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.

Story-Telling Unit: Creating a story and pitches.

Recently we have begun creating our own story lines and characters for our first university project. We have been given the choice of creating a comedy, a thriller or a drama. Because I have created comedy pieces in the past, and things that could be considered thrillers, I decided to create my own dramatic piece.
In order to do this, I have been developing my own characters and creating my own scenarios, which I believe would be very enjoyable to see play out on film.
I have had the opportunity to actually present my ideas and opinions to other members of my class, as well as take in some of their suggestions and thoughts in order to make my ideas better. I am extremely happy to have been able to develop my ideas further, and the addition of classmates that can improve my ideas has really helped me.
As a result of creating my own storyline idea, and sharing said idea with other members of my class, I have been able to generate even more ideas and fine-tune the ones I have already had. I have also been able to create my own 25 word pitch for my short film called "The Meeting."

"After convincing him to postpone a suicide attempt, a young woman struggles to show a broken man that life is worth fighting for. But will she be successful?"

I have worded my pitch in such a way that it describes what will happen in the film perfectly, but without giving away major details which I believe would spoil the film and give away the major plot turns.
The next step in the film-making process will be for me to take my completed storyline idea, and develop it into a draft script.
I look forward to beginning this process and creating the film. I will continue to update this blog.

Story-telling Unit: Exercise in story-telling.

Recently in my Broadcast Media class, we were given an exercise designed to introduce us to the art of story-telling. The exercise involved randomly choosing 2 types of character and a setting, and then create a story for the characters and that setting, with the key theme being a "meeting."
For this exercise, I worked with my new flat-mate, Ruby.
I did the random choosing, and picked a "Minor Celebrity" character, a "Private Investigator" character, and the setting of a prison. I found this exercise to be actually very interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed being able to work with somebody else to create an intriguing story.
You would think that restricting ourselves to using certain characters and settings would be hindering, but instead I found it to be a great way to set ourselves boundaries in our story-creations, allowing us to generate a realistic, coherent story.

The first character I worked on creating was the private investigator character. I wanted to create the impression of a seasoned, tough old ex-police investigator, deeply passionate about his work- to the extent of leaving his family and friends behind to pursue his occupation. The theme of this entire story would have been the importance of family and being there for children, and the change we wanted to show in this story was the investigator's attitude towards his own family, after meeting with the celebrity character.

The second character we created was the minor celebrity character. We wanted to create a character that would be believably involved with the private investigator character in some way, and we also wanted this celebrity character to be the reason the investigator changed his attitude towards his work. The celebrity character herself was intentionally created to be as obnoxious and appalling as possible. We made her a person that craves attention, whether it be bad or good, and made her someone who has issues with her family (especially her father). We thought this would create an interesting dynamic between the two characters, one who is very established, organized and dynamic (the private investigator), and one who is very rebellious and unruly (the minor celebrity).

The story itself was created once the two characters were established. We decided that the two characters would meet at the prison due to an indiscretion at the minor celebrities home, where the private investigator would be caught trying to find incriminating evidence about the minor celebrity after being hired by an un-named character.
The two would then meet at the local police station after the minor celebrity reported the incident to the police and would then visit the station to make a statement. This is where the majority of the stories action would take place and also where the big change of the story would happen. The change would be mainly psychological, with the minor celebrity character disclosing information about her troubled life and unstable relationship with her father, which in turn would cause the private investigator character to re-assess his relationship with his own daughter (who he effectively abandoned to pursue his work).

HEY!
So I've recently begun a Broadcast Media course in Rochester! So far I've had the opportunity to meet some great people and I really think I'm going to enjoy my time here.
So far during induction week we've pretty much just chilled out, been given the basics of what our course will be about, been introduced to the places we'll be working in and just generally gotten to know each other.
I'm really looking forward to what will happen in the coming weeks, and so I'll end this blog by saying; It's going to be a hell of an experience!

-Mark