Expectations of Winter Blindness

Or some other amalgam of topics.

I recently saw The Social Network, a film that not only fulfilled, but surpassed my expectations.  It also brought to light a pattern that Barb and I are only seeing good films together -  in the last 2 years we've seen: Moon, Sherlock Holmes, Inception and now TSN. (I'm sure it also helps that we live 5 hours apart so moovie watching doesn't happen all that often) Anywhoo, not only is TSN a great film, but it has a great trailer that does everything a trailer should


It teases the film, gives the viewer a basic idea of what the film is about, without sharing the meat, and leaves us somewhat curious.  I also think all good trailers have to be films unto themselves.  They can't rely on the viewer knowing anything about the subject matter.  They have to press the ART button repeatedly. 

I really think my high expectations for the film were entirely based on the fact that Aaron Sorkin was writing it.  In fact, the first time I heard there was going to be a Facebook film I rolled my eyes. I mean, how exciting can the origin story of a social website be? Forgetting, of course, that's it's all about the execution...I mean how exciting could a film based on a pirate ride be?   However, once Sorkin was attached I knew it was going to be a fun ride. He can make dialog sing and dance on the page and his scripts are almost as fun to read as they are to watch: The American President A Few Good Men West Wing Sports Night. If were to name my overall top 5 screenwriters  Sorkin and Whedon would be thumb wrestling for the top spot.

Strong expectations can be the death knell for any film.  To tell a good story you have to establish certain expectations in the first act. You have to set things in motion, introduce characters, establish tone and a visual style, introduce motivations and storyline. Then you have to write an ending that resolves the major issues without the audience seeing it coming a mile off which means you have to confound some expectations and fulfill others.  And if all of that is framed within the viewer's prior expectations of suck or godhood, then it makes it that much more difficult to reach that viewer.  I think for a film to be successful, the expectations of the viewer have to be in sync with the expectations  the film is setting up.

Here are two short films that play with expectations and because of that I won't say much about either of them in this post.
The first is The Winter Stalker written and directed by Stephen Reedy:

"The Winter Stalker" By Stephen Reedy & Alex Pardee from ZerofriendsFilms on Vimeo.
 
The second is a short film from French Animation Students.  I don't know if I keep running across cool shorts from French schools, or if the French summarily execute any student film that doesn't pass french muster.

It's called Blind Spot:


Regarding my own personal expectations -  one of the shorts met them- I felt I knew where the story was going from the beginning... the other took me by surprise which I feel makes it the stronger and more interesting film....but in a Keanu Reeves "whoh" way.