Yes, cellphones are the new cigarettes. Having entered a few short film contests as well as spent a couple of years running local film group screenings where I had to look at a several hundred of short films a year, patterns do emerge :)

(1) Guns (instant drama) - in this years 48 Hour in Greensboro, 2/3 of the films used guns.
(2) Blood (more is better)
(3) Cellphones (too bad they don't usually emit smoke)
(4) People waking up with an alarm clock at the beginning of a film
(5) Brushing teeth, looking in mirror
(6) Movies where all the cast is 20 years old but setting is government, corporate etc.

Maybe the next DV Challenge we should have everybody include the elements above "Cliche Horror! - You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll die!"

I'm day 5 and guilty, but the celphone use IS in character.

Why heck. I think I'll ad a few more cell phones and EVERYONE will smoke in my next short. So there.

Actually, that may be a bad idea after all. Come to think of it, if we eliminate all the usual stuff from the list above, like looking in the mirror, etc. I don't have anything to work with.

Ah well. Maybe my next goal will be to include all those elements in one scene. A guys got to have a goal.

Sean

The more cliches the better, that's what I always say. Remains true whether we're talkin' movies or posts :-)

Wow I think my film used all of those cliche's maybe I cna just clean it up and enter it again for the october contest.

Don't sweat - we all often use cliches because they are needed in our stories. I used looking in the mirror in my 48 Hour Film because I need the character to be imagining things and the mirror worked for it. Fortunately, my character was not brushing her teeth though :)

I think some of these things are inevitable, depending on what sort of movies you want to make.
It could be done I'm sure, but it would be hard to make a modern day action movie, or a WWII movie without having some guns, for instance.
Furthermore, I'm going to go outside right now to talk on my cellphone and smoke a cigarette- these are things people do, lots and lots of people. You might just as well say that it is a cliche to drive a car and/or wear clothes.

I think there is more to it than that.. [FILM PROFESSOR RANT ON]

First, "action movies" are only one of many genres possible and there is more possibilities for stories that don't involve guns that ones that do. Second, plenty of people in WWII never saw or touched a gun in person - they have stories as well.

Last, people do lots of things everyday that you don't see in movies in the frequency you see in real life (e.g. eating a meal or wiping their butts) and despite the fact that the way we do those things reveal much more about us that talking on a cell phone or smoking a cigarette. But it's not the fact that we eat it's how we eat that is interesting. Personally, there is much more creative potential to be mined in eating, sex, personal hygiene etc. than cellphones.

Kubrick, one of my faves, frequently featured characters eating in specific situations that showed us a lot about the character. That's how you transcend cliche.

[FILM PROFESSOR RANT OFF]

You said it there. It's just a matter of getting ideas to show your message. On budget you go with the cheapest.. :)

And actually... you are now rising the bar for DVC4... I know I will think a step longer to find alternative ways to deliver my message.

Thinking is always cheap :) Too bad Hollywood does not have less money and more time to think...

Of course, cell phones could be used creatively as well. I'm still hoping someone has come up with a cool idea with the cameras on cell phones for DVC3...

Well, I don't disagree with any of that, actually. It's just that, personally, I'm not interested in making movies of that sort. I'm not hell bent on including guns, cigarettes or cellphones either, though.

Just so people don't take this post too seriously. Feel free to use cliches in your shorts. A tired old cliche that tells your story, will raise your vote.

In this challenge, there were several tired and old cliches, that were well used and did raise my vote ...

I said Day 5, but was off by a few films. The one to which I refered earlier is Sean Buck's "Snap" up today.