Rules of short film making

While researching short films I came across this list of rules for making a short film.
The list seemed to fit the needs of the project as well as our experience levels and budget, particularly the following points:


1. Must be shot on location- it's part of the brief that we must shoot on Campus.

2. Must be hand held - We have access to tripods or handheld only. No track or cranes.

3. Special lighting is not acceptable- this would be out of scope of our film anyway.


I felt these would be good rules to follow in order to craft a tight, simple story with a good arc that would be within our limitations while still being entertaining.


Unfortunately once we had the first story meeting the group decided on a story idea that while compelling, also broke the following rules from the linked list:


1. Optical work and filters are forbidden

2. The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)

3. Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now.)

4. Genre movies are not acceptable.


I like our idea but it needs fleshing out and we need to make sure it has an arc, at the moment we have the where and the when. We need to make sure we have the who and the why.


What's his motivation? :-)