After our meeting with David we had a brief chat with Dale and then me and Ben decided to move forward with our Plan B. Luckily we had seen the writing on the wall and chosen the script Patience that we could pre-produce and film in a short time period if needed. Well Plan B is needed and so Last Minute Miracle Productions is born...
I created the production group, it's name, logo and made a facebook group (accessed; http://www.facebook.com/groups/285918881477228/). I'll continue as director and Ben as Sound/Editor but we need a DoP and Producer, which David suggested be filled by Evans and Zack. Ben would temporarily act as Producer and get in contact with them. This film project is make or break for me and Ben; unfortunately we don't have time to make a masterpiece but at the very least we will have a film to hand in to pass this module. Due to this we have set a date for our shoot as Sunday 25th March; which is in just 11 days time. I want to develop the script to suit our restrictions to make things easier for us whilst being experimental and interesting visually. My first job is to re-write Patience by James Huntington. I've sent him an email asking his permission to use his idea/script so in the meantime I'm going to get creative. Below are my initial thoughts on James's script and my transformation of it into a film we can make.
Point
Deal with your problems.
Synopsis
Jennie, a young girl is having a party at her house. On the way back from the shops with her female friend Chris, she crosses the road without looking and is almost hit by a car. The trauma she experiences is neglected by her and those around her which allows a horrific event to occur.
Treatment
With Patience I want to highlight the seriousness of self neglect through a juxtaposition of stylistic visuals. I want our film to have an emotion impact on an audience through narrative structure whilst engaging them intellectually.
Due to the graphic subject matter we want to convey a sense of importance to how these events occurred; hoping that if they find themselves or others in a similar situation they are cared for in a way our protagonist isn’t.
Our audience will be young people aged from 13-21 years old. They are the same age as the characters in our film and living the same lives with possibly the same naive mindsets. Most importantly we do not want to patronise our audience but advise them to be aware without resorting to preaching. We will achieve this by staying away from clichéd public information conventions such as melodrama and voice-over.
The style of Patience will be a hybrid of visual media. I intend to montage the establishing party scenes quick cutting between photographs, objects, and extreme close ups of people’s features, mobile phone footage and out of focus/unframed shots.
Being set at a party causes problems with dialogue with I intend to creatively side-step with stylistic use of texting, ironic sub-titles and purposefully unrealistic volumes; all of which will add to the hedonistic atmosphere we want to create.
Patience will be made with the main purpose of being submitted to various independent film festivals along with possible screenings at schools to raise awareness of sexual assault, though this depends on the quality of our final product.
Plot
Scene1 – Jennie answers the door and talks briefly with a stranger who says he is a friend of Dan’s
Scene2 – Jennie lets him in and walks down the hallway. She doesn’t notice him go upstairs while she walks into the living room.
Scene3 - Jennie sits down next to her female friend Chris. They chat about boys and drink. Time passes. Their drink is running low so Jennie and Chris decide to go to the local shop.
Scene4 – Tipsy they walk out the front door and to the shop.
Scene5 – They walk out the shop and down the road with the alcohol. Chris stops to light a fag and Jennie walks into the road and is almost hit by a car. The alcohol smashes on the floor as she falls to the ground. Chris runs to help her while the driver of the car beeps their horn angrily then drives off. Unhurt physically Jennie manages to get up though is visibly shocked. Chris asks her if she is ok and Jennie says she needs a drink. Chris passes her a bottle from her bag. Jennie sips it as they walk home.
Scene6 – They girls rejoin the party in the living room. Jennie makes a joke about how she almost died. Chris, flirting with a guy, leaves a space on the sofa which is immediately filled by the stranger. He and Jennie have awkward conversation. When she is distracted he puts a pill in her drink. She goes to drink her drink several times but is stopped by people calling her name or asking for something. Chris then orders everyone to down their drinks so they do. The stranger asks Jennie if she wants to go upstairs. She slurs something and tells him she needs a drink of water and moves into the kitchen. The Stranger stands up to follow her.
Scene7 – Jennie enters the kitchen and we see the stranger walk upstairs again. She asks one of the people in the kitchen to pour her some water. She sips it then spits it out. They gave her vodka saying she deserves it after almost being run over. She hesitates and then downs the whole glass. After a moment she wobbles and then almost falls. A girl says to Jennie she needs to be sick and everyone laughs at her. Jennie about to be sick runs out the kitchen.
Scene8 – The toilet door is open and Jennie is crouching by the loo being violently sick. Afterwards she stands up and shuts the bathroom door.
Scene9 – As the door closes a man is seen behind her. He covers her mouth and drags her, while she struggles, into a bedroom.
Scene10 – He shuts the door with his body then pushes her onto the bed holding her face down. He grabs something from his pocket and lifts her head up putting it under her nose for a few seconds. Her eyes become glazed. He takes two items of clothing from the bed and uses them to bind her mouth and tie her hands together. Then he presses his body into hers and whispers in her ear aggressively ‘Now the fun begins”.