Screenplay draft 1

Screenplay: ‘Of Unsound Minds’

Characters:
Main protagonist (Rob)

Doctor

Personality one (Drug Abuser- Army veteran) (Daniel)

Personality Two (Young girl) (Lily)

Words in red overlap between characters.

Set in a small dark hospital psychiatric room. There are 4 chairs set in a circle with the main protagonist facing the doctor in the room- lit lightly by the spotlight. The other personalities are sitting either side of the main protagonist.
Doctor is wearing a smart shirt, jumper and smart trousers and is sitting upright in his chair with his legs crossed. The protagonist is sitting with bad posture and scrunching himself up in his chair, is also wearing a suit in order to show the role he has in society.

The 1st personality- Daniel is wearing a military outfit and is sitting with both feet on the floor with his back straight and hands on his knees. Lily is wearing typical young female clothes and has a band in her hair- she is sitting with her legs crossed at the bottom and twirling her hair.

Dip to Black and cut slowly to the establishing shot of the room.

Sound fades in slowly- starts off quiet and becomes gradually louder.

(joins the treatment in media-res)

Doctor:

What do you mean?

Rob:

I’ve been struggling, I’m worried. I've been talking with Daniel a lot too- he’s been telling me that nothing will be the same again.

Daniel:

It won’t- it was never the same for me. The world don’t accept me anymore, it never accepted me!

Doctor:

Daniel, you have nothing to worry about. We are all here to help you, we are here to make you feel welcome. I believe that the issues are with the other people, not you- they have the problem.

Lily:

Daniel, has been speaking bad about the world. He says that everyone is out to get us. He say no one want us here. He scare me, he make the world scare me.

Rob:
Scare me. He says that we aren’t normal, that people are scared of us. Daniel thinks that we don’t fit in. I don't think we fit in, anymore. Did we ever really fit in? Was we ever really normal? I was always different, but no one ever wanted to accept me. The neglect I felt hurt, do you know how that feels?

Doctor:

Lily, Rob, you are not neglected I am always here for you to talk to, Daniel faces a problem different to the rest of you- he’s still suffering. It will take him more time to recover than you two.

(Daniel sits rocking his chair in fear)

Daniel: There’s nothing wrong with me- it’s the world around me, that’s the problem. It just doesn’t accept me no more. It doesn’t accept anything that challenges the status quo.

(Daniel jumps out of his seat and crouches into a ball on the floor- he has heard a loud bang like a gunshot)  

RETREAT! RETREAT! UNDER FIRE, REPEAT WE ARE UNDER FIRE!

Doctor:

Daniel, listen to me, listen. It’s okay you don’t need to worry you are not back there- you are here with me and we are here to help you. Talk to me Daniel. What are you seeing?

Lily:
Daniel stand up, stop being silly Dan.

Rob:
Dan. Daniel you are scaring me- get up Daniel. What are you hiding from?

Daniel:
The shooting, they are shooting. It’s her (points at the doctor) she is trying to destroy us.

Rob:

Us. Why would she do that? She wouldn’t do that would she?

Lily:

No! She wouldn’t. She’s a friend, she help us. Daniel, stop being silly it’s not her fault. IT’S NOT!

Doctor:

Lily do not worry. Just stay calm- Daniel is just having a moment, he will see that the people here are here to help. He knows this is just a blip.

Daniel:
That’s your problem. You don’t understand me- you don’t understand what I went through- you don’t understand anything about my life, but you feel like you can help me. What do you really know? How do I know I can trust you? I‘ve got no reason to trust you.

(Pause)

I’ve got no reason to trust anyone. I was abandoned at 16 by my parents- the disappointment of the family. None of you have seen what I’ve seen- you don’t know the truth about the world like me.

Rob:
Me. The truth of the world is that they don’t really understand any of us! We are labelled as ‘ill’ because we aren’t normal to our society. Daniel has seen the dark truth, but I know the real truth.

Lily:

Dan, Rob (pause) stop being silly, you do not know the truth- how would you ever know the truth, I never told no one the truth.

Doctor:

What truth Lily, what’s your truth?

Lily:

What? What are you talking about. I never said nothing silly.

Rob.

Silly. (Pause) Lily you better not have told anyone the truth.

Lily:

I just told you I never told no one. Why do you never believe me? YOU NEVER BELIEVE ME!

Daniel:
Shut up Lily! Do you ever stop moaning?

Rob:

Moaning? Guys be quiet. Just be quiet for one minute please. I can’t even gather my thoughts properly.

Doctor:

Do you have anything you want to discuss guys? It seems like you all have something on your mind and I really don’t want you to suffer on your own.

Rob:

No, we have nothing to tell you. Even if there was, what evidence is there to tell me that you can do anything for us? It is best we just leave everything be.

Lily:

Be. What use is it doing keeping secrets anymore? Everything is found out somehow. Like when them people at school found out about my illness- they had no way of finding out, but they did.

Daniel:

Well you should know that nothing stays secret, it’s better to just get it over and done with. I know the best that there's always a way of discovering everything.

Rob:

Everything. No we don’t need to say anything, why do we have to say anything. If they can’t accept us then they have to deal with the consequences.

Doctor:

Nobody has to deal with anything. There's plenty of help for everyone. The worst way that you can suffer is in silence.

Lily:

The truth is, there is no truth so really no one is suffering at all (Lily giggles nervously)

Daniel:

The truth is that doc will find out anyway- we just need tell her so you get in less trouble.

Rob:

The truth is that no one needs to know anything, what is there to know anyway? It's not like they would believe anything WE would say is there

(Camera pans round back of main protagonist- Rob and fades to black. As the camera begins to pan out into a wider angle shot the room now only has two chairs remaining- one empty chair and the main protagonist)

(Rob is the only remaining character in the scene. He gets up and walks off through a set of doors. He enters a small room- which appears almost like a closet. As he enters the room you can see a young male tied up in the corner- he appears ill and weak. He shows no signs of trying to battle against Rob)

Rob (speaking as Rob):

No one will ever need to know- this is how it has to be done.

Rob(speaking as Daniel):

They were always going to find out (pause) it’s better this way.

Rob (speaking as Lily):

I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, but telling the truth now would just be silly.

END.

Schizophenia pesonality reasearch - 'split'

'Split' contains 23 different personalities all portrayed by actor James McAvoy, but throughout the film the audience only see 9 of these personalities. All of these personalities both contrast and compliment eachother in order to create a compelling narrative which is both thrilling, but funny.
The characters that are shown are:


Kevin Crumb- a polite and gentle man who is the original personality who is horrified by the actions of the other personalities in the film.


Dennis- Dennis is a highly serious character who is a fierce defender of Kevin. Dennis suffers from OCD and is also affected by a repressed, but fierce libido (this is the character who abducts the three girls).


Hedwig- the 9 year old character who is obsessed with Kanye West. He loves to dance and chat in his room, but is disheartened by the fact that people do not take him seriously.


Patricia- A cross dressing matriarch who is obsessed with fashion. Has a precise and cold personality.


Barry- the main character who spends the most time in control. He is a very kind and gentle character, but does not realise how much trouble he is in.


Orwell- An over analytical scholar who scruciates everything instead of trying to solve them.
Jade- a kind girl with diabetes.

History of the Thriller genre

History of the Thriller genre


The thriller genre is one of suspense and excitement. Tension is built by delaying what the audience sees to be inevitable but is built through situations which are seen to be inescapable. Thriller films are usually hybridised with sub genres such as action thrillers or sci-fi thrillers. For example ours will be a psychiatric thriller.



1920's-30's
In this era producers used to constantly regurgitate common ideas at the time with the instalment of long running franchises with each film ending with a cliffhanger that sees the hero in great danger. The 30s was the age of witty gentlemen detectives who constantly used one liners rather than violence to get out of a tough situation. Sir Alfred Hitchcock's "The 39 Steps" was seen as setting up the template for exotic action action-adventure thrillers. The film was filled with chase sequences and a constant exchange of innuendos between Robert Donat and his leading lady.



1940's
In this period the genre toughened up with a flourish of urban crime in which there were fedora, trench coat wearing figures stroll through the cities late at night in order to solve mysteries. The plots were dense and the mood was hard bitten which went perfectly with the weary post war period. George Cukor brought in a psychological thriller in 1944 called "Gaslight". It was about a husband who plotted to make his own wife go mentally insane in the hope that he would gain her financial inheritance.



1950's - 60's
Alfred Hitchcock made a dramatic change to the thriller genre but bringing in the use of colour so that they were no longer black and white. Glamour was also added to his famous thrillers with the introduction of  'icey blondes' in the casting of his leading ladies. The first of these was "Strangers on a Train" in 1951. Constant repetition in thriller films in this period lay down the basic building blocks for creating a thriller film. "Peeping Tom" was a 1960's psychological thriller which featured a serial killer cameraman - the film was seen as controversial and received and extremely harsh reception.



1970's
This period brought in a increase of violence and horror to the thriller genre. There was almost an overlap between the horror and thriller genre with films such as "Wake in Fright" and Hitchcock's "Frenzy" which received an R rating for its vicious and explicit strangulation scene.



1990's
Thrillers began to have recurring elements of obsession and trapped protagonists who struggle to escape the clutches of a villain. Then the detectives who chased down a serial killer seemed to be the next trend for thriller genre. "The Silence of the Lambs" is a famous example of a thriller film in which a cannibalistic psychiatrist engages in conflict with an FBI agent whilst she hunts down a transgender serial killer.

List of characters with analysis

Main Characters

Main Protagonist - Called rob works in the city as a stockbroker 8am-6pm. Rob doesn't get enough sleep as he gets home at 8pm and continues to work at home until 1am  because he feels he isn't as successful as everyone else at work and feels if he does extra work he will be on par with everyone else as he is having a rough period and only gets 5 hours sleep as he has to get to work at 7:30, making him stressed because of the environment he works in is very fast paced and you can't put a foot wrong as the whole businesses reputation is on the line. - Wearing full 2 piece suit

 

Therapist - he is doctor trying to comfort in rob and help him get over his mental health issues, very intelligent, cool, calm and collected and handles intense situations with ease and really tries to get to the bottom of Rob's problems and brings the truth put in him as he knows that he is the only person Rob can confide to  - Wearing a shirt with black smart trousers and smart shoes

Personality one (Little girl) - Is called lily, young innocent 12 year old meaning she isn't very intelligent, naïve and relies on other people to help her all the time as she was spoilt when she was younger and got everything her way meaning she lacks independence - She will be wearing a white dress which shows her innocence

Personality two (Ex war veteran)  Called Daniel. An ex army veteran who still suffers from post war traumas. On the surface he appears calm and collected- he is the stereotypical alpha male, but in reality he is suffering from a deep mental breakdown which he doesn't like to express.- Wearing a military outfit as still likes to believe he is serving for his country.

Idea Proposal

Q&A

Q - How is the film going to start? Is it going to start in Media res in a counselling session?
A - The idea for the start of the film is that the audience join in the middle of the counselling session in order for the audience to see that they are unable to be treated properly by doctors, as they will be having the counselling sessions, but the hallucinations will still be happening around them.


Q - Is it going to be a documentary style?

A - The film will not be in a documentary style. Even though the film has an educational message the film will take the shape of a drama in order to show the mental illness in a real life situation.


Q - What different schizophrenic personalities will the character have?

A - The different schizophrenic personalities we believe  will be portrayed are: a young girl, an elderly man, a younger male who is a drug user/hippie and a person from an ethnic minority group. This is done in order for the personalities to both contrast and compliment eachother due to them all living in one society, but all having contrasting beliefs on the world they live in (so that the main protagonist is unable to actually collect his thoughts.

Schizophrenia Research

What is Schizophrenia?


Schizophrenia is a severe long-term mental health condition. It causes a range of different psychological symptoms.



Such as:


Hallucinations – hearing or seeing things that don't exist
Delusions  – unusual beliefs not based on reality 
Muddled thoughts based on hallucinations or delusions
Changes in behaviour


Causes
Caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors.


Treatment
Usually treated with a combination of medication and therapy

Recce

The reasoning behind choosing this specific location is to adopt a dark colour palette in our film in order to represent the mindest of our main protagonist who is going through a dark period in his life. The enclosed room will be used in order to give the feel of a psychiatric ward, where the patient is being questioned and tested by the doctor.

In a heartbeat - Textual Analysis

Mise en scene
In a heartbeat represents many micro elements in a short time. For example the young characters in the short film judge the other young males in schools and that causes young people to look or dress a certain way to fit in. this could be seen in Gramsci's hegemony, when the boys are looking into each others eyes everyone looks at them with disgust because the dominant ideology in the school is probably that everyone is heterosexual. which causes the ginger boy to run off and the colour palette changes to gloomy sad colours which represents the boy's emotions.

Camera
The close ups are different in the fact that when there is a close up on the ginger boy he's in love with his dream boy and his heart starts to beat out of his chest, on the other hand when there is a close up on the brown haired boy he is cool, calm and collected  and when contact with the ginger boy happens he is puzzled because he is trying to be someone he isn't and they both are shying away from their true emotions. This ties into Stan Cohen's theory of moral panic and again this is them being someone they're not to fit in as they know when they show emotion to each other it's not socially accepted in the school they go to which is why they both have to act cool and hide true emotions.

Sound
When the ginger person locks eyes to his dream boy romantic music is played which can represent that homosexuals don't voice their opinions. The film has no dialogue which the director has done purposely in order to magnify the message of the film as it can all be seen through the actions of the characters- and may be due to them highlighting that some homosexuals suffer their feelings in silence. This again is gramsci's hegemony as it's the 'norm' to be heterosexual and voice it where as homosexuals are less vocal and shy

Editing
As it's in CGI it means that the director can do things with the film, that they would be unable to do with real life characters e.g. have a flying heart. The CGI flying heart is used as it is a metaphor for the uncontrollable emotions that the homosexual character has and therefore extends the message that we cannot choose who we love (which is evident throughout the film).


   

Deep it - Textual Analysis