For my FMP project I decided early on that I would produce a dark, psychological drama/short film in the same vein as Christopher Nolans Memento and Inception, in that it would concern the human psyche and how certain mental conditions can twist how we perceive our memories and reality as a whole. The main concept was of an individual, lonely and depressive who suffers from multiple personality disorder, we discover that his girlfriend has been murdered and that he never found out who was responsible. Throughout the narrative the man receives many cryptic notes pertaining to this murder, he assumes it's the real killer taunting him but soon comes to the realisation that he is the one who killed his girlfriend and these notes originate from one of his many split personas, this persona is attempting to reconcile all the guilt felt as a result of this crime and encourage catharsis. I was also inspired to make a dark drama as a result of watching Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror TV show, which deals with a number of surreal and psychological narratives.
Script:
Below is a sample of the full script that expresses the tone I want for this short film;
Sarah is the bedroom, panicking due to being attacked by an unknown figure. She is being frown about and beaten by unknown attacker. Joe outside aggressively bangs on the door.
Joe
(Panicking)
SARAH! SARAH!
Joe shoulder barges the door repeatedly, Sarah goes quiet and drifts off into death. The attacker leaves by the bedroom window. Joe bashes the door wide open.
INT. Second Bedroom - morning
Joe is woken by the bang from his dream. Joe depressed turns over to look at the alarm clock, he then reaches over and grabs the pill bottle. Not realised it is empty and tries to swallow some, once realised throws the bottle away annoyed. Joe slowly rises up and sits on the edge of his bed. Joe takes a brief moment to stare at his feet. Joe then takes a couple of deep breaths and rises up. He stumbles over towards the bathroom
Int. bathroom - mOMENTS LATER
Joe stumbles over to the sink and begins to rinse his face, he then spits into the sink and violently coughs. He then again rinses his face with the sink water, he then slowly looks up into the mirror. He stares at his reflection as if he is bewildered by his own reflection, as if it is a stranger staring back at him. he begins to tap the mirror making sure that it is his reflection. He mumbles slighlty then opens the cabient to pull out another bottle of pills. He then quickly shuts it.
INT. Kitchen - LATER
Joe opens the cabinet to get the sugar, he then puts it into his coffee. He picks up his coffee and strolls over into the living room.
InT. Living room - MOMENTS LATER
Joe sits down and drinks a bit of his coffee.Joe noticing the time on the clock puts his coffee down, he then pulls out a coin and holds it with a finger and thumb. When the clock enters the last few seconds Joe places the coin on the table, preparing to spin it and waits. The clock hits the hour exactly and Joe spins the coin. Joe tranced by the spinning coin constantly watches it. The sound of the coin spinning drains out all sounds. Suddenly the coin stops and drops as the a the post arrives through the letter box, Joe distracted by post looks over at front door then back at the coin. Joe seeming some what disoriented by the coin drop, stands up and goes to pick up the post.
Int. Front door - MOMENTS LATER
Joe picks up his post, he flicks through them not really caring. He drops each piece of post as he passes them, the last one he notices a familiar butterfly in the corner. Instead of dropping it he opens it up and begins to read it.
CLOSE UP: Sorry for your lost ?
Joe confused by the message and butterfly rushes into his bedroom.
InT. SECOND BEDROOM - MOMENTS LATER
Joe rushes in and instantly heads towards the side cabinet, frenzied rummaging, pulling out everything until he finds the girlfriends letter. Desperate to find it pulls out the entire draw and pours everything out. Noticing the girlfriend letter picks it up and compares that letter and the letter he just received. Joe takes a moment to look at both letters noticing that they both have the butterfly image. Joe looks disorientated.
INT. Bedroom - Flashback
Joe and Sarah are stood lovingly next to a babies cot, admiring the idea of having a child of their own. Joe holding her, rubs her arms and then kisses her on the head.
Joe
Okay babe, we need to get ready
Joe lets Sarah go and takes one more moment to admire the idea of having their own child whilst Sarah sits by the dressing table and starts brushing her hair. Joe turns round to watch her, she noticing hi in the mirror both smile and chuckle. Joe heads out the room and goes downstairs.
EXT. outside - flashback, moments later
Joe steps outside and sits down. He pulls out a cigarette and smiles slightly realising he has a good life. he takes a couple of deep breaths whilst smoking. In the distance a dark figure appears, the figure walks away from Joe's sights. Joe thinks he noticed something but does nothing as he didn't see anything/anyone.
InT. Hallway - Flashback, mOMENTS LATER
Joe strides over towards the stairs but stops noticing the clock ticking. Memorised by the ticking constantly watches it as its reaching the hour.
Ext. Graveyard - Present, later
Joe still with the constant stare but now at Sarah gravestone, Joe holding back his tears moans and gently touches the gravestone paying his respects. He stands up and heads towards is car.
InT. Car - mOMENTS LATER
Joe sits in the drivers seat, he rubs his face as he is tired, confused and depressed. Once he stops he notices another letter in the passengers floor. He slowly reaches over and picks up the letter. Joe reads it. Confused and worried from the letter looks around the area, thinking someone is following & taunting him. He quickly starts the engine and drives away. Joe pulls up by a park and begins to panic even more, he breathes heavily. He notices the park, he stops breathing heavily and leaves the car.
EXT. park - momeNTS LATER
Joe walks onto the park and heads over to the swings, he sits down remembering moments with Sarah. He begins to smile but notices another letter placed on the climbing frame. Joe worried rushes over and grabs the letter, he opens it up and reads it. Joe devastated by the message drops the letter.
InT. HalLWAY - flashback, countiues
Joe still watches the clock for a brief moment. Sarah upstairs screams causing Joe to loose attention to the clock. Joe not fully aware of what's going on rushes upstairs. He notices the door is closed, he goes to open it but can't.
Joe
(Panicking)
SARAH! SARAH!
Joe shoulder barges the door repeatedly, Sarah goes quiet and drifts off into death. The attacker leaves by the bedroom window. Joe bashes the door wide open.
EXT. outside of house - LATER
Joe is standing outside his old house, afraid to go in due to the painful memories. He slowly approaches and walks inside.
InT. HallWAY - mOMENTS LATER
Joe steps in and looks to where the clock previous was, realising it isn't there continues upstairs. on his way up notices a letter on the door. Worried pauses at the top of the stairs, takes a large gulp and heads over to the door.
InT. outside bedroom - CONTINUOUS
He grabs hold of the letter and opens it up, reading the letter confused and tears it into peices. He turns away to leave but then strives over to the door and barges in.
INT. BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS
Joe shocked steps in and is shocked at what/who he sees. Joe is looking at his own reflection, he slowly approaches it as he is mesmerised by himself. As he gets closer to the mirror he starts to touch it. He turns around to look at the room. He holds his head as he is so confused that it aches.
Joe
(angered)
WHATS GOING ON!
Reflection
Sorry...
Joe scared instantly turns back around and looks at the mirror.
Reflection
Sorry..for your lost
Joe
My lost?!
ReFLECTION
You lost her, thanks to him.
Joe
Him? Who is he?
(Shouts)
Tell ME!
ReflECTION
You already know him very well
Joe moves closer to the mirror and leans his head against the wall next to it.
Joe
(quietly but clear)
Who?
RefleCTION
It was you... You killed her
Joe steps back and stares again back at the mirror. The reflection constantly moving around.
Joe
What? No, no she was dead when I came in.
ReflECTION
Was she though, remember!
Joe
I came upstairs and held her as she died.
InT. bedROOM - flashback
Joe walks into the bedroom and sees Sarah brushing her hair. He shuts the door and approaches swiftly. He places his hand on her shoulder, she gently touches his hand. Joe violently grabs hold of her shoulder and pulls her back.
ReflECTION
(Voice-over)
Yes, you did come up those stairs and you walked in this room but she was very much alive when you walked in.
Joe
No?!
Joe throws Sarah against the wall violently and grabs her by the hair, Sarah afraid for her life screams for help.
RefLECTION
Yes SHE WAS! You did this to her
Joe
I loved her
Sarah now on her knees, bleeding from the wound on her hair, cries. Joe stands over her, emotionless to what he is doing.
Reflection
You did love her, but we didn't.
Joe
We?
Reflection
We did it for you. You wanted it, you NEEDED it.
Joe
No... No ...NO....NOOOOO!!
Joe punches the mirror and throws himself against the wall. He looks down on the shattered glass on the floor. Joe shows no emotion.
ReFLECTION
Can you....save her?
Proposal:
Review
Since the beginning of the course I have gained experience in multiple facets of the media sector, including working with professional clients in a studio setting and traveling to foreign locations to shoot documentaries for the college when I visited Tanzania. The opportunity to work in the studio with clients helped me to develop my skills in camera operating and vision mixing to name just two aspects that were beneficial. When visiting Tanzania I gained even more experience in camera operating and even improved my skills in sound operation to an extent, this amazing opportunity not only presented new challenges but also allowed me to bask in a culture that was totally different, which is always good for a filmmaker. Through the production of short films and music videos I have also been able to develop my editing skills to a much higher level than before and this new project will help me to grow these skills even more.
Idea and concepts
My idea is a short film based on the inherent dangers and issues of multiple personality disorder, it focuses on an individual suffering with this condition who doesn't know that he has, in the past murdered his wife under the guise of one of his multiple personalities. We join the character a few months after, racked with grief and confusion he begins to receive letters which would appear to be from the killer, he doesn't remember killing his wife due to memory deficit and begins to unravel the truth.
Research
The research for this short film consisted of looking up information on multiple personality disorder and its effects on individuals, initially my short film was to be about a man simply suffering with the condition along with all the duality images associated. However when I researched the topic I found that part of the condition is memory deficit, so I reassessed the whole concept and translated what I had into psychological drama come crime mystery. In order to get a feel for the psychological aspects of the story I watched a few films by Christopher Nolan, currently my favourite director, such as Memento and Inception.
Techniques and presentation
For this film I want to include a number of ethereal flashback like sequences to further punctuate the narrative beats, doing this will allow me to further experiment with after effects and so on in order to sell the idea of an ethereal flashback happening inside the characters head. This project also presents a multitude of opportunities for improving my camera work, certain scenes and concepts within the film will require a number of more complex filming techniques, which I have compiled research on. In terms of the actual presentation stage our production came with idea of using a stand to illustrate the films. d
Evaluation and progress
I plan to use my blog in order to track the progress of the film and evaluate its quality on a regular basis. I will also rely on peer assessment during test shoots, recee and filming days.
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