Research For My Script / Idea 'Amongst The Pyramids'

Details Of The Competition - Withoutabox

Withoutabox is a massive independent film community that have different sectors around the UK and one that I am planning to send my script to is the Norwich Film Festival. First prize is a money prize of £250 and is, at the moment, still being decided. All scripts must be sent on an A4 size paper and emailed in a format of a PDF or DOC file to submissions@norwichfilmfestival.co.uk. Paper sent scripts must be sent in a padded envelope or mailer box with postage prepaid. There is also a payment fee of £15 if a script is entered early (June) and £45 for extended deadlines (November).

Address To Send Script To:

NORWICH FILM FESTIVAL,
4 TAYLOR ROAD,
NORWICH,
NORFOLK,
NR5 8LY,
ENGLAND.

'Luther' Script Page Analyse

Script Conventions.

Analysis of inner, outer and context features.

Two Short Films

Example 1

I like this short film because it takes something that has been a huge hit (Facebook), and makes it into some kind of bad addiction that can really affect a person. In a sense it recognizes some major world issues. In this short film we follow the life on one man who is really addicted to Facebook to the point he must update his status every 5 minutes, whilst indulging into other Facebook features. In this short he doesn't understand he has an addiction until, he meets his lady friend, who inevitably tells this man that he is addicted. Through this he understands his addiction and quits.

I like this short film because it has a lot of ideology within its context. Even though some may see it as a comedy, some may see it as a serious issue, which in some cases it is. Internet addiction has become more and more popular over the years, and this video really tries to capture the comedic side of it rather than the really serious part of it. Either way it defiantly tries to explore the issue of internet addiction.

The way that the little things like, updating statues and taking pictures of food, and boasting about 'likes' is what really shows the addiction side of things. Having someone in the picture who isn't addicted and doesn't even care about Facebook really helps in driving the narrative forward and helps in generating change for this male character. Another interesting feature that I like within this short is how the Facebook features (like updating statues and getting 'likes') intertwines with the male character's personal life. For example if he meets something he likes, a thumbs-up icon will appear above their head. This can connote that Facebook is his life and nothing else.

The story defiantly has conflict when the two characters start to debate on Facebook and its importance. This then leads to the female character walking away from him due to his addiction. The conflict then has a resolution when he decides to stop his addiction be destroying his iPhone. He does this so that he can be with this girl. With all of these conventions, the short is enjoyable to the spectator, me being one of them.

I have produced a page of a script from the short to show what the actual script would of looked like.

Example 2

This is another short film that I found very interesting due to its script conventions and film conventions. Straight away we get the sense that the film has a depressing atmosphere due to the non-diegetic music over the top and the upset character that we see. We see him getting up and thinking about something and thinking hard. From what we see within the scenes we understand that this male character is very troubled and is mingling with the wrong people. He doesn't have a strong relationship with his mother and is clear through a short bit of dialogue at the beginning of the film. In this short film we see that teenagers are stereotyped as being a nonsense to society. Through this character we see a change in personalities. Being a teenager myself, I am immediately drawn into this short as it shows what some people think of teens within the 21st Century.

Through the short the main male character meets a female character who are both, in some ways, attracted to each other. Once him and a group of people see this girl they try to 'pick' on her. This unacceptable behavior is not seen in the main male character but he tries to fit in with this 'bad' group of people. He feels bad after and attempts to fix the situation and understands that he doesn't want to be like the people in this group. Through this we see a conflict (wanting to be different for bad reasons) and a resolution (fixing the problems and not trying to change).

I wrote this script showing what happens in one of the scenes. This scene occurs near the end of the short.

BBC's Writers Room

The BBC Writers Room has a section where an individual can send a script to the BBC, where in some cases, can be accepted, produced and shown on the BBC Network. The scripts are assessed by experienced readers to make sure that the BBC find new and fresh talent. Writers that enter their script for the BBC's Writers Room must try and show something about the writer within their script. This acts a calling card for the writer's voice, ability and talent.

Audience Research

When carrying out my research, I decided to create a questionnaire asking people questions on Egypt and other questions relating to losing someone they care about. The main demographic I was aiming for was teens above the age of 16. This is because the idea I have has some graphic images. Also I wanted to see if teens from the age of 16 could relate to my story. To do this I needed to understand what teens enjoyed demographically. Also I needed to understand what certain teens and adults like psychographically.

These are the results I collected:

Through my questionnaire I asked 4 Males and 5 Females.

Through analyzing all of my candidates I have concluded that most people enjoy watching the Horror genre. This then gave me the idea that I could implement a Horror or Thriller aspect to my story giving it a better viewing experience.

Through my questionnaire I have learnt that most people know of Egypt however not a lot of people know of any corruption within or around Egypt. Pyramids were also a well known feature of Egypt and was evident within my questionnaire results.

Most of my candidates have experienced the feeling of losing someone they care about and quoted that it made them feel "sad", "upset" and "alone". This was interesting as I wanted to implement something similar within my story. This therefore would increase the relations between the story's characters and the audience watching, making it a better viewing experience. Also most people said they enjoy watching or reading stories about tragedies which helped in creating my narrative.

One question that I was interested to ask was if the people I asked knew about the BBC's Writers Room. In my concluded results I learned that most people knew of the website. 

Research Into Themes, Locations, Etc.

When researching my story, I looked through some news stories for inspiration for ideas. Through my research I came across this news story about an American man who was found dead in an Egyptian jail cell. The mystery to why he died gave me the inspiration to create some sort of narrative from it. So since the story is set in Egypt I needed to research more into the country. From my research I understand that the main language within the country is 'Modern Standard Arabic'. It is very diverse in sectors such as tourism, agriculture, services and industry. This then gave me the idea that an American living in Egypt would not be seen as much of an issue. Adding aspects of tourism to my story would fit well in Egypt as it is an important sector for their economy. This would then make my idea for authentic as tourism is involved within my story.

The legal codes of Egypt are quite different to the ones within the UK and the US. Being quite a strict country, the male character within my story would have to commit a small and innocent crime to which he is not badly prosecuted.

I wanted to create an atmosphere of decay, giving the characters and the audience a sense that they are living in a place that is not all that pleasant. When researching into this I found that 12% of the population is unemployed and living in poverty. If I added pyramids within my script I would have to make sure that the geographical context is correct. By doing this I have decided to set my story in Giza, Egypt. This way the pyramids are close to the city, giving establishing scenes a clearer understanding to the audience. Giving the atmosphere a decayed look I wanted to set the beginning scenes in the streets of Giza. This then adds to the tragic and unpleasant feel to the story. Some of my scenes involve crowded market stalls. This required research to picture what it would look like. The picture below shows what the Giza markets could look like.

In my story a man is prosecuted and placed in jail. This meant that I had to research what some jail cells in Egypt looked like. From my research I have found out that the conditions were cramped, too many people to one cell. In a prison in Tora, the officers were brutal to a point they would beat their inmates constantly leaving huge scars. I wanted to implement this within my story. I wanted to give the sense that the jail cell is like hitting rock bottom, so would require a unpleasant atmosphere.

It took a lot of debating and discussion to what could happen to this man. In the end I decided that the man would not kill himself, but would still be very affected by a tragic event. Now I thought of a death of a relative. This then raised the issue of how this relative would die. In the end I decided that this relative would die in a car crash that wouldn't be the main protagonist's fault. This way the main protagonist would feel responsible, which would then affect him even greater. Not being his fault would also allow the spectator feel sympathy for the character. Because it is a car crash that kills off a innocent character, I needed to research into how the car could crash. Too conclude I need decided that the car would be tampered with in some way. Through my research I found out that cars can crash due to things like Power Steering Failure. This failure makes a car hard to steer, causing collisions or accidents. With this information I had the idea that the car could crash due to failure of the steering. A sabotage is a way that I can implement the failure without it being the main protagonist's fault. This is what I needed within my story in order for it to flow properly.

I really wanted to capture the emotional stress and pain of losing someone and how they would deal with it. Again dealing with it was another issue as I didn't want this character to kill himself. A suggestion of a drinking problem was raised and was a good idea that I, in the end, considered using.

In my story there is a relative that dies, and that relative is the brother of the main protagonist. In order to give the idea that the man in the cell next door is a figure of the protagonist's imagination of his brother, I needed a way to show this without revealing what he looked like. In conclusion I came up with giving him a name that had the meaning of a brother. When researching on the internet I came across the name JOAH which in some variations means 'brother' or the 'brother of God'. In the end I decided to use this name to represent the dead brother. Within my story the main protagonist will figure out what this name means, revealing it to the audience.

Intertextuality / Inspirations

My main inspiration of capturing the emotional stress of loosing someone came from AMC's The Walking Dead. Within one of the scenes, the leader of a group of survivors, loses his wife. The leader has put all of his effort in protecting the one he loves and to loose it in seconds, really hits him hard. You see this strong leader just crumble to dust in seconds. I thought this made the story very enjoyable, so wanted to interpret that within my own story. I also enjoy reading and watching tragic events happen, and the consequences of people's actions. Of course I enjoy the fiction side of it rather than the non-fiction side. Through this I wanted to create a story with similar conventions.

AMC's The Walking Dead - Character 'Rick Grimes' - Season 3

References / Bibliography 

Withoutabox Competition Information -  https://www.withoutabox.com/03film/03t_fin/03t_fin_fest_01dead.php?festview=&category_id=1416120
Withoutabox Picture - http://blackhillsfilmfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Withoutabox.png
'The Anti-Social Network' Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0H6AzEMHSc
Luther Script - http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/luther-s1-ep1
                       http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/luther-s1-ep2
Walking Dead Pictures - http://images.tvrage.com/news/review-the-walking-dead-3-06-hounded.jpg
                                      http://www.spoilersguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/andrew-lincoln-the-walking-dead-rick-grimes-season-3-amc.jpg
Egypt Information - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt#Law
Blasphemy Law In Egypt - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blasphemy_law_in_Egypt#2013
Poverty Within Egypt - http://www.islamic-relief.org.uk/about-us/where-we-work/egypt/?gclid=CJzE26P3hLsCFWgJwwod0lgAPw
Pyramids Of Giza - Google Earth, Programme
Streets Of Giza - https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjUqNRw-W-gWDWGNhARhV5M9WoXQXvtLGq-mVyE5iDFzcHhxEMXRFSN0eAJbMuB9lcDCKTfxkSL3L_Qg1jaaC7YSy-EeKV_u1sVLco_gN4ukCxFk35LuEHaxjhQQB8HpNAHkpcjI-haeUu/s1600/IMG_1199+-+Copy.JPG
Man Found Dead In Jail Cell Story - http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/13/egypt-usa
Tora Prision Information - http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/11/canadian-greyson-loubani-ordeal-egyptian-prison
Picture Of Prison Cell - http://a.abcnews.com/images/International/GTY_prison_139557071_jt_131013_16x9_992.jpg
'Eyes On You' Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spzlrcu2NqY#t=409
Car Crash Causes Information - http://www.driving-test-success.com/causes-car-crash.htm
Power Steering Failure - http://www.wikihow.com/Handle-Power-Steering-Failure
Name Meanings - JOAH - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joah
Arabic Names - AHMAD - http://www.bounty.com/baby-names/name-origin/Arabic