Final Preliminary Task

My Pitch Presentation

Treatment

Treatment
Movie name
Gidon

Name + email
Kasim Khan - chickasim1@gmail.com

Logline
The film is about a teenager, Gidon, who has a sickly mother and an abusive step-father who mysteriously vanishes for a week with his step-father on a trip to 'his grandmothers', but comes back alone.

Location
The original location should be a normal, mundane atmosphere, therefore any park should be able to work well. As for the flashback, I will be filming in a train if possible and also in a corner shop. There will be one scene of a dinner.

Characters
- The protagonist is a clearly disturbed after this weeks incidents that are found out in the actual film, but before was an intelligent teenager with a father who ran away and forced him to take care of his sickly mother. He also has an abusive step-father who beats him.
- The friend is a curious but not very important role
- The step-father is an overweight, trashy man who has inherited money from his uncle and uses that and benefits to support the family.

Story
The film begins with the protagonist, Gidon, sitting in the park when his friend asks him about the past week in which he hadn't seen any of his friends. To this, Gidon replies by telling the story of his week. He starts by saying how he killed his father, however, this is explained further on in the film. He then tells his friend how he was called by 'Will' who was willing to share drugs with him if he would return the favour by helping him out of some sort of difficult situation. Gidon finds out it is to go with him as extra 'muscle' in case he is attacked when executing a high value drug deal. Gidon accepts, although when they arrive he finds out that Will never had enough money to pay the full price, and he says that Gidon can be taken as collateral until he can come up with enough. Gidon is furious that he is forced to carry out menial tasks in his job in the criminal network and he decides that he's not putting up with it. Gidon begins to form his own sense of morality after watching the men around him torturing innocents and beating up strangers and after a day, Gidon decides to task himself with the suicide mission of killing the head of the agency. He mindlessly storms to the head of the agency office and stabs and kills the mastermind behind the company. He somehow manages to escape with his life, but is now on the run. He goes directly to Reece's, who decides to help Gidon escape, although when Reece breaks his arm when trying to escape, Gidon faces his pursuers, accepting his inevitable death. After death, Gidon was remembered as a hero, at least to those who knew him well.

Genre
Drama

Inspiration
How I Met Your Mother - I took inspiration from How I met your mothers flashback scenes in which one characters story telling is fully told in their voice.
Shaun of the dead - I am hoping to use similar humour and cutting to Shaun of the dead when they discuss the pans for their escape
Forest Gump - I took inspiration from Forest Gump's idea of having the entire film shot in the past

Shot List

Preliminary Script

Script

(Eddie walks through the rain, almost unaware that it has drenched his suit and hair. He sees a gutter, gushing water, and stares for a moment. We then see the gutter fade into the pouring of the glass, and we see Eddie sitting at a bar with a few empty shot glasses around him. He silently signals for another, after downing his third.)

Bartender: 

So... What happened?

Eddie:

(Downs his drink, and smirks) my life has turned to shit.

Bartender:

(He stares at Eddie, clearly expecting more)

Eddie:

Well, I've lost my job as of today. My wife is about to leave me, and with her go my kids. My three kids. (Pause) So how about another drink?

Bartender:

(Shows no emotion, but after a moment pours another drink) You don't know pain...

Eddie: 

What? Why do-

Bartender:

See that man? He looks like any old, worthless drunkard. That man lost truly everything. When he was 12 his mother and father were burnt alive for being Jewish, while he sat in a closet. Watching. He grew up off scraps roaming the streets, and eventually met a woman. She died at childbirth. Although he had one reason still there, keeping him alive. He had a daughter. But that glimmer of hope for him was extinguished when she was kidnapped at the tender age of 3. As I told you before, you don't know pain.

Eddie:

(Looks up in horror) Why are you telling me this?

Bartender:

Find your wife, do whatever you can to win her back. Love your children, never let them slip away. Careers come and go, family is permanent.

(Eddie leaves the bar and upon exit notices the world in a different light. The bartender however stays still for a moment, before taking out a photo of his daughter. He folds it neatly and puts it away.

My third video diary on external sound devices

This is my sound testing project

My camera shots video diary

This is my mind map showing the Drama genre and whether or not i will follow its conventions

What social groups are we concerned with?


Gender

•My protagonist depressed male going through a mid-life crisis. His marriage is struggling and he goes to the bar to drown his sorrows in beer. He skulks into the room and has very monotone, low voice that he speaks in. He's dressed in a messy suit that isn't tucked and is a relatively good looking man.

•The bartender is an older man who is typically harsh. On top of that he’s a large man in terms of height and weight.

Age

•My lead protagonist is a middle aged, bored of his marriage due to the length of time he has been unhappy.

•The bartender is around his 60s and is also a white male. He’s a typical hardy old fashioned bartender and runs his bar with a baseball bat beside him.

•Age may be hard to portray as my actors are only my age (16) and wont be able to look much

          older

Ethnicity

•Both of the main characters are white however the bartenders American while the protagonist is British. The British man seems like a more reserved and less talkative man than the bartender who is a man who speaks his mind when he feels he needs to.

•This stereotypes both characters to their countries as Americans are known to be loud and brash whereas British people are known to be far more silent.

Sexuality

•The protagonist is married with children, therefore he’s not homosexual.

• At the end it is implied that the Bartender is the one with a daughter who was kidnapped therefore he is also proven to be heterosexual. He also is very manly and is the typical heterosexual man

Class and Status

•Both of the two lead roles are middle class as they both earn (or to the depressed man earned) a stable wage. As the main part of the short film takes place in the bartender’s property, the bartender will have dominance over the depressed man.

Treatment:
My preliminary task will be a scene where a depressed man goes to a bar to drink away his sorrows and ends up meeting an interesting bartender.

Location:
In a cafe, as it is the perfect place for my idea.

Characters:

•  The barkeeper, wearing a white shirt and black trousers. He must be a good actor (the best of the three actors)
• The depressed man, wearing a scruffier shirt and still in office attire 
• The drunkard lying at the bar will be in messy clothes and will have a dozen empty beers around him (has no dialogue so is the worst of the three actors)

Story:

A middle aged now single father of 3 has just lost his job and in the same week lost custody of his children. He now walks through the street, distraught, however he spots a bar and decides to enter with the intention of drowning his sorrows in alcohol. The bartender asks him why he looks so down, and after telling him his story he bartender doesn't show any sympathy. He then tells the depressed man how the drunkard two seats away from him had his parents murdered for being Jewish and how his daughter, his only love in the world, was kidnapped at the delicate age of 3. The depressed man looks up in horror and shock. The bartender then tells him to find his children and cherish them, and never give up on his wife. The man thanks him and runs out of the bar, and begins to notice the world in a different light.. The bartender watches him leave before taking out a photo of his daughter...
Genre:

Drama

Props:

• Flask
• Cup

All camera angles: ECU, CU, MS, LS, ELS, BEV, WEV, POV

High/low angle, dutch angle 

Tracking, crabbing, 

panning, tilting, crane

This is my first video diary on Three Point Lighting

This shows a group discussion we held about our ideas for our preliminary tasks

This is a Mind-map of my opening sequence ideas. The one I am most likely to use is the bar Idea as it seems the most realistic and moving sequence out of the four.

Camera Angle Descriptions

Match on action

Cutting on action or matching on action refers to film editing and video-editing techniques where the editor cuts from one shot to another view that matches the first shot's action.













In this scene we see Monica leaning in for the kiss and the camera cuts, however the cut is almost unnoticeable as the two cuts blend in seamlessly


Shot reverse shot

Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character.

In this scene we see Frodo and Sam looking at each other emotionally

180º rule

In film making, the 180-degree rule is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. An imaginary line called the axis connects the characters, and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character is always frame right of the second character, who is then always frame left of the first.

















In this scene both men have a conversation with the camera at an angle where the bearded man is always to the left, meaning it does abide by the 180º rule.