Comic Relief: C.E.S.S.

Today I'm sharing the short narrative (fictional) film I made as a student, to fulfill a beginning-level production requirement.  

I challenged myself to make a visual comedy, without any dialogue to carry the joke, and hoped the audience would catch the humorous irony.

"Block" Buster: Change your thinking and actions.

I keep making the same mistakes, and think of the saying, "If you keep doin' what you're doin', you'll keep gettin' what you're gettin'."

Or put this way:

"Frustration is dreaming of a new future while continuing to think and act in old ways." ~Dan Rockwell

"Block" Buster: Push past the self-imposed limits.

"Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they're yours." ~Richard Bach

Creative blocks form when we say…

"I'm not creative."
"I'm never going to get this project finished."
"I don't have enough talent."
"I can't find the time to write (paint, dance, photograph)."

Let's not limit our abilites.  Thomas Edison said, "If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves."

Comic Relief: Shifting Titles

Remember awhile back when I wrote about shifting adjectives (click here)? I thought it might be fun to try that exercise on movie titles to see what funny combinations turn up.

First I chose ten movie titles consisting of only two words. I wrote each title on a separate piece of paper, mixed them up, then randomly selected each one so I wouldn't be tempted to orchestrate the list. Here it is:

1. Rear Window
2. Finding Nemo
3. Die Hard
4. Roman Holiday
5. Groundhog Day
6. High Noon
7. Citizen Kane
8. Toy Story
9. Funny Farm
10. Star Wars

Then I shifted the first words of each title one notch, and tried to think of ideas for a comedy film.

1. Star Window
2. Rear Nemo (He finally found his son, now he's gotta raise him through the teen years.)
3. Finding Hard (Everything comes easy for Helga, so she sets out on a variety of bizarre and silly ventures searching for something to challenge her abilities.)
4. Die Holiday (A man is determined to kill his least favorite holiday…Halloween.)
5. Roman Day 
6. Groundhog Noon (Groundhog, Chattanooga Charlie, challenges Punxsutawney Phil to a shadow duel at high noon, whoever resists running from his shadow is the winner.)
7. High Kane
8. Citizen Story
9. Toy Farm  
10. Funny Wars (Class clown, Andrew, goes to Clown College only to discover being a goofball there is serious business.)

Okay, my brains are drained. I would love to hear your ideas for these titles!