Drama Project- Script

Below is the Final Screenplay that we have used within the pre-production stages of our Drama Project. This is liable to change within the shooting and post-production stages of the project however this is what the group have decided on as a final script. We made around about 3 draft scripts from the plotline stage to the final stage that you can see below. I think that having the whole group assessing the script and creating different drafts has helped to give a better overall piece and a dtronger image for each individual in the group as they have all put their creative input in and have come across the script with their individual roles in mind which means that altogether we can create a better overall piece.

FADE IN:

INT. DINING ROOM #1 – DAY

DAUGHTER is layed down on back. She has tears running down her face and is laying still as if not daring to move. Her FATHER is stood up away from where she is laying and has the expression of both shock and guilt on his face. He leaves the room walking out the front door and is followed around by the eyeline of his DAUGHTER still unmoved on the floor.

As the door shuts cut to...

INT. DINING ROOM - DAY

FATHER is sitting next to DAUGHTER, on the table are open homework books. DAUGHTER is writing and FATHER is pointing to a page in a book.

                     DAUGHTER (exasperated)

               I'll never finish this! Only a week for planning!

                     FATHER (kindly)

               Don't worry, we'll get it done together, flower.

FATHER smiles as he watches DAUGHTER writing.

INT. BEDROOM #2 - DAY

Tracking through the bedroom, we see the bedside table with the pictures of the family happy in different places, a flower is beside a picture of the Wife. The camera tracks round to reveal FATHER in his bedroom smoking, we see him take up the picture of the Wife and look at it lovingly with tears in his eyes before he puts it down and taking up his pills, rattles them and sighs before popping off the cap and taking them.

INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT

Fixed camera shot, FATHER paces up and down in room as he is unable to sleep.

CUT TO:

INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT

FATHER opens fridge and begins to pile up food.

CUT TO:

INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY

DAUGHTER walks into living room with school bag, getting ready for school. She see's FATHER slumped on sofa asleep, surrounded by wrappers. Sighing, DAUGHTER drops her school bag and begins to clean up the empty wrappers; she abandons the task and shakes FATHER awake, he wakes with a jump.

                     FATHER (groggily)

               Eh? Sorry, I didn't sleep.

                     DAUGHTER (annoyed)

               I can see that. I'm going to school.

DAUGHTER collects her school bag and leaves.

INT. DINING ROOM #3 - DAY

FATHER is sitting by the dining room table in front of two plates of pasta placed symmetrically on the table with an empty seat opposite him where someone should be sat. DAUGHTER walks into house through the front door wearing school bag.

DAUGHTER

Hi dad, I’m home.

FATHER

(Ecstatically) Hi flower, I made us dinner, look! Took me a long time. Come on, tuck in! How's your day been?

DAUGHTER

(Smiles unconvincing) Well... this is nice. Thanks dad. How are you feeling today? What have you done? Have you taken your pills?

DAUGHTER takes pills and reaches out to give them to him. He takes them kindly and puts them next to him.

FATHER

Yes, yeah. Don’t worry about me flower. I’m more bothered about you.

DAUGHTER

Thanks dad. (Smiles) It’s nice to see you like this.

They share a smile and carry on eating.

INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY

DAUGHTER brings FATHER a cup of tea, FATHER is sat on sofa beside side table with vacant expression on face, staring into middle distance. DAUGHTER tries to offer FATHER the cup of tea but he doesn't respond or acknowledge her presence so she puts the tea on the side table.

                    

DAUGHTER (reluctant to bring it up)

It's been a year…(pause) Shall we go visit mum tomorrow?

FATHER continues to blank DAUGHTER. DAUGHTER leaves, trying to hide her expression.

CUT TO:

INT.  KITCHEN - DAY

Opens with wide shot of kitchen, DAUGHTER is sat on kitchen surface with head in hands, sobbing is very audible and exaggerated.

I/E. CAR #4 - NIGHT

FATHER is sitting in car staring dreamlessly forward out of the windscreen. Stays there all evening.

INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY

DAUGHTER is sat reading, FATHER comes in with a bunch of flowers.

               FATHER (happily)

          I bought some flowers to take for mum.

         

               DAUGHTER (confused)

          I thought you didn't wanna go?

               FATHER

          Of course I want to go, flower! Are you coming?

INT. LIVING ROOM/DINING ROOM #5 - DAY

Daughter returns home from school. Her father is sat at the Dining Room table looking down at the food not eating with a cigarette in his mouth.

DAUGHTER

Dad, I’m home.

The father looks up angrily and stands up so fast as to allow his chair to fly back and the table to move slightly. He marches toward her

FATHER

(Raising voice) Where have you been? Dinner has been sitting here for 5 minutes now and it's probably cold, whilst you've been…what? Fucking around outside?!

DAUGHTER

(Trying to cut in) No dad, I was walking home from school…

FATHER (interrupting)

Don’t give me that excuse! You’ve been avoiding coming back because of me haven’t you? You’ve been trying to keep away from me because you think this condition makes me a freak, don’t you?

DAUGHTER

No Dad, it's not like that! I swear, I’m sorry...(Grabs Pills) Look, you need to take your pills.

Father reacts aggressively hitting the pills out of his daughters hand onto the floor. He pushes forward at her.

FATHER

If you hadn’t of been so eager to avoid me this wouldn’t have happened you’re just selfish, all you care about is yourself. You never bothered with anyone else. You'll drive everyone away from you. Just... (pause) Look at what you did to your mother.

Father pushes his daughter to the ground. She lands in the same position as described at the start. There is a moment of unfilled silence as tears stream from her eyes and her father looks at her with a shocked and guilty face. He then walks from the room and leaves the house through the front door. She lays still putting her hands to her face and cries. A car is heard starting and driving off in background.

EXT. BRIDGE #6 - DAY

Father drives up and stops the car. He gets out and walks to the bridge stepping toward the edge. He lights a cigarette and takes out his wallet looking at a picture of his daughter and wife together. A tear rolls down his cheek before he bursts into tears. Shortly after his phone rings, he answers.

DAUGHTER

(Sobbing) Please come home dad. I'm sorry. I just...

FATHER (interrupting)

I’m so sorry flower. (pause) I’m so sorry for everything that's happened…(trails off and hangs up)

Father holds the phone for a moment before putting it away. Still crying, he puts the picture into his back pocket and flicks his fag over the side of the bridge. He then steps up to the side of the bridge looking down and slowly looks up until he is looking directly into the camera.

END

Inspiration- This is England Final Scene (Dir Shane Meadows, 2006)

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This is England's final scene has been on my mind constantly throughout the process of our five minute drama. This is because when writing the final scene of our drama I based it similarly on the final scene of Shane Meadows and even used the looking up of the camera at the end of the script. However this was not used in the final edit of the film but it was still an image I had in mind when trying to capture the emotion within our final scene. Just as the closing scene of This is England is presented with lots of close ups that are tightly fixed to Shaun's face to capture his emotion as he realises that England is not all it is presented as and this tragic failure due to his past experiences is the same mood that we want to create within our final scene. The contrast within the final scene of This is England is turned up and the colour is darkened furthering a sombre feel that is backed by the music used in the foreground. The entire scene has no dialogue within it and this helps the music blend into the scene making the viewer go along with the same feeling that Shaun is displaying within the scene. We have used similar techniques within our ending scene using the last scene after everything has happened as a way for the audience to understand the tragic end of this character and his impossibility to escape the condition he has. Altogether This is Englands themes and closing scene has helped in creating our 5 minute drama piece and I have referenced to this in more than one part of the film.

Inspiration- Still Life Short Film (2007)

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Still Life was a useful film in capturing the similar emotions that we wanted to capture in our film. This is a depression awareness short film and therefore can give a more real take on the affects and reactions that someone with depression would have. I will use the reactions and emotions to capture our father character throughout the film.
I also think the way that the Husband and son react to her depression is good in the sense that they don't understand it. This I think we could use however I want the daughter to understand the father and to be mature about how he reacts.
Altogether I will use certain themes within this film as inspiration for my own film and hope to create a successful piece just as this does.

Drama Assignment Original Plotline

This is the original plotline for my drama assignment. We created the story around a broken family. A father with bipolar a mother who has passed away and a daughter who has suffered the worst from the fathers bipolar. This is the same plotline that we created for the pitch in our session on Thursday. We hope this has been a successful idea as this is the idea that we thought is the strongest and want to create a script around. We wanted to capture the highs and lows of the father with bipolar to try and represent a certain tragedy within the family as they deal with the past and try and move to the future. I hope this will be sufficient enough to create as our final piece.

START:

·        Daughter lying on floor in tears camera tracking out on top of character her eyeline follows father as he stands there for a few secs then walks out of door (audible click) and cuts to flashback.

·        A single wide static shot in living room of dad showing all different emotions of bipolar depression: Angry-ecstatic, happy-sad. (Dancing on his own happily and then dancing the waltz sadly with his wife as she fades away. Cutting from jumping up and down in the air to curled in a ball

·        Tracking left to right or right to left looking at pictures of family happy. Tracks over to father in bedroom taking pills looking extremely warn out and sad.

·        Scene of father who has made dinner for daughter sitting at table as daughter walks in- He is ecstatic, very happy but taking pills. Daughter sits at table with a fake smile asking how he is feeling stressing about how he is.

·        Scene of father in car time-lapse as it becomes dark.

·        Scene next day- daughter walking into house and dad is sat smoking with dinner on table- she walks in says hi and he looks up angry and starts argument questioning ‘where have you been?’ very over the top. She tells him to calm down and to take his pills- he hits the pills from her hand and blames her for her mother’s death whilst pushing her to the floor.

·        He stands there for a second looking slightly shocked and guilty- he walks out of the house and we see the daughter lying there putting her hands over her face and crying.

·        Cuts to the father walking up to the side of a bridge standing at the edge and lighting a fag, he bursts into tears.

·        His mobile rings and he answers it, his daughter sobbing says please come home dad.

·        He replies I’m sorry for everything that has happened and hangs up the phone.

·        He takes out his wallet looking at a photo of his wife and daughter and still sobbing flicks his cigarette over the bridge and steps up to the edge of it looking down. After a few seconds he looks up slowly to the camera.

CUTS TO BLACK

Portal: No Escape (Dir. Dan Trachtenburg, 2011)

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Portal is an interesting film due to its music, lighting and pace throughout. Portal: No Escape is based off the highly successful video game collection Portal. Throughout the film we see a woman trapped in a prison away from the outside world. She spends most of the film within a room that is clearly a cell that we can see she has been in for some large amount of time. After being able to find a portal gun within the cell she is able to make an attempt at escaping. Toward the end of the film we expect a resolution, her to escape the prison and at the beginning of the ending shot we think she has. However with the clever use of animation projection and lighting, we see that this world she has escaped to does not exist.
The lighting within this film is interesting It is dark and gloomy throughout but at the same time is well lit to the colours of blue and red that repeat throughout the film. The bad guys are dressed head to toe in black whereas the woman is dressed in a vest and trousers almost like what a male would wear in this situation.
Music throughout the film is cleverly suited to exaggerate the tragic lonliness and the impossibility of escape. It is a tragic soundtrack that picks up only when she thinks she will escape and then falls back down as she realises there is no escape. The score is simplistic using simple piano chords throughout with a bit of synth and drums to create a futuristic atmosphere that helps the audience to recognise this future dystopia that has been represented in many books before.
Finally the pace of the editing throughout combines with the music to give a sense of entrapment. Shots are held and are cut to different activities that the woman is doing showing her isolation in this place. There is no dialogue within this film which suits the context directly as it only further exaggerates the amount of lonliness that this woman has when imprisoned in this cell.
I enjoyed this film and thought that it was cleverly created to give an impression of inevitable lonliness. Although this is not going to be possible to create for my drama assignment I will look at this and use some parts of it such as lighting and pace to fit my drama project.

I Do Air (Dir. Martina Amati 2009)

I Do Air definitely captured my interest within the cinematograhic field of film analysis. It's brilliantly and intracatly shot scene's provide a perfect story told with no real dialogue throughout. The film follows a girl who tries two beat her fear of under water swimming and eventually beats this fear with some help from two underwater swimmers. The cinematography proved to be almost artistic in the ending sequence where she is danced around in the water with the two under water swimmers. She is captured lonely in the water but happy. The soft focus allows an almost dream like state that helps to emphasise the magic of the film as a whole and the brightly lit and clear colours justify this further.

As she is the only character explored within this film and does not have any dialogue we learn a lot from the surroundings she is within. We see that the fantasises about being under water and that it is like a dream to her. This is captured within the changing room as she holds her breath and is able to imagine she is underwater. We can then see her passion for this dream to come true when she sees the underwater swimmers and goes out to get a better look. Finally we see the resolution of her dream as she fulfils it successfully at the end and is shot beautifully in the final sequence. I chose to study this filmas it is useful in the way it is shot, it's art direction and the way the colours are cleverly dressed to give the most beautiful shot possible, as well as the use of emotion and surrounding to tell a story instead of dialogue that an audience is so used to in film now.

Rite (Dir, Michael Pierce 2010)

From the beginning this film captures the audience with the simplistic style of little dialogue and little soundtrack. We can see without any dialogue the setting and the context of the film. From the failing father trying to keep a grap on his son even through a failing marriage to the confused and disappointed son who clearly does not agree with the fathers social typecast. As does the father with the sons. However the film really shows the father and the way the father realises after trying to combine his son with his social type that they are separate fields not to be mixed as it has very negative consequences. The father changes throughout the course of this short film within one day going through a journey of mistakes and building anger to create a dipiction that he realises hurts his son more then he can possibly imagine.

But we as an audience stay sentimental toward the father as his realisation is taken with action. When we see his son is gay in the end, something that the father would never agree to he quickly forgets his social typecast and leads the way with an open mind greeting his sons boyfriend in a friendly way which is shortly followed by a closing shot of the father listening to the ipod that his son left as to try and understand his son in more detail than he does when we see him act throughout the film.

I found this piece interesting and it drew my attention the most from the feedback in class because of it's hardhitting story told by very little dialogue. Rite focuses a lot more on the onscreen emotion and reactions from the two acors and as we can see these two are clearly seperated by two very different views which helps us to understand the differences between the two. I liked the use of gritty filmmaking to further stand out the life the father character lives as well as the close up to really grab the attention of the onscreen emotion.
The mise-en-scene of the piece was very good and a lot of cutaways in the bar are used to show the environment in which the father is used to but is still able to capture the tragic reaction of the father as the son is dragged in for the moment. Altogether this is a very interesting piece and I will use it to influence my own piece.