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It’s an interesting dilemma when writing a script as to whether to include a character or not. Today we went through the process of should we include a dad for the lead girl. Easier in terms of casting and the flow of the script to ignore him but if we did that the audience would then be asking the question, ‘Where is he?’ If we left him out we would somehow have to explain his absence and have to consider whether that would then change the responses and so forth of our girl and story line.
When planning a script we tend to create characters and set up the background and family etc . This helps to explain behaviour and the way the audiences react to and empathise with a character. Obviously an absent father(and why he is absent) will have an impact on the character and as such the storyline. In today’s case we included him and gave him a line to signify his place in the family set up. He had just arrived in from work at 10:00 pm and still had his work shirt and tie on letting the audience know that it was a middle class family with a white collar job and as such a degree of education and affluence. All little details that an audience might not even overtly pick up but will sit comfortably with the plot have to be considered.
Apart from that little diversion we have written another couple of scenes and it is panning out OK. We also set our time line so we know deadlines we are working to. So here it is – for all of you who may want to apply or be asked to apply for a role within the film.
Script: finish by Christmas
Marketing: January
Locations/budget/plan: January
Casting/Auditions: February with Actual audition week of 27th Feb (allows for at least a week back after half term
Rehearsals: March – May
Filming: Half term (June Possible problem with this as bank holiday on Monday and Tuesday!!)
After many hours deliberating the outline, characters and then story we finally started scripting this evening.
We discussed a title change as ‘Trapped’ no longer represents the story, and so far the working title is now ‘Just Friends?’ but we’re still not settled on it yet.
We have also made a decision to stick with the girls (Charlie) story and leave what happens to the boy (Jordan) until the end. This helps to strengthen Charlie’s angst and the audience’s too as they also wont know what happened to Jordan.
We’ve scripted 4ish scenes now, probably another 20 or so to go. One of the hardest scenes is written, which begins the whole story. The other hard one will be at the end.
Anyway I am feeling very positive about it all as is Lindsay and can’t wait to get it finished. We’re going to have to choose our lead actress very carefully as she’ll be in every scene! More on that another time
Well, just got back from Darren’s after another successful writing evening. We had the bare bones of an outline and are beginning to flesh it out as they say by putting more detail to the story. I’m not sure how much to start giving away as there is a danger if I say too much it may spoil the finished story for those who want to watch it. Something to discuss with Darren I guess. Anyway two of our issues about plausibility I feel we resolved by holding the explanation of why events happened/didn’t happen by tying them up within the final scene. It seems very cryptic but do I include spoilers?
We have a couple of questions about what a 13 year old may do in some situations and my homework is to chat to some students at school and get a response from those of that age. I’ve also got to try(and I stress try!) to contact Facebook about whether we would be allowed to use footage of their pages and some Film/TV companies to see if we can use extracts. I tried Nickelodeon a couple of weeks ago and have had no response so far. We daren’t just use it as they could get funny about copyright. Let’s see how it goes!
Anyway, I am feeling pretty positive about the project, as is Darren. Here’s to the next session which I suspect will flesh out everything and then we will start actually writing the actual words. I am really keen to have as few words as possible and let the visuals do the work. Not sure how Darren is with the extremities I am preaching but I know we will reach the right midway pint as we always do.
Both Lindsay and I worked on the script last night. The story is being gradually turned into a time line with scenes.
We checked with a local police officer the likely hood of our script and the times things would happen. It is clear at this stage the title will probably change.
We are contemplating the level of information to give away to the audience about the boys disappearance. We were going to run two stories in parallel but it now feels that we ought to have more of the girls story.
The story could be told from many angles, the police (police man hunt),the boy (127 hours - will I be found), the parents (missing child), but we have settled on a more reflective approach from the girls point of view and how her actions may of contributed to the story and the fact she blames herself.
We have a few issues to solve as our timeline runs for 24 hours and talking to the police (which is reassuring) a child would usually be found with the use of a helicopter or dogs much quicker. We may have to employ artistic license, but time will tell.
From a production side the cast list seems to be growing as does the need for police vehicles.
Progress is being made and I hope we will be on to writing scenes in the new couple of weeks.
Well we have had our first meeting since the summer holidays to take forward the initial ideas of our new film. Working title is trapped and involves a lad who falls off a rope swing in a wood when he is on his own and the ensuing issues of trying to locate him. As usual we talked all around the houses and went of on many tangents talking about films we had seen and linking them into where we wanted the plot to go.
Looking like 2 main characters boy and girl age about 13 with parents police etc as extra. I am going to look into how much a bus will cost to hire as we feel one scene on a bus will add a new dimension to the story and our filming experience.
Date for filming is looking like next summer half term as I am already committed to our summer holiday away over the first 2 weeks of the school holiday.
It’s always good to catch up and a pleasant evening accompanied by real coffee was had.