Lost Reflection
Reflection is the only way we can truly see ourselves. Even when going from a protagonist to an antagonist in our very own story.
-Director Darren James
Lost Reflection - Film Breakdown *SPOILERS* but please read
Official Selection - LA SKINS Film Festival 2015
Official Selection - Chicago International REEL Shorts Film Fest 2015
Official Selection - Wiper Film Festival 2015
Official Selection - Prairie State Film Festival 2016
Official Selection - Ozark Shorts Film Festival 2016
Official Selection - Chicago International REEL Shorts Film Fest 2015
Official Selection - Wiper Film Festival 2015
Official Selection - Prairie State Film Festival 2016
Official Selection - Ozark Shorts Film Festival 2016
For my first short film, I wanted to make a film that was limited in time, around 5 minutes. I also wanted a character with a full arc, and I wanted there to be some sort of change or struggle happening with the main protagonist.
The film itself opens up with our main character coming into a coffee shop. After bumping into the first girl, he gets told that he is a creep. This accomplishes two things. One is that you think it is unjustified, the other is to serve as foreshadowing. The main story revolves around this main character meeting three different women, and having three different fantasies about them. The first fantasy is really a romantic one, where she generally likes him, he generally likes her, it has a lot to do with how he sees himself and his relationship with women, and how they respond to him. Of course, this is just a fantasy. As we go further down the rabbit hole, we see the second fantasy with the second woman, and she is serving his ego mostly. It is like pushing the boyfriend away, and sweeping in and kissing the girl. It is all about male ego, and becoming a dominant man. The third fantasy with the third woman he meets shows his most perverted and disturbing thoughts on women. No longer do the women have a story, they are just used to satisfy his sexual desires. Here we see that in his pocket he has a pair of women's underwear, that in his fantasy he is rewarded for having. Later, we find out he has stolen them. But in his fantasy, he is rewarded with sex for his thievery and perversion.
Up until this point in the film, we have only seen his point of view. This is through his mind's eye, his "God's view." But we first get a true reflection of him when his friend confronts him in the coffee shop. You find out that he just went through a breakup, and that he is not treating his real life ex-girlfriend with any respect, and is truly scaring her. He is also leaving inappropriate pictures of himself, and he is stealing her underwear, which he denies. This is the audience's only chance of seeing the protagonist, now antagonist, as a truly disturbed individual, and we leave him alone and loose in the city for anyone to meet.
So this film basically covers a lot of ground, and it is only about 5 minutes long. I think there are snippets of potential here in storytelling, themes and composition. This has been a great experience for me, and I was super happy making this one day film. And I hope people that watch it enjoy it for all the things it tries to accomplish.
-Darren James, Director
The film itself opens up with our main character coming into a coffee shop. After bumping into the first girl, he gets told that he is a creep. This accomplishes two things. One is that you think it is unjustified, the other is to serve as foreshadowing. The main story revolves around this main character meeting three different women, and having three different fantasies about them. The first fantasy is really a romantic one, where she generally likes him, he generally likes her, it has a lot to do with how he sees himself and his relationship with women, and how they respond to him. Of course, this is just a fantasy. As we go further down the rabbit hole, we see the second fantasy with the second woman, and she is serving his ego mostly. It is like pushing the boyfriend away, and sweeping in and kissing the girl. It is all about male ego, and becoming a dominant man. The third fantasy with the third woman he meets shows his most perverted and disturbing thoughts on women. No longer do the women have a story, they are just used to satisfy his sexual desires. Here we see that in his pocket he has a pair of women's underwear, that in his fantasy he is rewarded for having. Later, we find out he has stolen them. But in his fantasy, he is rewarded with sex for his thievery and perversion.
Up until this point in the film, we have only seen his point of view. This is through his mind's eye, his "God's view." But we first get a true reflection of him when his friend confronts him in the coffee shop. You find out that he just went through a breakup, and that he is not treating his real life ex-girlfriend with any respect, and is truly scaring her. He is also leaving inappropriate pictures of himself, and he is stealing her underwear, which he denies. This is the audience's only chance of seeing the protagonist, now antagonist, as a truly disturbed individual, and we leave him alone and loose in the city for anyone to meet.
So this film basically covers a lot of ground, and it is only about 5 minutes long. I think there are snippets of potential here in storytelling, themes and composition. This has been a great experience for me, and I was super happy making this one day film. And I hope people that watch it enjoy it for all the things it tries to accomplish.
-Darren James, Director
dpictures.net stopthebombproduction@gmail.com
Lost Reflection is the first independent short film by Stop the Bomb Productions!
Lost Reflection
Never judge a book by it's cover, so the saying goes. But what if that book holds something darker inside. Things aren't what they seem as we go into the mind of a seemingly ordinary guy as he encounters a series of women. What is real and what is fantasy...and where is the line between them?
Lost Reflection
Never judge a book by it's cover, so the saying goes. But what if that book holds something darker inside. Things aren't what they seem as we go into the mind of a seemingly ordinary guy as he encounters a series of women. What is real and what is fantasy...and where is the line between them?
Email: stopthebombproductions@gmail.com
Please subscribe to our YouTube page: Stop the Bomb Productions YouTube page