G.Morris Feature Script Research

Because a lot of my other modules (particularly film) have been particularly busy recently it’s meant I’ve been able to do less work on my script outline. I feel like I’ve nearly cracked it though, as the central premise and primary story beats are all in place and clear, the majority of the work I need to do now is just format-based, as I continuously struggle with cutting down sequences to their base elements, as within a comedy such as this it makes the film itself seem bland and unappealing in places.

With this in mind still I continued to develop Michael and Jacob, not out of necessity but out of curiosity to see what I could stretch with their characters, and continued to come up with extra scenarios for the two within the film’s premise that probably wouldn’t be a part of the outline document. For example, the character of Sue, Michael’s elderly mother took inspiration from my own mother. As the two protagonists fear for their lives they become convinced that the mafia have control over the communications system, and as Jacob spends all of his time watching films and obsessing over them instead of working he reveals that neither of them can be on the phone for over 30 seconds or else their location will be able to be tracked. With this in mind Michael then attempts to phone his mum and ensure her safety whilst warning her of what’s happening, though as soon as the phone is answered she’s immediately swarming him with affection and tales from her own life, not letting him get a word in edgeways before he’s forced to slam the phone down on her as his thirty seconds is up.

I also began to think on both character’s world views. For example, Jacob consistently references the fact that he’s depressed when it’s made clear that he’s just lazy, though once the truth comes out that his ex-girlfriend has moved on I think some of his actual depression may come into light. It’s why he is lazy. He doesn’t see any point in getting out of the house or getting a job anymore and Michael’s just seen it as pure laziness when really it’s something else – a point of view that hopefully the audience will share too. Michael on the other hand is almost in the same boat, he sees his day-to-day life as pointless though his futility comes from a sense of staleness in his surroundings. He feels trapped where he lives and is constantly too scared to go out and look for excitement (something the film brings him and this shows in his happiness at life in prison for the film’s open conclusion).

Along with punishing both characters in the film’s conclusion, I’m going to keep it open-ended by having them being contacted by the Mulbys within the prison they’re locked up in, a final dark note to taunt both of them with, similar to the way in which the original Toy Story (Lasseter, 1995) ends, where Andy is shown to get a pet puppy, much to Woody and Buzz’s terror.

 

Bibliography:

Lasseter, J. (dir.) (1995) Toy Story [DVD]. Buena Vista Pictures Distribution.

After receiving some feedback on my outline, I began to take notes on what I would need to change, for instance, fortunately the use of an apple corer as a murder weapon went down a treat, but sadly Jacob’s murder of Anton Mulby left a lot to be desired and was seen as a bit of a cop out. A feeling I have to agree with, as I struggled with how my other protagonist would go about dispatching the other member of the mafia. One of the other comments I received involved the inclusion of Ruffles the dog, and whether or not his character could be pulled in to tell a potentially larger part of the story. I decided to try and kill two birds with one stone, as Ruffles is already brought back to the house along with the Mulbys in the third act, so of course he would have a part to play in the final brawl. It would also give me a chance to flesh out the relationship between Jacob and the canine, as I imagine that the two tend to not get along to the point where I began to think about Ruffles playing a part in Anton’s murder and actually saving Jacob, strengthening their relationship (or not, as Jacob’s stubbornness means it might only make his distaste for the creature grow).

The only problem with this new resolution is that within the context of the script outline it still seems a little bit tacked on. I have a vivid idea of how the scene is going to play out onscreen in my head as, along with the rest of the final fight, it’s going to be ‘awkwardly-violent’ (Nerdwriter1, 2016) as both men are continuously struggling at the top of a staircase, struggling to overpower each other. There’s small snippets of Jacob trying to bite any piece of Anton his mouth can reach, to which Anton continuously becomes more and more confused by (“What the fuck are you, some kind of vampire?”) as the threat of the fall looms over them. This threat will of course be heightened by the continued shrieking bark of Ruffles who watches the fight. Then, Jacob gets a small release when Anton moves ever closer to the edge of the first step, but he himself loses his footing, in which case the comic relief in the form of Ruffles jumps in and applies enough pressure just to tip Anton over the edge, breaking his neck on the way down as Ruffles stares at Jacob pleasingly (“…I still hate you”).

It’s one of the problems with making script outlines without actually fully developing the script itself, as I find myself wanting to place so much of these small moments into the document when in reality, a lot of it doesn’t even remotely affect the plot.

 

Bibliography:

Nerdwriter1 (2016) Movie Violence Done Right . Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKiQs1dE0Tc [accessed 28/02/17].

With my first initial draft of the plot outline completed now I began to think of the framework that would accompany such a document if I were to actually attempt to pitch and sell the feature to a potential buyer. I began to look into the desired target audience for my film – which I have now firmly decided is being named ‘Witnesses’ – and how that would affect its popularity, and whether or not the film would be seen as profitable by a potential buyer.

With the film’s dark subject matter in mind I always envisioned the feature itself to be a mature affair, and whilst writing and researching into the topic and characters I aimed for a predominantly male audience of 15-35 years old. This meant that I could appeal to the largest proportion of UK cinema audiences, a platform I was aiming for with the film gaining a theatrical release, as 29% of cinema goers in 2015 were within the ages of 15 and 24 (BFI, 2015). The BFI’s handbook on film audiences for the year 2015 proved incredibly useful, I found that as my film features action in the form of comedic gore, and due to its darker subject matter by film will be more popular with male audiences too, as males tend to make up the majority of audiences for films that heavily feature violence.

Even though it’s a British film set in a spectacularly British town, I feel as though the plot and theme throughout the film is universal in its simplicity. Even with that in mind though due to the inherent society in which the film is based the film would stand less of a chance in doing well in terms of box office as ‘55% of the world’s box office’ is taken over by ‘American Films’ (Friedmann, 1995, 55). This is due to how large of a percentage the American audience takes up in terms of distribution, and how other cultures and countries often struggle to translate into the mainstream.

Friedmann’s book also offered a few rules to follow in order to try and achieve success with a film for American audiences including:

– ‘The Average American Movie contains approximately two-thirds of the dialogue of the average European Movie’

– ‘The Average American Movie scene is approximately half the length of the average European Movie scene’ (Friedmann, 1995, 56).

As ‘Witnesses’ features extensive use of dialogue throughout and only a handful of scenes within its entire running time, it would seemingly be doomed to fail in making much money over in America upon distribution, which would make it a difficult script to sell to a large company such as ‘Universal’ or ’20th Century Fox’. Instead, I propose a smaller, more UK-centric distributer and production company in the form of StudioCanal (Canal+, 2017), that way the company can focus more on a marketing and release plan within the UK. The film itself is so small in scale (the majority of the second act takes place in one location) that budgetary concerns would be minimal with such a project. The majority of effort would most likely go into set design, props and potentially gore effects for the film’s final third, and even then old techniques such as animal organs from local butchers and cornstarch and red food colouring would be a good place to start practicing such effects.

The film’s dark comedy genre will also help it attempt to tap into the ‘cult’ market, allowing for companies like Studiocanal to earn more from home release sales as more people view films from DVD/Blu Rays than theaters (BFI, 2015). In theory, this would all help in pitching the film and getting it funded, as it backs up the idea that ‘Witnesses’ could bring back a profit. Similar dark comedies released under Studiocanal such as Four Lions (Morris, 2010) released under ‘Optimum Releasing’ (a branch of Studiocanal) made a small profit and garnered critical acclaim despite an unconventional and controversial topic whilst remaining quintessentially British.

 

Bibliography:

BFI (2015) BFI Research and Statistics: Audiences. BFI. Available from  http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-statistical-yearbook-audiences-2015-2016-08-25.pdf [accessed 22/02/17]

Friedmann, J. (1995) How to make money Scriptwriting. UK: Boxtree, 55-56.

Canal+ (2017) StudioCanal: About Us. London: StudioCanal. Available from http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-statistical-yearbook-audiences-2015-2016-08-25.pdf [accessed 22/02/17].

Morris, C. (dir.) (2010) Four Lions [DVD]. Optimum Releasing.

Recently I’ve been trying to develop the Mulby’s character and story arcs within my outline, as I feel that’s where my concept is currently the most lacking. In order to help I’ve been reading up on how mobsters have been portrayed within different texts across the years and how it relates to their real-life ations. And whilst reading an evaluation of The Sopranos (HBO, 1999-2007) I found a common theme within these representations which I could exaggerate within my outline, and that theme is that all representations of mob culture tend to focus on the ‘hypermasculinity’ (Nochimson, 2005, 185), how large groups of well-dressed men meet together in secret to discuss business about powerful weapons and corruption. It’s something I’d want to explore more within the characters that I’ve created for the family as a whole – seeing as the Mulbys will only really act as tertiary characters to apply pressure to Anton and Angelos in their search for Michael and Jacob.

The Mulby Family (Don Elway, Gertrude Mulby, Hicks Mulby) – the other members of the Mulby family/crime organisation. Used to apply pressure to Angelos and Anton in finding the witnesses to the murder.

Even though it’s less reported on less prevalent than in America, mafia crime syndicates do still exist within the UK on a smaller level, though my portrayal of them within my outline will probably follow the typical representation of the subject matter, seen in films like The Godfather (Coppola, 1972) and countless others.

 

I then began to think of places which could act as the family’s base of operations. As the film is set within a rural Kent town I began to think back on the business present within the small rural Kent town I grew up in. I remember loving my local play center (Tiger’s Eye – Pictures above) when I was smaller, a large (at least at the time), sprawling place for children to spend a few hours whilst their parents conversed and downed coffee in the seating area. I often wondered when I was younger what took place behind the scenes, as I knew the building in which the play area took up was larger than what was on display. I started to piece together that the Mulbys could operate a play center similar to this one, only to have it as a front to their business. I like the contrast in how the most innocent business on the high street secretly holds the darkest actions in the whole town.

Bibliography:

The Sopranos (1999-2007) [Download]. HBO.

Nochimson, M, P. (2005) Waddaya Lookin’ At? Rereading the gangster film through The Sopranos. In: Grieveson, L. Sonnet, E and Stanfield, P (eds.) Mob Culture: Hidden Histories of the American Gangster Film. Oxford: Berg Publishing, 185.

Coppola, F.F. (dir.) (1972) The Godfather [DVD]. Paramount Pictures.

Whilst going over the happenings of the film’s second act it recently occurred to me that the majority of what I’ve been brainstorming won’t be able to fit within my outline, mostly because it doesn’t advance the plot. It’s quite difficult to communicate the comedy of a script or a film idea through the use of an outline alone so maybe I’ll need to have snippets of dialogue included within mine, much like the one for The People vs. Larry Flynt (Forman, 1996). Nevertheless I feel like it’s important to continue brainstorming such ideas as it helps me form the world in which the film is set. Because even though the film takes place in a small rural town in Kent (making it a very British film), aspects of the plot such as the mafia characters are so exaggerated that I need to find a way to make them feel as home within the atmosphere I want for the film.

One of the ideas I had for the film’s second half included Jacob trying to dispose of all the knives and potential weapons within the house, but not knowing what to do with them after gathering them up. I began to imagine small snippets of conversation between Michael and Jacob in the situations, to get a feel for their characters:

–

INT. Kitchen – Day.

Jacob comes rushing in, opens up various drawers and begins emptying their contents of knives and various sharp objects.

Michael: What are you doing?

Jacob holds up a spork and stares at it for a little while before putting it back.

Michael: Jacob!

Jacob: Look! I’m safety-guarding this house, alright?

He drops another knife into a black bag.

Michael: Safety guarding?

Jacob: Yes, when those two guys find us, and they will find us, we don’t need them thinking to themselves *He grabs a large bread knife* ‘ooh, this looks sharp, I bet this’ll hurt a lot more when I’m gutting these two idiots, I’m so glad this was here, or else-‘

Michael: ‘-or else I would have just shot them dead’…they had guns.

Jacob: Yeah, but you saw the way they tortured that guy. And this house has millions of potential torture weapons just waiting to be played with!

Jacob pulls out an apple corer and presents it to Michael.

Michael:…what.

Jacob: …heart plunger.

Michael: Apple corer.

Jacob: But in the right hands a heart plunger!

Michael: You can’t kill someone with an apple corer!

Jacob: I bet you can! Enough pressure, pushed into the chest *he begins to vividly act out the violence – sound effects and all* crack through a few ribs, pierce the heart, blade gets caught. Then all you gotta do it yank it back out when you’re done and bam…fresh heart to munch on.

Michael: Since when are the guys cannibals?!

Jacob: I don’t know what they do in their spare time do I?! How are you so sure that they’re not?

–

I then had the idea of Jacob initially trying to take out the black bags of knives to put in the wheeley bins outside, only for them to split and empty out onto the pavement in public – prompting more suspicion and gasps from the Preils. One of the knives would also fall and embed itself in Jacob’s foot, causing him great pain and would provide the start of a small montage sequence for comedy purposes.

 

After several failed attempts at getting rid of the knives and weapons eventually he would find dumping them in the small fish pond at the bottom of the garden, where he assumed they sink to the bottom. This would then lead to a visual joke in the form of multiple dead flailing fish with cutlery sticking in them rising to the water’s surface.

Small jokes I’ve been brainstorming like this aren’t useful when it comes to the film’s outline, but help me get more and more of an understanding of what I’d want the film to present itself as and be.

I think next though I need to develop the Mulby characters a bit more.

 

 

Bibliography:

Forman, M. (dir.) The People vs. Larry Flynt. [Download]. Columbia Pictures.