Post 8- Decisions and Revisions

After looking in class at the many different areas where as can receive ideas on script writing, we where then asked to start coming up with our own ideas for our short film. Looking over our class notes on identifying sources, which can serve as the basis for a dramatic/ documentary project, lead me to start having two main ideas for my script. My first idea I had taken from a news story I had seen and had caught my eye. The Dominate Hegemonic message would be following a young boy that was being bullied at school from others in his year, through cyber bullying as well as face-to-face.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2010/10/101005_cyber_bullying_nh_sl.shtml This story of cyber bullying it is much more server and powerful than the story line I wanted to create, so this lead me to adapting the idea of cyber bullying but in a school environment with younger students. My second idea was to use a place as the main storyline for my script rather than following a character in human form. The Dominate Hegemonic message of this short film would have been following the different relationships between people.

After looking at both ideas we then had to think about answering questions on the characters World, Character, Problem, Want, Need and an obligation. I had decided to go with my second idea and focus on looking at a place, from here I thought that a train carriage would be a really interesting place to follow during one day as it has such a diverse range of people throughout the day. Once I had answered all this questions about my script we then told our ideas to the class to hear they feedback on what we had created. The picture below show the 8 Point Guide that i had written for my short film when it was based around a train. However the feedback I received was that it would be a very hard location to film and some people might not like the idea of being filmed without knowing. My idea was also very different to the others and was more documentary based rather than fiction. After listening to the feedback it lead me to rethink my idea and make some changes, I still wanted to be based around a place and look at the relationships between different people. After talking it over with peers and our teacher I decided to move away from the documentary side and more towards the fiction stories, my short film would now be filmed coming from the perspective of a kettle in an office environment and follow different characters throughout the day by observation.

In class we was next asked to answer 8 questions about our short film ideas and come up with three different questions under each topic. The 8 different topics where Characters, Noises, Nature, Numbers, ……….. add in video link 

Now that I had answered all the questions and had a good idea and understanding of what I would like my short film to be about, I now needed to think of the different range of characters you would expect to see in an office as well at the different personality types. I decided to base my ideas of characters from the stories of the Mr Men books, knowing younger children and it being a TV programme was of great use when it came to research. Through my independent research I also found a website that showed me all of the characters they had created which was very helpful.http://www.mrmen.com/uk/. After looking into the different characters I concluded that I would use Little Miss Helpful, Little Miss Naughty, Little Miss Chatterbox Mr Scatterbrain, Mr happy, Mr Lazy, Mr Grump and Little Miss Scary. I would use these characters as a bases to create different personality types

Once I had created the different personality types and characters I now needed to think about what role they would play in my short film, thinking out what kind of actions you would expect to see from them around the kitchen/ kettle area. This lead me to creating a time line of what I would like to see throughout the 6 minuets as well as when the different characters would enter and exit the scene.

Character Porfiles

Before I could start writing my script I needed to use my independent research and create character profiles. I decided to have 8 different characters, which is shown in time line above. I now had to think about how the different Mr men that i had chosen to use would be reflected in human form and their actions on camera that would reinforce their personality.

After creating the timeline and character profiles I then we onto writing my script, I used all my independent research as well as scripts given to us in class by Becky Knapp to help me produce my script. This was long and time-consuming task as it took at lot of thought and planning. It was very helpful to use the example scripts to use as a template. I found the most time consuming element was trying to think of actions and speech the characters would be doing and saying to reflect their personalities. Another problem I had relating to this was trying to make it last for 6 minuets, However I found that my time line I had created became a great help as I had a plan to follow and try to pad out.

Plot Outline

All the camera work will be coming from the angle of the kettle to make it look like that is the point of view to the audience. The first scene in my short film will start the light being turn on and the entrance of Little Miss Caring; she brings in fresh milk and new biscuit for all the workers. We see she organising the kitchen and begin to make a round of teas. We then see the arrival of Little Miss Naughty who is always looks so trendy and young, she has come into make coffee for the boss as take job for the boss very seriously and see only herself wise enough to take on these jobs. While waiting for the kettle to boil Little Miss caring leaves while Little Miss Naughty reapplies her make up in the reflection of the kettle and then leaves. As soon as she leaves we see the appearance of Little Miss Scatterbrain, she is mumbling to herself and is rushing around forgetting why she even came in. we next see the reappearance of Little Miss Helpful who starts again in making her round of teas and is soon joined by Mrs Happy. Mrs Happy is the hippy of the office and her life revolves around her health such as eating organic foods and herbal teas, this is a big passion of hers and likes to share her views with others.

Later in the day around lunch time we see the entrance of Mr Messy he is the funny comedian in the office and has a lack of disregard for other peoples belongings which is shown when we see him eating someone else sand wedges from the fridge, and move onto boiling the kettle. Next we have the entranced of Mr Lazy, he is known as the laidback one of the group and doesn’t take his job to seriously. He comes in to look for his sand wedges but quickly realises that Mr happy has eaten them. This leads Mr Lazy to taking someone else lunch for himself. We then start to see Mr Happy true colours when he start to make a Hot chocolate entertaining others around him with his over enthusiastic approach to making a drink and as many different toppings he can add. The happy upbeat mood is soon dropped with the entrance of Little Miss Scary who is actually the male boss. This leads to the exit of Mr Lazy and Mr Happy, leaving Mr Scary alone in the kitchen. After a few moments of him being alone we see the re-entrances of Little Miss Naughty and soon realise they are having a secrete affaire behind the other workers backs. They share a quick kiss and complements and then quickly hurry back to work.

Now towards the end of the day we see Little Miss Scatterbrain enter the kitchen area still stressed and rushing around but comes in a makes a strong coffee. She sits down and relaxes with a drink and biscuits. The final character to enter is Mr Grumpy he has worked at the office for many years now and doesn’t enjoy his job at all. He enters the room moaning and soon turns his moaning to Little Miss Scatterbrain. Little Miss Scatterbrain. Quickly realised and starts to panic that she dropped her biscuit into her drink and quickly needs to find a spoon. All the commotion and flapping around drives Mr Grumpy out of the room and leaves. Once Little Miss Scatterbrain has clamed herself down she to them leaves the room. The final scene will be the re-appearance of Little Miss Helpful who comes in to tidy up the area and turns of the light.