Treatment

EXTERIOR: A school campus, halls outside

A young man runs down a hallway, turns the corner and runs into a disgruntled girl who brushes him off with a disdainful look. He continues on running and goes up some stairs, him going off screen up the stairs, transitioning into a flashback.

The flashback has the young man, say his name is LIAM, talking with one of his friends. The audience cannot hear their conversation, but they can see a change from a harmonious relationship to a bit of tension. LIAM turns away from his friends, transitioning into him running again.

LIAM continues on running, passing one of the friends in the previous flashback who told the other friend the the "conflict", who says "Isn't it a bit too late?...stupid", transitioning into a flashback where he is in an argument with his friend, and that friend walks away, saying in an echo voice, "I didn't think you would do that"

He turns the corner into the PARKING LOT, only to see his friend's car go away

LIAM says, "It was all a misunderstanding, but she never stopped to listen"

The End

Yeah, its not really any good; I tried to develop the concept, but I could not materialize it very well. Having a more profound-ish plot than this would probably be almost impossible in the amount of time we have for the video, and this plot is sort of shallow at the moment. I'll check out what others have to get some ideas maybe.

Dramatic Moment

So the main character, a guy, let's call him Liam for now, is a guy on a mission for a redemption of sorts. He is normal looking teenage guy and he has been troublesome to those around him in the past. He has caused a lot of unnecessary trouble with others, combined with misunderstandings, leading to a major rift with his friends. He now knows, though an encounter with an unknowing mentor, that he has a narrow window of opportunity to make things right, but if he misses this "window", he will not have another chance, and he will have to move on, possibly advice from the friends he messed up relations with. His window of opportunity is catching his friend before she moves to another country (cheesy, I know, but I can't think of something better right now). If Liam fixes this friendship, the rift will be lessened, and they will not go their separate ways having bad memories of each other, but if Liam does not, then that is an irrevocable rift and the friend will never understand the misunderstanding.

2. The dramatic moment is Liam chasing after his friend and just missing the car with his friend in it, missing his chance to explain the misunderstanding, which may or may not need to be explained, but it may involve another friend, but not in "love-triangle" format. Liam is running, showing that he is very committed to finding his friend at this very last moment to reconcile, but he denies how futile the attempt may be and does not think of what happens if he cannot explain himself well. He isn't really concealing anything, but more information about his situation is shown gradually throughout this "scenario". The ideas that the characters are thinking throughout the film would be shown by Liam's urgency and Liam's reactions to the accusations that the minor characters are making in the past, as well as flashbacks to scenes that he was involved in. I am not sure how to reveal the subtext, but I was thinking that the film could start off with Liam running and then a person yelling after him in a rude voice "Trying to fix something? A bit late isn't it?" and he continues and turns a corner fading into a flashback to an argument with his friend that shows that they are close and not enemies but with a vague issue between them. Then maybe he runs into a person and they say "Hey!" and that leads into another flashback explaining the concept more.

3. I don't know about casting yet, but the setting would be school, so I think that would be the most logical place to have the leaving scene, for there would be people around who would know the situation going on because it is a high school campus and everyone is into other people's business and it is a reasonably logical place for a friend to leave such a place for the last time before moving, next to their house or the airport. I don't know much about the production design yet, but I thought that there would be a lot of good opportunities to have continuing action throughout the scenes switching to make good transitions. Also, the school has a lot of good twist and turns for a "chase" of sorts (its just him trying to get to the one point as fast as possible).

"Plots That Kill" ? Assignment

The plot of Slumdog Millionaire from 2008 is an example of the coming of age plot in the drama genre. The genre conventions used in the plot include the classic story of how when the main character, Jamal, was a little boy he fell in love with a little girl (Latika). Variations of this set-up are also used in other movies of this genre, for they create much "drama", but the older-brother-younger brother relationship is also used much between the characters to create underlying tensions about the "love story" plot, with the conflicting ideals of the brothers and their power relationship. Also, an important part of coming-of-age dramas is an event that changes the way that the main character (as well as other characters) view the world and makes them have to "fend for themselves" in some way; in Slumdog Millionaire, the boys actually had to live on their own when they were very young. The narrative can vary a lot, but it is often told by a speaker that is older looking back on their childhood or is told in flashbacks from some point in the future (like Slumdog Millionaire). Sometimes there is a nostalgic tone, but not in this movie; it is more about the goal of Jamal's youth, his complete coming-of-age, was not reached until the end of the movie in the "present-time" when he was 18-years old.

2. My idea is somewhat similar to that of Slumdog Millionaire due to the fact that I want to interweave the story with flashbacks while the main character is in the present doing something towards reaching the goal set in the flashbacks. The idea is that the main character is running throughout an area searching for someone, hoping to get there in time to tell that person something. Throughout the time that the main character is searching, he/she has flashbacks to why this he/she is trying to reach the person in time after he/she runs into a few people who help explain the flashbacks before the flashbacks start. It is a very similar plot on a smaller scale, but I would want to have the character be trying to reach a goal less "cliched' than love in this situation. I was thinking of having the character say "I've done my duty." after the person he/she is searching for leaves right in front of him/her. Maybe the character was trying to clear up the relationship he had with the other person due to a misunderstanding that everyone believes. I would like the theme to be able to learn how to move past what was hindering them before, to learn to change only what they can, and to know that some things cannot really be changed the way we want them to; we can only try our best or adapt. I think that that is an important part of the coming of age plot line, realizing both what one can do and what one cannot do, and living based off of that. Not being able to change the past is also important in a coming-of-age drama with so many flashbacks, and maybe, learning from the past as well. I want the character to have put off action for a long time until it was pretty much too late possibly, or try to help as soon as he/she gets the reason to "search". This plot is a little bit too similar to other coming-of-age stories and might be a bit complicated to orchestrate, but it is possible and a lot of great cinematic techniques for scene transitions between the present and the past with lead-ins from minor characters, as well as perspective while running and such.

There seems to be a lot to explore in the coming-of-age plot based on how many movies there are on it, so it is a bit hard to make it original and plausible for a 5 or so minute film, but since it has been done so much, there are very good example of what to do and what not to do. If I were to do a film based on this plot, there would be a good amount of material to learn from, and maybe learning what works would create a more original plot.