If you could gather a group of friends to do a short film with you for fun, considering realistic budget for a hobby project, what would be your ideas for it?
prefacing this with a "I don't know anything about film making and about what constitutes a good film. also if i am accidentally regurgitating someone else's old ideas in this post, do forgive me"
so i was thinking and my immediate idea was a whodunit in the style of a puppet theatre (it might exceed the length of a short film but ehh who cares)
It would be comedic of course, something quite like a comedy of errors perhaps. Anyways, it's set in 20th century England (because british humor duh) and the protagonist is an old widow, Madam Porpinkle, who after the marriage of her daughter was feeling pretty bored and started watching murder mysteries on her TV (I searched on google and found that Telecrime was a BBC crime drama series from 1938-46, so this is still historically accurate)
The house next to her is sold and a new couple moves in. Within the first few weeks, the man dies. All suspicion falls on his wife. Enter Madam Porpinkle. After the endless crime media she has consumed she feels quite confident in her abilities to solve the murder. She sets herself off from the police by immediately proclaiming the wife as innocent, because "of course, she was such an obvious suspect that it simply couldn't be her, Mr. Detective". He tells her to "mind her own damn business". (Very much cliched till now and No, the Detective and my dear Madam do not fall in love)
Some vague twisty plot happens (that i need more time to think about) and the audience realise that it was actually Madam Porpinkle all along. The new couple that had moved in was actually her daughter and her husband who had a string of mistresses and made life very hard for his wife. And the whole reason Madam Porpinkle was obsessed with crime stories was so that she could handle the business of her annoying (understatement!) son-in-law. She doesn't get caught and flees to Norway to live with her daughter. Happily ever after.
This would be quite unremarkable as a normal film, the Vague Twisty Plot certainly will help but what will make this hilarious is the medium. A puppet show. That will certainly stay within the budget and as far as I have seen is quite a unique idea. I might have to change the reason for why Madam Porpinkle kills her son-in-law to make the story feel funnier, but yeah this is it.
Also disclaimer, i don't know the first thing about puppetry.
I have also had this recurring idea for a vocation story, but that will stay within the safe confines of my mind. I don't feel upto the task of handling such a serious topic in a way that doesn't feel juvenile. One day I will, but that day is not today.