Introduction to Moving Narrative - 16th February

Tuesday 16th February 2016            Module: Moving Narrative        Lecture: Alli Gall

Introduction to Moving Narrative

Today we went through the project brief, started to understand what we would be required to submit and work on throughout this unit, the fact that we would have to create a 8 - 10 page script, we were told that it would have to be formatted correctly, how it would have to be submitted, the fact that it could be about anything we wanted, told to reference it as much as possible, our idea that we had chosen, told to think and talk about our decisions.

Creating a character task:

Here is my character bio for my Protagonist

Character Name: Paddy Cliff 

Appearance: Black hair, clean shaven, glasses, clean/casual biking gear, 42, athletic build, tall (5'9). 

Backstory:  Ex-detective/police officer, taken on tough cases in his career, good investigator, lives with his wife and 2 teenage children, passion for tinkering with his motorbikes, has a collection of classics.  

Present Situation: Works from home, doesn't like where he is living, very little to do around his area, he gets enjoyment from the freedom of his motorbikes. 

Accent: English, Norfolk

Politics: Politically he leans more to right (more Tory than labour). 

Values: Been promoted in the police force as well as been given an award for his detective skills which he was highly commended for and it hangs up on his wall (proud of this and has pride of place).  

Beliefs: Wants the best for his children, wants to lead a good life.

Imperfections: Thinks of himself a lot, out on his bikes, wife thinks he could spend more time with the family. 

The goal for Protagonist - To work out what his neighbour is up too, he wants to also travel all over the country on his motorbike and he wants to carry on his bike collection, perhaps fix some of them up so they are ready to ride or sell on. 

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Here is my character bio for my antagonist

Character Name: Cameron Chapman

Appearance: Grey Hair, Full grown beard, wearing camo Trousers, scruffy T-shirt,  Wearing Baggy Waterproofs, coat zipped up, tall, 36, drives a black Corsa.  

Backstory: BAFTA award winning cameraman, worked on Blue Planet, Life In The Freezer, up and coming cast for Life Story. He's had trouble with his wife at home, been set aside from his children, his life revolves around nature, he spends his sleepless nights outside listening to the calls of the woods and is always seen placing black sacks, containers into the back of his car. 

Present Situation: Working on a local wildlife film which he plans to pitch in Vienna, why he loves where he lives, giving an insight into nature's traits.

Accent: English, Norfolk

Politics: Left Wing - Doesn't agree with persecution strategies on wildlife, he has his own outlook on life - wants to look after wildlife. 

Values: Naturist, been out in the field on NatureWatch, set up his own company who specialise in wildlife around Norfolk, feature like minded peoples footage, viewers of the programme.

Not afraid to experiment, creates own rigs, constructs own lenses, uses what he has, comes to appreciate what he is surrounded with. 

Beliefs: You have to be patient, enthusiastic, open minded, professionalism and organisation are key. a bit of a loner and be discrete. 

Imperfections: Knows what he wants, has set goals but he's only travelled so far, wants to experiment more and become an idea maker as oppose to the technical side.

Set back created by antagonist 
Suspicious activity, carrying black mysterious bags and placing a coil of rope and a shovel into the boot of his car, these activities take often noticed taking place late at night or early hours of the morning. 

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Create a dramatic situation as a short story/treatment between two characters. Include both the concrete goal of the protagonist desired and the obstacle supplied by the antagonist - involving tension, conflict and action - but with no dialogue. 

My idea for the story/short synopsis. 

Right from the start, there was a disagreement between these two neighbours as Cameron complained about Paddy working on his bikes late into the night, revving up engines.

After tossing and turning for most of the night, at about 4AM Paddy decided to get up and make himself a drink, on entering the dark kitchen, he notices headlights through the window. He decides to get a closer look, only to discover it's his neighbour loading his car, with the same black bags which he had noticed being unloaded 2 days previous. The re-occurrence of this early morning activity lead him to become suspicious as to what his neighbour was up too. Paddy decides that he is going to keep a closer eye on the comings and goings of his neighbour.

A few days later when Paddy was working on his motorbikes, the chance arose for him to confront Cameron when he saw the neighbours car pulling up. Once again Cameron starts to unload the bags from the boot of his car, Paddy sarcastically comments "Had a good day poaching"/"Did you ought to have SWAG written on the front of those bags mate", to which Cameron replies "I could have you for that mate" (Paddy Sniggers- thinks to himself, if only he knew).

A few minutes after Cameron has taken the black bags in, Paddy noticed him returning to the car and removing a coil of rope and a shovel and he heads back inside, arousing Paddy's suspicions even further "thinks to himself - what is this man up too".

Paddy comes up with the idea to fit a tracking device to the underside of Cameron's wheel of the car, he is going to give this some serious thought. Having hatched a plan, his chance to do so comes three day later when he see's Cameron going off in someone else's car, as soon as night falls and still no sign of Cameron, Paddy seizes this opportunity and rushes out to fit the tracker, taking the chance to peer in the car windows to see what lies within.

An hour or so later, Paddy watches from the upstairs window as Cameron is being dropped off outside his house. A few minutes later Cameron reappears placing 2 black sacks into his recycle box, before heading into his car and driving off.

During this period, Paddy becomes even more suspicious since it's not bin day, he uses this opportunity to search through the recycle bins wearing ordinary latex gloves, to his disappointment he discovers that the bags are full of household waste (Cameron's created a diversion).

Paddy thinks he would be more discrete by using his car rather than his motorbikes to follow Cameron.

On approaching his neighbors destination, Paddy switches the engine off and rolls forward down the country lane, keeping a discrete distance between him and Cameron (following the tracker).

At the end of the lane, he notices Cameron's car and also the car that dropped him off a few days before. He notices Cameron's mate returning back to his own car and pulling what appeared to look like a mallet (used to bang down the tent pegs).

Paddy discretely gets out of his car, he remembers that he has one of his sons cricket bats in the boot of the car and so he takes this as some form of protection in case he needs it. He moves slowly and quietly through the woods following Cameron's friend, with the cricket bat in one hand and the scanner in the other.

The end - They tolerate and respect each others hobbies and interests. Paddy goes out on the very rare occasion birdwatching with Cameron and Cameron lends a hand with fixing up Paddy's bikes.

Ends with both characters out in the field, Paddy gives Cameron the bike that he has helped him fix up and get back on the road.

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What ideas are important to you as a screenwriter!

As a screenwriter you have to know your characters, you need to know about their lives, you need to be able to relate to what they like, how they are going to act within the script, come up with the types of body language that they show, the types of dialogue that they are going to use which can link back to where they are from. You need to know about their background, yes okay you create all of this yourself but you need to have a clear understanding of their hobbies, where they live etc. so as to work with other characters i.e. how do they meet or interact with one another, is there a particular scene where a dramatic situation occurs.

You need to know about the types of music that you want to use and whether they are fit for purpose, you need to think about setting a mood for the script, can help to bring the visuals alive but it will predominately help to give atmosphere and build up tension to the main actions that happen within your script.

Creating a location is key, you need to help to set the scene, all of the above will help the rest of the crew to achieve the camera angles that you and the director want to achieve, the types of music or sound effects that you think would be required to fit your script, the kinds of props that the designers will need to get (clothing) as well as the types of movements that the actors will perform in front of the camera for the shoot.

It helps to let others listen to your ideas, it helped myself to generate a concrete idea for my script, it can help to add additional parts to your script, fill any gaps that you may have and make you aware of anything that you haven't linked up, perhaps you forgot a key part to the characters or perhaps you could be more specific with the dialogue but obviously don't copy word for word as that is plagiarism.

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Ideas for shots: 

Beginning - Wide angled shot in the workshop of bikes, zoom into the bike that the two characters end up fixing at the end of the script. The noises that I could use here would be a radio being listened too in the background, noises of an engine being revved up to set the scene of the motorbike, have a noise of someone tinkering with bike parts on top of that.

Middle: High Angle shot looking down on Paddy as he rummages through the neighbours black sacks, but all he finds is Household waste. I thought I could have a fast tempo tune playing as Paddy leaves his house and approaches the bins, a loud creak when he takes the lid of the recycle box and when he places the lid back on. Noises or rustling as he rummages through the bins and perhaps a sigh as he is disappointed that he hasn't found anything.

Ending: Close up shot of the two characters out in the field together, chatter in the background to set the atmosphere and the noises of camera shots being taken.

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Additional Ideas for the script

Cable Tires, Shovel to dig holes to place camera traps.

Cameron thinks that paddy is a very nosey inter-fearing neighbour or is there more to him than meets the eye.

The goal for the protagonist would be to work out what the antagonist is up too, looks suspicious and shifty.

Paddy realises that Cameron must be somewhere in the woodland, to draw him out he reaches into the glove compartment and pulls out his son's bird whistle which echoes throughout the trees.