Storyboard - Initial Ideas

Genre Inspiring Films - Sixth Sense

The story of a man, singled out by society as the weak, meagre, underbelly, who miss-diagnosed with depression realises that there might be something slightly more sinister wrong with him. After Toms paranoia, brought upon by his condition, catches up with him he unfortunately loses control of his life, snaps and assaults two teenagers, hospitalizing one of them. Now his life has fallen into the hands of a psychiatrist who must decide weather he is telling the truth, or lying through his teeth.

Sixth Sense is One Of my favourite films. I remember watching it for the first time and being blown away by three things:

The acting. 

I feel that the performances in this are some of the best I have seen. Its the way they make you feel as if it actually happened and that what you are watching is a documentary, not a thriller. I also love Haley Joel Osment's performance as I think it is by far the most creepy and realistic kid performances ever. 

The plot twists. 

I would love make a film like this one day. A film that keeps you on your feet, keeps you second guessing yourself and ultimately delivers one of the best endings in cinema history. Unfortunately it is very difficult to make plot twists that aren’t predictable because, if you think about it, the writers have to think of something that they themselves would never be able to guess.

Its attention to detail. 

I love the attention to detail in this film. Every square inch of the frame has been talked and pondered over and as a result every picture and every word has you on the edge of your seat. This is more an artists masterpiece than a film as in my eyes I think its perfect.

All these things are conventions of a Thriller. From Constant Plot twists to OCD in every frame, a thriller has to look both convincing and interesting to hold your gaze. If it isn’t it can become to obvious, to detached from reality and thus to fantastical, which are the type of thrillers I cant deal with (The Butterfly Effect, Any Nicholas Cage Film).

The First Draft Of The Script

Imbalance

T V = Tom Verity

Py = Psychiatrist

Numbers are a key for the storyboard

1.      T V (V.O): You know that film with Kevin spacey, the one where he’s talking about death and stuff and narrating his past year in the last few seconds of his life. Well if you think about it if all we have to live for in the end is our own life then most people aren’t living for much themselves. We drone on and on about heaven and hell but what if it’s a lie, one big conspiracy to pull the wool over our eyes and to hide the truth,  made 3000 years ago by a few men who craved power and control, what if it still is. If you live in hope of something and it turns out to be all a hoax in the end, what do you do then? I hope Kevin spacey was right about the last few seconds thing. Personally I’m looking forward to looking back, all the things Id forgotten and lost … but I’m still afraid of the actual dying bit.

2.     Py: (coughs) (acts Bored as if they have been there for a long time)

3.      (Few seconds uncomfortable silence) (maybe flash backs)

4.      T V: (calmly) I’m not mad

5.      Py: (hands in head, annoyed) I never said you were.

6.      T V: (laugh) come on. Why  would you send me to a shrink unless I had problems? I mean really, am I just a child to you.

7.      Py: Sorry bu…

8.      T V: (interrupting, like a child) what is insanity?

9.      Py: (sighing) we don’t label people like that anymore tom but it is defined in the oxford dictionary as the “the mental malfunction of a human being sufficient to explain their actions and to warrant commitment to a mental health hospital”(said as if he was reciting it maybe reading it)

10.      T V: nice but I meant what makes you crazy what actions define you as mentally ill?

11.      Py: I don’t have a definitive answer to that question

12.      T V: oh come on you must have an idea. You are a psychiatrist. You deal with these people every day and all you can say is I don’t know

13.      Py: (said in fragments as if he is making it up on the spot) well I suppose... if I had to say what thing defines people as mentally ill it would be... well... when they stop.. dwelling in the constraints of the average mind and step out of the box into a sea of pure imagination. I suppose a good analogy is that if you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes into you meaning if you live outside the constraints of the conscious mind then even with all that you could achieve it will be difficult to return.

14.      T V: (chuckles) fills me with confidence

15.      Py: (quickly as if he has made a breakthrough, excited) so you admit you have a problem

16.      T V: (scared, given to much away) I never said that

17.      Py: (prying, interested) why do you think you are here?

18.      T V: (Flash back of assault) (says as if he was a child hiding something) I don’t know

19.     Py:(reading) It says here that ”you assaulted two young boys and beat them violently while screaming “why are you following me, Stop following me”.” why do you think they were following you.

20.      T V: (more flashbacks) Because they were, I could hear them whispering.

21.      Py: what about?

22.      T V: (like a child denying knowledge) I don’t know, it sounded like… white noise or maybe a muffled microphone but it what definitely about me. Nothing else. Me.

23.      Py: (trying to convince him) doesn’t it seem strange. Two boys you have never met before, both have no connection to you or anyone you are close to, decide to follow you and whisper behind your back with no motive or reason why they would do this. And despite your claims both the boys and the two witnesses say that they were not antagonizing or giving you any reason to lash out against them.

24.      T V:(as if he was revealing a secret) its not just them, there was a man.

25.      Py: go on

26.      T V:(images over the top of the man being at home in the car and in the street) hes always there.. where-ever I go. At home... In the car.... even when I walk down the street he stalks me... haunts me... makes me scared of.... living my life.

27.      Py: can you ever see his face

28.     TV: he is always there

29.      Py: but you can't see his face 

30.      T V: have you ever seen that film sunshine by Danny Boyle

31.      Py: no,

32.      T V:(said as if he is working it through in his head staring at nothing) anyway, in it you never see the bad guys face. He is either cowering in the shadows or his face is distorted by the camera... its like that, I never see his face... but he is always there, in the background, stalking me, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

33.     Py: have you ever spoken to him

34.      T V: (said in the same way but staring into his eyes) Well no... sort of. He always seems to be shouting something a warning maybe but I can never work it out its as if the sound never reaches me (chuckles) like an echo in the dark

35.      Py: And you feel he is real

36.      T V: (ignoring what he said, as if he is  just piecing it all together) maybe he was trying to warn me, maybe of this. Tell me what was going to happen if I went to the hospital for help

37.     Py:(interrupting slightly louder voice, trying to divert the conversation) yeah. I see you came in 2 months ago complaining of violent head aches and mood swings

38.      T V: (laughs) you passed it of as “a mild case of depression” which, by the way, the drugs didn’t help. I mean you passed me off as you would a child yapping at your knees. It was disgraceful. You and all you stand for is a scam, a way keeping the normal people separate from, what you seem to think of as ... the diseased. Of making ill people into madmen   

39.      Py:(pressuring the point) I am sorry if you thought that but I am fundamentally only an analyst. If you feel like you have been condemned by the government that’s fine but that’s not me, I am just here to observe and to offer help if you need it.

40.      T V:(realized he has touched a nerve, Py has doubts about his job and his right to condemn people) No your not (smiling). You are here to give the green light on throwing me into a corner and forgetting that I ever existed. To ultimately sign my life away to some idiot in a coat who will pick my brain to pieces while I’m left a hollow shell.

41.      Py:(angry but frightened as he feels that part of what T V says is right) Right, I think I've heard enough if you would like to follow Luke here he will escort you to the next office

42.      T V:(sarcasticly) so did I pass or fail

43.      Py:(doesn’t realize sarcasm) I cannot say at this time but what do you feel is going to happen

44.      T V:(final point feels as If this is his big speech) I feel... like it doesn’t matter what I've said, from the moment I walked in here I felt a condemned man, waiting for the moment the man in the white coat stamps me as defective and I'm left alone to rot in a monkeys cage, my only interaction being with the hand that feeds me

45.      Py:(being dismissive) alright then bye tom

46.      T V (V O): (Walking down the corridor in slow-mo close up in front of his face) I have done wrong things and hurt people. I have torn apart my own family and someone else’s, I have done things of which I am ashamed but I have never felt as alone as I do now. As if I am floating through a sea of faces, of people I have loved, lost and of people I have hurt. I still think that Kevin Spacey was right, but now, as I think about it all I want to do is forget what I’ve done and restart from the beginning.   

Films With A Similar Audience - The Prestige

Even though this film didn't do as well as it could have, I do think that it deserves to be N.O. 71 on the IMDB top 250 films of all time. I love the way the story jumps around a lot leaving you wondering what point in the story you are and the way there are very few establishers which adds to the sense of being lost.

Research - One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest has, in my opinion, one of the best scripts ever written. The way Jack Nicholson's Character sounds is in the beggining one of a sane man trapped in a mental institution but as the film progresses you begin to feel as if he is actually in denial and that he was not as completely sane as he said he was. This confusion and language I hope to incorporate into my script so that the audience has to make there mind up on how sane he really is 

Research - Shutter Island

This inspiered me in my shot design as it centers around the protaganist mainly. the best device used way the colours and the lighting give off a mood of insecurity and the high saturation level makes every thing seem surreal . In the grade on my film this could be a usefull effect that would help to show the maddness and the distortion of the time line.  

Narative - Theory and Practice

In any situation on earth there is always a story, from reporting in war torn countries to going to the shops to buy milk there is always a plot to tell. Narrative theory is the attempt of philosophers to describe how these tales are made and how they influence and shape where media goes.

Inside films the narrative structure is shaped along rules. For example, the equilibrium – disequilibrium – re-equilibrium rule where the plot starts of in calm then at some point something goes wrong that the protagonist has to deal with and by the end of the story everything is calm and pretty again and Valdimir Propp’s rule of the 31 character roles and actions where there are in any story ever written a maximum of 31 different character types, e.g. the baddie, the protagonist’s companion and the false hero.

My narrative defies some of these rules but abides by others. For example in my story it is impossible to figure out who the bad guy is, it could be the protagonist or the psychiatrist. Tom (the main character) has done terrible things to innocent people which would normally make him the evil one but the fact that he wasn’t sane when he committed the crimes makes him seem more like he wasn’t in control. In the same respect the Psychiatrist is in an identical position. He is portrayed as the fatherly figure who is trying to council Tom and to help him realise his flaws but, towards the end he begins to become more and more annoyed and he starts to care less and less about what happens to Tom.

My Analysis of Narative Theory In Use

For me, I love confusing, ground breaking films that smash the barrier between what we know and what we don’t. Even though I don’t mind the Hollywood "fast buck" films, I have always found them corny, predictable and somehow childish. I agree that when you just want to sit down and switch of for two hours a Hollywood film is the perfect vent but if you want a mind bending piece of art then its not going to fulfil your needs. How many films in the last year have been so unimaginative that you could guess what was going to happen 5 minuets into it?

Despite this disapointment I have for Hollywood producers who seem to think of me as a dumb chimpanzee, watching something a child could have written and finding it mentally stimulating, I understand why most enjoy this kind of film.

Its because it is safe. It takes the consumer to a place where they know what’s next, they pay for what they are about to see because they feel it is the safe choice and they know they are going to like it. Unfortunately it means that films are becoming more and more stagnant. Sure there are films like inception that are made that are interesting and intense but because people are now used to the repetition of modern cinema they don't understand what is actually a relatively simple plot. This Film then in turn wins Oscars, gains accreditation from the major players in the industry and makes a shed load of money in the process for being more intellegent than the dribble that comes out of the Hollywood studios.

Films With A Similar Audience - Mulholland Drive

Mulholland drive is the only film I have ever seen that doesn’t manage to explain itself and that I haven’t managed to get my head around. It either starts of in a dream or ends in a dream or is all a dream or isn’t even a dream at all and is just a trip plus the main characters are two different people after they open a box but it just goes into their lives without setting them up. All in all it is by far the most confusing film I have ever seen and thus one of my favourites, I love thinky films.


The audience I am aiming for is almost identical to Mulholland drive. The sort of slightly more intelligent, well read and individual person who prefers the art orientated films to the action and romance flicks of mainstream Hollywood.


They will probably have a slightly weird sense of humour, be open to being put out of their comfort zone when it comes to films and they will not go and watch the films everyone else is watching just because they are.

Catch 22 - Deconstruction

Catch 22 is a film by Mike Nichols that I have always felt very fond of. The way all of the scenes seem out of order and that the film gets progressively darker and darker is brilliant. Its my favourite film from the 70s and possibly one of my favourite films ever.

The film is set in Northern Africa during the Second World War at an Air-force base on a small island. It goes through many sub plots but I think the main story is that Alan Arikin, the protagonist, is going mad after having seen almost all of his squad killed over a few months and is in a catch 22 situation of as the doctor says If he doesn’t want to go home then he is mad and will be sent home but if he wants to go home then he is considered to be sane and will continue being redrafted with no leave, a catch 22.

The thing I have taken away from this film is the way the lines are put together, the way the dialogue flows in a direction and you almost don’t have to listen to understand what they are saying. An example of this is when they are in the hospital and Arkin is pretending to be an ill son whose family have flown from America to see but who died the morning before and has been cremated. What I love about the scene is the way it is acted and shot as both are in the style of a sitcom situation. This, for 3 minuets out of the whole film, draws the reality away and makes the entire film even more ridiculous and entertaining by showing how ridiculous war is.  

Genre - Theory and Practice

As Humans, our drive to categorise and explain everything has brought about many unexpected but crucial discovery’s, like how Fleming found a strange and exotic specimen of mould on his piece of bread and after attempting to discover what it was, stumbled upon penicillin.

In the media, our desire to control the flow of text has resulted in the development and implementation of genre theory, they way of categorising media using different signs, signifiers and paradigms like the use of red in horror films and how the goody always pulls through in the end of some corny summer flick.

Psychological thrillers have always interested me and I believe I have a good idea of the codes and conventions buried within them like the use of over saturation in the grade to exaggerate the colours, making relatively boring and normal scenes into vivid pieces of art and making it seem less real and more mad.

 Plus it would be a challenge to film a short, dialogue heavy, script orientated, drama piece. It is very difficult because the narrative can become too complicated and strung-out. As well as this the conventions of a Phsyco-Thriller vary and it would be difficult to come up with a signifier that wasn’t to corny.

Research - Donnie Darko



A Scene From Donnie Darko inside the Cinema

Donnie Darko is one of the most clever and emotive films I have ever seen. The score, setting and shot design all add to an underlying feeling of insecurity that leaves you both dazed and confused and wanting more infomation. I hope to try and take away from this that style so i can, by using flash backs and filters, make something similar.          

Audience - Theory and Practice

Throughout media history the audience has always been the main focus of attention. From making the audience scream with terror to filling the auditorium with weeping sobs, the purpose of films is to entertain and audience theory is the method of applying this idea.

I have thought about the many ways in which i will have to enforce these ideas, like having to relate to my audience by making it contemporary and how it is very important that you can relate to the protagonist.    

One of the main points of view that was put across was that the film would have to adhere to the conventions of moderen cinema.

It would have to be easy to follow, have a few enigmas attached and that the film could not be too long as it would get less and less interesting.

All in all the audience has the most influential views

The Brief:

A Short Film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minuets, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options:

• A poster for the film

• A Radio Trailer for the film

• A magazine review page featuring the film