Brothers-2 The two brothers Riyad and Islam have travelled from their North African home to mainland Europe so that they can get medicine for their dying mother which is unattainable in their home country. However what the younger brother is unaware of is that they are coming to the UK to get a better opportunity for themselves as well as help their mother. Riyad
North African
Early 20's
Speaks French, Algerian (Language could change depending on the casting process)
Older brother of the 2 immigrants in the back of a lorry
Has to act as the father figure to his younger brother as they are travelling together without their parents
Riyad has to explain to his brother that they have to do what they are doing in order to help their mother.
Riz Ahmed
Islam
North African
Late teen's
Speaks French, Algerian, and small amount of English
Younger brother to Riyad
Feelings of regret to their decision to come leave their home and their sick mother
Karl Glusman
Police-officers-2 Have just witnessed a terrible event during which someone died. This has shocked both of them, as despite being in the force it is still a rear thing to see. Florence
British
Early 20's
recently joined the force with only a few months of experience.
Stunned by the experience she just had where she witnessed a dead body for the first time
Aimee Ffion Edwards
Glen
British
Late 30's
Been in the force for more than 10 years
Still shocked by the preceding events
Paddy Considine
Lorry Driver + Radio host Richard Richard is a man who voted to leave the European union when the referendum came about, but is now having doubts about the validity of his decision. He decides he has to let his feelings out by admitting that he made a mistake with his decision. So he apologises live on air of the local radio station.
British
mid 40's
Feels he needs to apologise to everyone, especially his 13 year old son
Openly emotional on the radio
James (voice only)
Radio host
deep soothing voice
comforts and associates with Richard agreeing with everything he has to admit
Makes the conversation a friendly chat as if between friends
Appreciates Richards honesty and courage to do what he is doing.
Start - Group discussion As a group myself, Plamen and Lawrence have had our first meeting as PAL Productions (concept name), by putting our head together and aiding in the development of each others ideas. We spent most of the time looking into how Lawrence could improve his story of Despicable delinquents and helped him realise that it may be better for his story if he starts in the middle of the first episode. In this way we get to explore his characters more thoroughly without spending half the episode looking into the main characters backstory. Lawrence's show character descriptions:
The aim of our trio is to help each other with all aspects of production. With that in mind we wanted to list the roles we would need on our productions so as to see where we are at this current point in time:
Above is a simple list of people we will need and which roles we have potentially got at hand. Accessible people who we are confident can help:
Lighting runners/runners: people there to help set up and move lighting as well as being general runners, we were hoping these roles would be filled by eager 1st and 2nd years.
Behind the scenes: is an added extra but would also be filled by someone in the years below.
Music: This is a real coup if we can get it, Plamen has a very close friend who composes music in Bulgaria for theatre and film and is very eager to help Plamen, whether he can help all three of us is dependent on time.
People who could be added bonuses if we can attain their services:
Colouring: Added person if we were looking for something over and beyond our level of colour correction (Plamen knows a friend in Bulgaria).
Concept artist: for the more elaborate work most likely to help Lawrence to visualise his idea.
Costume/make-up: this would give our work another added professional element and if achievable would be very beneficial to our work.
The hope now is that we can continue to work as a production during pre-production, but especially during our shoots, we will need all the help we can get.
Idea #1: Team-Talk A recently appointed foreign football manager has to give his first team-talk without being able to speak in the same language as any of the players. He has to encourage, motivate and inform a team through the language of football and improvised sign language. Theme(s): Language, sport, team Cast: 1 main, 2 supporting, 5-15 extras Locations: 2 (office, changing room)
As an avid football watcher and supporter I find it unusual and slightly surreal when foreign managers arrive at an English club without speaking a word of English. They have to go through several months before they are able to give a press conference in English, so it makes you wonder how they impart there tactics and inspiration onto players without speaking there language.
There is something quite quirky about this interview the way the Spanish manager Pochettino delivers his replies through this middle man. So it makes you think does the translator have to start geeing up the players before a match, this appears as an oddly surreal picture to me so one that would be interesting to tell.
Idea #2: Processing To gain access to the country an immigrant has to go through an elaborate screening process containing increasingly more ridiculous tests. Satire of political and cultural elements of todays society which if looking from the outside in would seem ridiculous. Theme(s): Politics, culture, immigration Cast: 1 main, 3+ supporting Locations: 3-4 (unique rooms)
As a reaction to current situations involving Donald Trump and certain politicians in the United Kingdom and their need to increase border control. This would be satirical imagining of what the screening system might be. I have drawn inspiration from Channel 4 program 'Black Mirror' (written by Charlie Brooker), but also surrealist comedy programs like 'The Young Ones' (1982-84) and 'The Mighty Boosh' (2003-2007) on the style I have in mind.
Black Mirror takes a serious but satirical view of our world today. According to its creator Brooker the title Black Mirror even refers to the screen on our phone, tablet, laptop, TV when switched off looking back at us.
The Mighty Boosh is a much more outright comedy, but its the surreal nature of it all that appeals when thinking of the style of the film.
Idea #3: Animals Two men driving a lorry discuss whether immigrants should be let into the country post Brexit. One man is very open to letting them in where as the other is not so sure. They are then confronted with the issue head on and they discover some human cargo.What should they do? Theme(s): Immigration, human nature Cast: 2 main, 3+ supporting/extras Locations: Lorry Int Cabin/trailer, secondary location stationary lorry at parking area
Immigration is a theme I begun on and it has an appeal as I can relate to coming to the UK. As in my early teens I came back to the UK after 12 years living in Easter Europe. My experience was hugely different to the horrible pain and suffering people trying to get to the UK go through, but I feel I want to tell a story about them and how seeing it first hand might change ones mind.
This film would be much more dramatic than the other 2 concepts, but it has a message that can resonate with viewers and maybe even change their feelings. I am inspired by reactions to Britain's decision to leave the European Union as well as stories of toil from people trying to escape their brutal reactions. There are a couple of radio interviews between James O'Brian and callers into the show which have inspired me the most to develop this topic. Firstly there was an interview with a man who voted leave.
Throughout the interview O'Brian questions him about his choice in relation to EU laws and the man is left stumbling on his words without really knowing what to say next.
However it is the second interview I listened to which has really got me excited about this particular story. Full of emotion and regret the caller who voted leave passionately apologises for his vote having realised that he has made a mistake. Even though you can't see his face, his voice tells the story wholeheartedly he feels regret towards O'Brian the presenter as well as more importantly his own 13 year old son. What makes this perfect is the fact that he is also a lorry driver.
Despite going in fairly confident about an idea that could take-off my pitch ended up the complete opposite. The things myself and others in the room found were that it was hard to understand what my story was about and what direction it was going. I had the 2 themes of language and brothers in the fledgling idea, but I essentially over complicated it with an overdrawn backstory about a secret government agency. Presentation below:
This whole experience has already taught me that simple is better and watching several short films during these weeks has only further confirmed this phrase. When trying to develop a story only designed to be under 20 minutes in length the more I add the longer and more unnecessarily cluttered it becomes. This film below is under 20 minutes and manages to convey an alternative shape and form of grief to a musical man played by Richard Kind.
What also appeals to me in this story is the lack of dialogue and how this mans emotions can be conveyed through the face of the actor and the crazed band that follows him around as a perfect metaphor for grief to a man who thinks in music.
Just today I also watched a short film from 2011 called 'The Voorman Problem' which is a great example of a simple story in the style of magical realism. Starring Martin Freeman and Tom Hollander, the film has Freeman's character a psychiatrist arriving at a prison to interview a man who believes himself to be a god (Hollander). This simple but intriguing premise messes with the viewers mind and eventually surprises.
These inspirations have in turn lead me to abandon my original pitch and take it down a notch to a more simple story with a good message and theme that can be followed.
As my film currently contains a foreign person in an interview I have been debating the issue of whether I use subtitles to translate the language to English or use another technique. I have a few options in mind as an alternative to subtitles:
Firstly there is the translator actually translating the persons words to our main character who does not speak the language, however this requires a lot of back and forth between the 3 of them and whether I make this comical or serious could be effective in telling the story.
There is definitely scope for the comic approach as seen in this well put together scene from the aptly titled Lost in Translation (2003, Dir. Sofia Coppola): This scene is really well done and produces comedy from the lack of understanding as well as the lengthy sounding nature of Japanese sentences.
Or much like this scene have my character with no translation and therefore a certain amount of ambiguity about their character which the agent has to figure out together with the translator.
My other idea for translation would be to use text or more specifically documents and pieces of paper with key bits of information from the suspect.
Text when used in film can be very effective, but film is a visual medium so there can be an argument against subtitles because they can distract from the visuals. This is why "Italy...dub foreign-language films" (Darke, critic for Vertigo magazine) much like many countries preferring to avoid subtitles in favour of dubbing the voices into their own language. The video below explores very effectively the means of showing text in film in a visually appealing way for the audience to enjoy and to add to the visual film experience rather than retract:
In a sense I could use subtitles not in the formal sense, but to instead have them pop up on screen and to appear on documents for us the viewer to see translated only for the agent to be kept in the dark. Ultimately this could be visually beautiful but I have to find the best way for the story to work with the use of text and a foreign language.
