Romantic Comedy/ Magical Realism Film Treatment

So for my treatment, I wanted to use the editing/filming technique that Gino made popular with his jump cuts video and combine it with a story that is somewhat supernatural, complementing each other. Here it is:

Logline: A girl meets a weird male "ghost" who appeared and won't disappear until she finds a trigger.

A girl walks down an unassuming hallway reading a paper in her hand only to accidentally kick something. She looks down and finds out that it is a watch. She picks it up and stares closely at it, saying how the spoiled the kinds at the school are. A masculine voice says "That looks kind of familiar". She looks up unassumingly and says, "That's weird" He pops way back through a jump cut." "Now that's really weird."

Cut to walking down the street, the guy behind her in an awkward way. "Well, you are pretty much the only person who can see me, aaaaannnnddd you did pick up my watch, so imma follow you until you can find a way to help me out" "...[sigh] Well I guess it has to do with this watch. I don't really have the heart to throw it away...maybe its some kind of trigger a ghost needs" He shrugs his shoulders in semi-agreement. She walks up to her house, sighs again, and begrudgingly lets him in.

Cut to her walking through the door into her bedroom. She sits down and starts to fiddle with the watch. Clearly this watch isn't working, and we can see this on her face and with the watch. "Weird, I can't remember ever getting this watch to work." "Why is that?" she says, only slightly interested. "Probably too lazy to. Or maybe I was just too distracted, or apathetic. Kinda like you." "Apathy?" "Yeah, you barely care for anything." "Well, I cared enough not to throw your watch away." Awkward silence. "Yeah, you did. I do things like that too often." Meanwhile he flashes back to his past, people turning away from him and brushing his off. "Maybe that's why I'm dead and stuck." Flashback to him preparing to jump off a cliff "...well I guess that's why I'm here." She finally gets the clock moving again. He starts to disappear and says "Well, I'll be seeing you...someday" The girl smiles slightly, "Yeah, right. If only."

A few weeks later as the girl is a her desk looking at the watch, the door behind her opens up. She turns around and the boy is there. "Well, I thought I should get my watch back. Your mom let me in pretty easily. Its nice to be seen again."

She smiles and he comes closer to her, flashing out light to black credits.

Amelie Textual Analysis

From the quirky film Amelie we can see numerous stylistic devices that the director uses to draw the viewers into the story of Amelie and those she effects with her "good-doing". Here are four stylistic devices that are used:

1. Detailed Narration

Throughout the movie, but especially at the beginning, the narrator goes into deep details about each the characters, showing their small, seemingly meaningless quirks, like liking to touch grain in a bag and cracking creme brulee. The detail in this narration gives insight to the idiosyncrasies of the characters, giving highlight to the small details that most other movies miss out on or do not highlight in any particular way.

2. Ornate Set Design




Many scenes involve set designs that have numerous nick-nacs and details. Paris by nature is an artsy city that has a lot of detail in the streets, buildings and businesses, and even the hometown of Amelie is portrayed in such a way. I think that this device is used to make everyday life, even the mundane tasks of going to the market and the subway station, more interesting, emphasizing the value of everyday life, of everyday wonder. Even small details in life are worth taking a look at to appreciate, and since this is a movie, the viewer can be directed to these details that they normally wouldn't notice in life. Appreciating the "small things" is an important theme in the movie, and is essentially Amelie's mission throughout the movie to bring to quite a number of random people.

3. Detail in Minor Characters

In the film, I see how the director has a lot of minor characters that only show up for a total of a few minutes in the film, but it is interesting to note how these minor characters serve as catalysts for change in the more major characters and symbols of certain ideas. A lot of possibilities arise in the way that these characters can effect the major characters in a sometimes minute, but noticable way. For example, the character seen above had his pictures collected by Quicompoix when they fell under the photo booth, leaving Amelie to think that he perhaps left his potraits around with the same stoic face each time so that he could be remembered by someone picking up his portraits scattered around Paris even after he died. This idea of wanting permanence is an interesting idea that the characters may desire in the movie, since Amelie and Quicompoix both interpreted it that way, but the only reason his pictures were all around Paris like that was because he was the repairman for the photo booths. A sense of wonder in the small things is created.

4. Warm Tint




A warm tint is used throughout the film to cast the characters in a benign, joyous light in order to make the viewers warm up to the characters. I really like how the director decided to use these warm tints to make darker scenes and lighter scenes all flow together in one movie, making the movie very cohesive between its different themes. A sense of wonder is created in how the movie looks different from real life with richer colors richer colors that attract interest.

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.

Italian Neo-Realism

Our class watched the movie The Bicycle Thief as a quintessential Italian Neo-Realism film. Here is a summary of its basics.

Ideology/ Thematic Goals

The main ideology of this genre of film is the idea of "solidarity", as the importance of the whole community, rather than the importance of one person alone. The article shows this idea when it says that "[...]a focus on collectivity rather than the individual. Solidarity is important, along with an implicit criticism of the status quo." This type of cinema was against the ideas that had prevailed for so long under the rule of Mussolini, "the status quo". Also, it wanted to show a new view on the lives of real Italians, the everyday worker and his or her everyday, normal life, or " [..] an emphasis on real lives." These films were anti-fascist as much of Italy was after the fall of Mussolini, after World War II, or, as the article says, "Unquestionably, their greatest single influence was the anti-Fascism that marked World War II's immediate postwar period."

Historical Context

Again, Italian Neo-Realism emerged after World War II, making "[...] their greatest single influence [...] the anti-Fascism that marked World War II's immediate postwar period." Italy was in very poor condition after World War II; much of the country was in poverty, the government was in shambles and people were trying to rebuild their lives amongst all of this destruction. It makes sense that this movement broke from the idealistic, fanciful portrayal of life in Hollywood movies, for so much of the country was in despair, trying to rebuild. These people were probably disillusioned, and filmmakers wanted to capture this instead of normal escapist cinema.

Cinematic Techniques

-documentary-like style
-set up not elaborate
-not too complicated shots
-not many shot changes per scene (in comparison to now)
-used non-professional actors
-do not use sets; filmed on-location
-simple story


Key Contributors

DeSica: He was the director of The Bicycle Thief and made sure that the movie was shown as a piece of fiction, not as a documentary, but he did make sure to use non-professional actors. He focuses on the masses, not the individual.

Visconte:He made Obsession, and said that he could make a movie"in front of a wall" as long as he had something to say about humans in front of that wall. He liked to keep the movie "real", as in shot in real time and with unprofessional actors. Long takes, complex shots used.

Rossellini: Combined melodrama and actual footage into short bursts of intensity. It was not comforting. Also focused on the senselessness of war.

Important Films

The Bicycle Thief: This movie was important because it used non-professional actors in order to portray the real lives of people in Italy at that time. DeSica made sure to focus on the mass of people in this situation instead of the individual, showing the weakness of one and the power of a group of people behind one.

Obsession: This film used long complex takes to prove its point. affecting other films like this. It dwelled on the shots with bleak, natural light backgrounds.

Open City: This movie had a low budget, so Rossellini had to make a movie that combined the footage they shot as well as melodrama. This made the story episodic, with a jarring narrative.

Going Beyond the Still Image

It is interesting to see what just frames from a movie can tell us about the characters and the conflict of the film. Film is a combination of information from audio and video (moving pictures) used to create a feeling and to tell a story of some sort. In the short film "Wrong Place Wrong Time", a man is wrongly captured and then thrown into the ocean to keep the mistake a secret.

At the beginning, we see a guy in a tuxedo trapped in a box, and then we see a flash back to how he got into the box; two brutes ambushed him when he was coming from a high class event and put him in a box to bring to their master.

We can tell by the look on his face in normal conditions that he is a shrewd man of sorts, a person who is probably practical and calm. We can gather this from his dry humor in his lines also, making his acting match the character's personality.




When we reach the climax of the movie, it is easy to tell what the conflict is based on our prior knowledge of such situations with only the video, for the men are by a cliff and the two big guys are impending and would probably kill the man in the tuxedo if they did not get what they desired from the man on the computer. The following still demonstrates this idea:



Clearly, there is an issue, for the two taller men are the more powerful ones in the power relationship, and there is a dangerous and mysterious expanse behind them; the audience nor the protagonist know exactly where the characters are. Again, the tuxedo man is proven to be shrewd because he is trying to persuade his way out of danger, but he is loosing this battle.

Finally, in the resolution, the man is thrown into the water in the box and he looks at a photo of his while the water is gushing in. This part did not even need words to explain the depressing, hopelessness of the situation, with the man taking one last look at those he has left behind and will probably never be able to see again and at happier times in a photo probably of him and his friends, as shown:





This scene is blue with the water all around the man, depicting the hopeless mood well, and the picture is blue in this situation too, for the man is sad that he will never be able to have happy times like that and that he will probably die. The frame shows that the man has now resigned himself to his fate and wants to die remembering a happy memory. All of this can be shown through the pictures alone.

Overall, images can have just as much, or even more, of a message than words can in film, depending on the film. Images affect the power of a film significantly, for they are a main component; this can be the difference between and great, okay and horrible films.