Summary of a made up short story

Deeper Than Water

 

The story opens with a body floating past shot in the water. The body covers the shot and transitions to the pier 1 hour earlier and shows a couple called Robert and Louise is about who have left their home to go on a walk to the pier. The wife is looking at a phone and reveals that his husband is cheating on her with a woman called "Sam". She grabs a knife and puts it in her coat. There is then a tracking shot of them. 

They reach the end of the pier and they sit down on a bench there. They have a conversation which turns into an argument about past relationships and it’s how the husband has cheated before. He walks towards the edge of the pier as the argument continues. As it intensifies the wife pulls out the knife and starts screaming at the husband. He manipulates her to put it down then he walks out of shot she turns around and it cuts to him aiming a gun at her. 

He says he planned to kill her and this was his way of saying goodbye before he does. He then shoots her and she falls in and the body at the beginning is revealed to be her. He then walks away, dramatic music continues. It then cuts to him back at house and someone buzzes and he lets them in it focuses on his face. Its revealed that “Sam” is a man and Robert is actually Gay. They then kiss scene and it cuts to her body in the ocean and the credits roll.

Comparing To Other Short Films

One way in which the twist of the film would be influenced in through the narrative structure of La Jetee. In Marker's film, the twist is rendered effective though having the beginning and the end be different versions of the same scene: in the science fiction short, we see the main character looking at the man die in the opening, only to find out he is looking a the death of himself in the future self when we revisit the scene in the final minutes. Deeper Than Water mirrors that use of foreshadowing because at the beginning of my short film, it opens on a body floating in the water which is the same as the ending scene, however with the context of the audience knowing its the wife floating in the water. I would use the exact same scene as the beginning at the end, making the ending not look different and would not create continuity errors.

Another way the twist would be influenced is through the red herrings present in High Maintenance. In High Maintenance, the red herring is the the wife turning off the husband, making the audience believe she is the only human, which emphasises the shock when its revealed she isn't. Deeper Than Water follows the same story element, as at the beginning the wife grabs a knife, causing the audience to believe that she is going to kill the husband and, by proxy, creates shock when its revealed that the husband was going to kill her all along. It would create suspense throughout the story because knows that wife has a knife and, similarly Chekhov's Gun, would be used in the story. However, my short film subverts this theory by introducing a gun that was not in the story prior.