This short film is about a guy born in Indian family, however he's more British than Indian and tries to impress a girl by bringing her to one of less known Indian food restaurants. It turns out that the girl knows more about Indian culture that him and mentions another Indian guy that she dated before. This makes him insecure and he tries to compare himself to her ex in the end completely emberassing himself in front of her. 

This short film shows insicurities that men have. The main character wanted to imperess the girl with being 'manly' and ordering food for her. However his masculinity was thretend by the story of her ex. He couldn't help but compare himself to him while still trying to impress the girl and pretending to be as Indian as it can get. This is where I drew my inspiration for my main character Harold (being insecure about his masculinity part), he tries to act 'manly' and be charming in order to get the girl.


It's about two roommates seeking their goals, one's an actor (Nick) he want's to be recognised as a brilliant actor, the other guy (Spencer) wants to get back with his ex-girlfriend. Spencer convinces Nick to scare Cindy's new boifriend out of town by pretending to be one of the characters he plays. However it turns out that Cindy's new boyfriend is involved in some shady business and he threatens to kill all of them. In the end both guys get what they wanted - Nick cought the bad guy using his skills that he learned on set and Spencer got the girl and scared off another guy from coming up t Cindy.

Like the two short films before, this one shows insicurities that men get. Nick is upset about the review for being called an inconvincing hero (1:45-1:50), the article obviously hurt his feelings. Meanwhile Spencer whines about his girlfriend leaving him for another guy and tries to come up with a plan to get her back. I ended up using both characteristics as references to my main character. 
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