Story-telling Unit: Research into suicide, depression and character development.

It's really important in drama films to have realistic characters that react to situations in ways that the viewer can find believable. I have learnt from personal experience that films with characters in that perform acts that are greatly "out of character" can either be fantastic (and can lead to some amazing plot-twists and story-development) or absolutely terrible, and can ruin a characters likability. Therefore, I have recently been doing quite a bit of research into typical traits of depression and suicidal people.

I have used the internet to find a few websites which detail the symptoms of depression as a disease, as well as some of the common causes of depression and what can trigger it. I have found that a lot of cases of depression are caused by difficulties in life such as:

• Money troubles.
• Drug and alcohol addiction.
• Relationship problems.
• Loneliness.
• Unhappy work-life (Or lack of a work-life.)
• Bullying.

This research has given me a wealth of information to work with, as well as given me some reasons to make my films main character; Lucas feel suicidal. For the purposes of my film, I have chosen to make Lucas feel suicidal for several reasons, including the repossession of his car, loneliness, a recent loss of a job and lack of money (also a potential alcohol dependency). I believe all these problems when added together would be enough to cause somebody to feel extremely depressed in real life- perhaps even suicidal.

I originally wanted to call the suicide hotline; "Samaritans" so that I could actually speak with somebody that works with suicidal people in person so that I could get information on the condition of depression that way, but I understand the organization is extremely busy, and I wouldn't want to take any of their crucial time given the circumstances.

All in all, I think my research has given me a lot of information to work with. I feel like I have gained a small understanding of how suicidal people see the idea of ending their own lives (a form of escapism) as well as how I want my character Lucas to react in social situations, particularly with the secondary character; Jess.


I have also recently been generating my own ideas about why Jess would be so interested in assisting Lucas with his problems, and convincing him to not be so hasty when it comes to ending his life. My immediate idea was to have to two form some kind of romantic relationship over the course of the short-film, or have the Male/Female relationship being the reason for Lucas ultimately deciding to keep himself alive, but since then I have decided that is not the route I want to take with this film.
Typical Hollywood storylines tell of a damsel in distress being saved by a strong male character, and in my film we will see the exact opposite. The male character will be the weaker character in need of saving, while Jess- the female character will be the strong, independent character that has problems of her own, but is managing to deal with them. Since my film will already be ignoring the typical damsel in distress storyline, I have decided it will also ignore any potential love-storylines too. This will lead to Jess's motivation to save Lucas to be more about her sense of humanity as opposed to any particular attraction.

Story-Telling Unit: Character Development

I have recently begun the process of scripting my short film; "The Meeting".
During the scripting process however, I have stumbled across a bit of a problem. Since I have no experience dealing with suicide, or communicated with people contemplating suicide, I have no idea how the Lucas and Jess characters in my film should react and communicate with each other when certain events happen.
As such, I have decided to undertake some light research into the subject using the internet so that I can create believable dialogue. How am I to do this?
Well I personally think the best way for me to check out how suicidal people communicate would be for me to check out some YouTube videos about people's stories, as well as maybe check out some films that have already been made which feature characters close to ending their own lives.
I hope that by doing this, I can get a bit more of an understanding of the mind and workings of a suicidal person, which will add a sense of reality to my film.

Story-Telling Unit: Pitch for "Soft"

Recently we have been learning about the importance of pitches in terms of selling a story idea to a potential viewer or someone wanting to invest in the story. We will be creating pitches for our future script and story ideas, but in the mean-time we have been gaining experience on the subject by watching short films by various different film-makers, including the short film "Soft" by Simon Ellis.
The premise of the film seems to revolve around the theme of cowardice and also the willingness to stand up against bullies, at the risk of getting hurt and losing dignity. The film itself is a very powerful piece, that tells a very realistic, believable story in a very short amount of time. As such, it was a very beneficial experience and task to create a pitch for this film.
The actual pitch I came up with was this 22 word one:
"A father and son find themselves thrust into the middle of a violent, modern-day class war where fear and bullying dominates."

I chose to word the pitch the way I did so that the basic plot point is outlined to the viewer or potential script-buyer, without giving away the major plot-points, or films ending.

Story-Telling Unit: Character Analysis for "The Meeting"

In this post, I will briefly describe the two major characters that will appear in my short film "The Meeting."
The first character is a teenage male called Lucas. Lucas has no job, no money, no friends and is about to lose his home due to lack of rent payments.
He is a guy that has not had much luck in life, and slowly feels the weight of the world crushing him. Although to other people, the thought of committing suicide may seem like an overly dramatic, almost cowardly thing to do under the circumstances, Lucas feels like he has been dealt a bad hand in life- almost like he has no control over the way it has turned out, or the way it is going. Thus, the decision to end his own life is not only a way to escape the pressures he is under, but also a way of finally taking back some control and making a massive choice that he and only he can decide upon. Because of this, he believes the idea of committing suicide is perfectly justified.
The second character I have created for this story is a young female character called Jess. In the story, Jess will be the character that manages to convince Lucas to actually not be so hasty about his decision to kill himself, and also to try and help him repair his life. I have chosen to make this supporting character a young female after some suggestions from my class-mates. Initially, I had no idea of what gender to make the two characters in this film. However, after some discussion, I decided that I would like to explore the possible relationships between a male lead character, and a female character attempting to "save him."
I believe this would be a very interesting dynamic, as well as an opportunity to go against the typical Hollywood storyline of a "strong male character saving a damsel in distress."

I want to expand upon these characters in my script even further.