Treatment (47) [Discarded]

Title:  47
(a choice between two equally beloved entities, one of which must be destroyed to preserve the existence of the other)


Duration:
Approximately 5 minutes.


Audience:

Synopsis/summary:
A man receives a letter from the hospital telling him that he has a malignant tumour in his brain, also sent to him is single pill in a bottle prescribed to him. He goes to see a psychologist who wonders why he has come to see him as there appears to be nothing wrong with him. The man explains that he has to make a choice and asks whether the doctor can help him. The conversation is not heard but the doctor says 'so that is your choice?' the man replies, 'it's not the first one' and the doctor answers, 'well remember the others for me, tell me what you'd be giving up'

Flashback to the man age seven, he is given a teddy by each of his parents, one new and sparkling from his workaholic mother and the other old and ragged from his loving father. His parents argue most hours of the day and one night his mother leaves and tells him to come with her, she holds out his teddy to him. He is confused and looks between his mother and father both holding out their signifying teddy.

Flashback to the man at seventeen, he is talking to a very clean looking girl with blonde hair on a wall, they are talking about how her father will be able to get him a job at his firm, insinuating he must marry her for this, she leaves demanding a kiss on the cheek. As he is about to leave when, another girl, standing behind him - this time brunette - whispers to him, he looks surprised but overjoyed to see her. They spend time together and it obvious that he wants to be with her. She questions him about when he is going to stop hanging around with the 'blonde' girl and he says its complicated, they argue and she tells him that he needs to make a choice before walking away.

Fast forward of that day, where he is reading the full letter from the hospital. He is sat next to a picture that shows him with someone else in it who isn't seen but reads r.i.p on the bottom of it. He is widowed.

Back in the psychologists office the man explains that the pill would breakdown the tumour and cure him but would also remove all his memory up to that point. he begs for advice on what the psych would do, the psychologist asks the man 'whether he is happy with what he has done with his life and the choices he has made?' The man replies 'They we're the best decisions I have ever made, but how do I choose now? Life with nothing or happiness with death?' The psychologist doesn't reply it is obvious he could not make the decision either. He goes home and looks at the pill bottle.

A sheet is being pulled over a mans head and a box is seen with belongings in, there is a shabby teddy bear, the picture of him and the brunette with r.i.p on the bottom and in the very corner, there is the bottle with the single pill still left in it.

Suggested Elements: 
Non linear narrative

Filmmaking Techniques - Graphic Match

This year a type of cut I would really love to try would be a match cut or a graphic match, I think that these create a really good effect when you want to link one scene to another for example, possibly the most famous match cut onscreen and in film is the 2001: A space odyssey.
This is a classic example of a match cut for these reasons,
 it links the two scenes together, the shots both have the same,shall we say semantic field about them (technology), I feel that this would work very well with the idea's we have come up with mainly because there are many ideas linking the films
 the whole way through.  This match cut specifically shows how after an ape discovers primitive weapons and tools can be made by the use of a bone then uses the match cut to show much more advanced technology like the one seen, an orbiting nuclear weapons satellite. The connection is drawn between the development and as examples of primitive and advanced technology respectively.

Another very famous match cut is in an Alfred Hitchcock film, Psycho. It is after the infamous murder of Marion Crane in the 'shower scene' where the camera shows the blood running down the drain of the bathtub which then match cuts to a shot of Marion's cold eye.

This is very clever as it shows the logical coherence of the two shots and shows how they are both happening at the same time within the film.


A Graphic Match which I think would probably work more smoothly in the ideas that we have come up with is not just a cut to the next scene but it is one that would flow more smoothly, This is when the colours, objects, shapes and movement in the two scenes match, for example if a man was walking and he walked out of a shot when the next shot came up he walked into the shot it would give a smooth look and even if the two places were very far apart it could look like they were extremely close to one another.

Examples of short films

When researching ideas for our film we have had to look at other short films for inspiration. Yet the inspiration does not always just stick to the story of the film, it could include shots, colour correction, script etc. Below are some examples of short films that have inspired me and given me some ideas for our own short film.

- HELLO AGAIN - 

This short is a good example of location, music and most importantly shots. For us as students we do not have access to extremely good equipment such as steadicams or specialised equipment for camera movement. This means that we have to improvise when it comes to steadying moving shots. This short is very useful to us as it states that all the shots with movement were not done by using a professional steadicam but were made using a homemade skateboard dolly. If we could manage to create a steady movement it would really open up a lot of possibilities for us whilst filming. If pulled off properly it would help us to create a more professional looking film. As they used a homemade dolly to get the smoothness, we have to assume that they used something like guttering or a piece of plastic beneath and on top of the 'skateboard' (it could be something else) to create the smooth slow look about it.

 - MEMORIES -

This film, was actually shown to us after I had thought of my idea, what I think has inspired me because of it is how they pulled off the flashbacks that coincide with the actual story.  The colouring used to show the action that is happening at that moment is very similar as to how I envisioned it for my idea, this would show the difference in his happiness as time went on. I feel that the colour use in my idea if it were chosen would be very important as it creates the mood of that specific scene and I think that it would be a very good tool in creating emotion with the characters within the film.

Character Profiles (Balloons) [Discarded]

Steve Manning is 22 and works in an office that leads him to be typing, photocopying and attending team meetings all day long - his work is utterly uninspired and he has close to no excitement in his life. These are the problems that Steve must overcome. Out of pure luck, Steve bumps into Emily and the pair must then overcome the basic obstacles of maintaining a relationship, whilst all Steve wants is a happy, lively life.

Emily Townsend is 21 and similarly unhappy in life, but bumping into Steve quickly changes thing as they start their relationship. Although the two characters are not all that different, cracks in their relationship begin to form because of the usual problems; jealousy, no trust and life getting in the way.

Treatment (Balloons) [Discarded]

Balloons

Duration: approximately 5 minutes.

Audience: Age 15 and above, aimed toward older teens.

Synopsis/summary: A down on his luck, unhappy man lives a routine life of all work and no play until he stumbles across a similarly cheerless woman. 

The man awakes abruptly to his alarm, gets ready for work and jumps on the bus. We see him live his average day of boring team meetings and photocopying before he heads home again ready for the same day tomorrow -

he goes through work in a similar to fashion to the 'signs' short film (linked in 'analysis of short films' post). The character must appear comedically miserable with long stable shots of his emotion and reaction to work.
On his usual trip home from work he crosses a similarly miserable woman and the two bond on the finding of 2 balloons whilst walking home together.

Both balloons have faces drawn on them (male and female, although the characters are unaware of these faces as the
drawings are non-diegetic).
The pair begin walking home regularly and quickly begin a relationship shown in montage (in the style of Up!'s 'married life' scene). The couple carry their retrospective balloons wherever they go and the emotions on the balloons change depending on the state of their relationship. Over a natural course, the relationship begins to fall apart and the balloons begin to appear lifeless and aptly miserable in coordination with the couples relationship. During a heated argument, both the balloons loudly pop and the main character returns to his routine day of the work the following day. As he continues his work of photocopying and team meetings once more, he returns to his computer to sit down and finds his balloon, now repaired with plasters and Sellotape with an apologetic card tied to the bottom of the string, insinuating there is still hope for his relationship.

Suggested elements of the short film are temporal frequency in relation to how many times the main characters monotonous work routine is shown to the audience to create empathy for the character. There is also emphasis on the progression of the relationship through montage and the quick succession and state of the relationship in accordance to the balloons emotions.
The narrative is completely linear and restricted to avoid confusion to a simple, charming story.

Idea #2

A man with Alzheimer's disease at a late stage in his life is being asked to try to remember key moments he has experienced, one as a child, one as a teenager and one in his adult life. We see each of these episodes as he tries to remember them, in sequence of each other. As he is near the end of his life he is trying to remember whether he made the right decisions.

As a child (age 7) we see him given a choice by his divorcing parents of who to go live with, we also see him given a teddy by each, one shabby given by his poor but loving father and the other clean and new given by his uptight, workaholic mother. Yet we never see who he chooses.

As an adolescent (age 17) we witness his choice between two girls, one who is the perfect idea of a wife and the other who is reckless yet who he believes to be his soulmate, once again we never see his choice. He owns two rings one destined for either girl. (Roxanne and Lily)

And last we witness him in his adult life where we discover that he is now a widower, (age 37) the chosen wife having died not long ago. Here we witness his last decision, having received a letter after a brain scan that he has early onset Alzheimer's. In an appointment with a doctor he is given the choice of taking a course of pills that will cure him of the disease but remove all previous memory of his life, or leave the disease to run on in the normal way, we know now that he chose to keep his remaining memories for now, so he can keep remembering them.

Back in the present day, we see a chart rested on a table with someone packing things into a box next to it. The details say that the man died earlier that day, and as we focus on the box of belongings we see what choices he made in life. Here we also see a picture of the man at the same old age smiling at reliving his life at a time before and finding that he made the right choices.


Inspiration for this idea the film Mr. Nobody which looks at the last mortal man alive who cannot remember which life he led, overlapping are three different versions of his life in the end no real conclusion is reached which is a little bit (a lot) more complex than mine.

(I discarded the domestic violence idea after feeling it could have become very clichéd and has been done many times before)

Filmmaking Techniques - 'The Montage'

Dicussing ideas for the short film with Adie, we talked about various filmmaking techniques that we'd like to either try or include in the film. One idea that sprung to my mind was the 'montage' idea. What I mean by the montage Idea is a fairly short compilation of clips that often depict a certain event in the characters life, or part of their life. This is often a quick way of getting from point A to B in a film without drawing it out.

This scene takes us through the majority of Carl & Ellie's life without ever hearing any dialogue. (Up, 2009)

The scene takes us through La Motta's fights to the top alongside his married life (Raging Bull, 1980)

A scene showing the growing popularity of the ghostbusters through the news and headlines (Ghostbusters, 1984)

A montage scene which mocks the montage technique (Team America, 2004)

Yet another scene showing Rocky training (Rocky III, 1982)

The scene showing Tony Montana's rise to power (Scarface, 1983)