Ah!
Finally, a reaction on the content
I admit, those ideas are very short ideas without a elaborate building of story and character and without a 'shootout' in the end.
How do you think a 2 or 3 minutes short should start?
Maybe you are overcomplicating things.
The sad girl story can be seen as an exercise in atmosphere.
You just bump right into the story after one beautiful shot without any person in it. The music already starts, maybe even before the fade in (? just making it up as i type) to create the sad atmosphere. While she wonders around real sad (near the sea or a river) you can either show a flashback of a fight or just use audiofragments (just made that up as well) as if she is still hearing that angry voice saying terrible things to her.
As a conclusion you can let her jump in the river (sad ending), walk into the sea/river and let her dissappear (sad ending with a mild magical touch) or you let a passerby (is that a real word?) give her a napkin and tell her it will be alright (a hopeful end). And then show the title (you will have to make it up, depending on the ending, the location, story). You could look at it as if it's a long commercial without selling anything where the title is part of the payoff.
Remember, it has to be short, so there's no need for a complicated plot.
You just want to convey an emotion through action and beautiful shots. (And you want something nice and finished for your portfolio
) The rainbow-hunter story can be seen as an exercise in atmosphere, directing and storytelling/introducing a character in a short time span. It's partly storytelling without character and partly with: a great way to learn to think about how you can tell a story without a person in the shot.
It just starts with shots of a dark city waking up: the sky becomes lighter as the sun rises. Traffic starts. People go to do whatever they do. But the main character is different and that is what you tell with a voice-over and by showing he's not moving like the crowd, but does his own thing.
The end of the short, is not really the end of the 'story'. It's more like finishing the introduction as if it's a very short portrait/documentary. You can even end with a short of him gazing around from a hill and the voice over saying: "He's the rainbow hunter." And then show the title.
(Almost like the first part of a movie trailer. After this part the action is shown, but that's not needed here.)
The story about the person with both an unexpected deadline and a date he shouldn't be late for is really a training in making a short story with a person in 'conflict'.
To begin you just start with him working at his office/desk. A co-worker can ask for his plans for that evening (just curious or asking him to join the rest to a bar or something), so the main can say he has a date and wants to o home quickly.
Right after that he gets a load of extra work.
The rest is up to you: will he be in time on his date and how does he try.
The end could be him arriving just in time, but al messed up. Or arriving just too late. Or he's still working when his date walks in angry at him or at his boss. You choose.
Just keep it simple with a few scenes:
- opening: introducing main character, his plan for the night and his problem (too much work to do)
- 2 or 3 short scenes of his struggle (maybe even a violent fantasy of him beating his boss and walking out real cool)
- ending
Again: keep the story simple and straightforward with some humor and absurdity people can relate to.
Everybody knows the feeling of having fun plans and someone making them (almost) impossible.
So.
Take your pick and tell me what problem you ran into with the story
PS.
A random serie of shots?
You can't tell a story with that...
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