When I first started thinking about creating a script, I knew that I wanted to do a thriller short film, as this is my favourite genre, and am familiar with the conventions of a thriller. While thinking about the setting, I decided to keep it around school, as this was the easiest and most accessible place to film. This then helped narrow down my main character, and the basic story line. My preliminary thoughts, included having the main character as a girl student at A level.
As I had chosen the genre thriller, I knew I had to play on the stereotypical story lines of a thriller. I came to the conclusion of using a 'dare' theme, which can be manipulated really easily into a thriller. However, after much deliberation, I changed my mind to this, as I couldn't make my mind up as to how to intertwine this together. My thoughts included:
*A few friends playing dares at the back of a classroom, and being dared to do various things, and stemming from this the dares could include
- going into an abandoned room in the school
- going into an abandon shed just outside of school
- deliberately annoying the teacher to get them sent up to t he head office
*Friends playing dares at break time
*The main character daring herself to do something she wouldn't
I also came up with the idea that a teacher would ask the main character to get some more books or another element, and after refusing a few times, she is forced to, but on her journey she has vivid flash backs to a previous event that no one knows about, as this could play on the thriller theme well.
*Walking home when it was dark maybe
*Being tormented on the way home by someone of something
- name calling
- laughing
- things thrown at her
*Taking a trek home through the woods; this was because there was a woodland area near our school, which could be easily accessible, and fits into the theme of a thriller.However, when I pitched this idea to my classmates and teachers, it became clear to me that this was a little bit too stereotypical. Some of the comments that I received included things like it felt too studenty, and there wasn't much of a story line. So, re-evaluating my ideas I came up with a similar idea, but changed the setting a a little bit about the character. I came up with:
*The girl being a bully
*She is the one being bullied on the way home, as this isn't expected
*The same similar tormented techniques as mentioned earlier
*Walking to school while this was happening
*Changing the setting to something more realistic surrounding such as a street, as this will not create too much predictabilityAfter these changes I have made to my story, I feel much more confident that I can make this short film much better.
Basic plot line:
Lucienanne is known for being a bully at her school. But she has a hard home life. Regular arguments with her father occure before Lucieanne makes her way to school in upset and anger as usual. However, something or someone torments her frequently on that journey. Names being called, laughing and other such things freak her out. She has no idea who these people are or what they are, but she knows theres someone there as this has happened for some time now. It isn't for a while until you find out that it was the victims she regularly picks on at her school have done this in order to get their own back.
Research
I did lots of research in order to find out information that could either help or rule out some ideas about my character. These are some of the websites that I found informative, and that would help in my short film.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:83i-WWPTYSoJ:www.athealth.com/consumer/disorders/aggressivegirls.html+girls+aggressive+bullying&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk
From this website, it was talking about the idea of girls being just as, if not more aggressive than boys. "The patterns of aggression in girls are different than in boys." So, I will have to make sure that I do not use all the typical ways of bullying that I am used to, as they are clearly different from what I am used to.
I found this really interesting website in which peers would give advise on how to get back at people who have bullied them, which I found really shocking.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080522201744AAP98Vq
There was some disturbing answers such as, "From the first bad look the person gives you or if he does anything that annoys you, fight back and show him that you are not someone to F*ck with" and "grab a baseball bat and take out his kneecap." These online sugesstions can make the idea of my story line more likely and realistic.
This website gave me family and genetic reasons that could affect the bahaviour of a person, if they were an only child; http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/eischens2.html
"Because only children lack siblings, they lose the immediate availability of others near their own age with whom to interact socially." This therefore could be another factor that can realistically affect a students behaviour towards others.
http://www.teachersandfamilies.com/open/parent/ra3.cfm
Within this website, there was many factors that would help me to understand why a bully would bully other people. "Perpetrators might be driven by jealousy, need for attention, anger, and fear of (or need for) competition." Here, if my character was an only child, with a broken home environment, she would need a way to get attention, and this could be how she becomes a bully.
There have been psychological researches which include the social learning theory; this is where the child learns through observation and modelling, and they will copy this behaviour themselves. This was conducted by Albert Bandura and he also looked at classical and oparrent conditioning. These are where if the behaviour is rewarded, then it will be carried on, and if the behaviour is punished, then the child will learn not to do that again. This could fit in with my character, as she could have been badly behavied and not punished for it, therefore she has grown up thinking that its okay to behave like that.
There is another biological reason for a child's behaviour, and this is because of a mutation of the MAOA gene. If both parents have this gene then it will be more likely that the child will have this gene and become more agressive.
http://uk.askmen.com/celebs/entertainment-news/winona-ryder/winona-bully-revenge.html
This website shows a newspaper artitle about a woman who was bullied herself while at school, and since then she became famous, refused to give an autagrapgh and said "you remember me? Remember in seventh grade you beat up that kid?...That was me. Go f*** yourself." This may not have been the most aggressive reaction, but this shows that bullying stays with you, and they will get their own back, even if it is minor.
Character Profile
Lucieanne, an only child, is a seventeen year old student, still attending school and is in year 12. She studies English, Psychology and graphics. She lives at home with he father, but they do not get along as he is a lazy man who hasn't got a job and has a short temper. They argue frequently and this is obvious that it has affected Lucieanne. Her mother is not in the equation, but unsure as to why. Her attitude towards life is quite laid back with a slight lack of esteem to push herself to do well. She has a reputation around her school to be misbehaved, and more often than not is in trouble.
While collecting the information for my character, there was some problems that I came across. I wanted her to have a broken home, as this can be easily shown on screen, and people can make the connection between misbehaviour and problems at home. I thought I would take the mother out of the equation, as this can emphasise the point even more, but I didn't want to make a bigger deal out of this then necessary, as I cant portray enough information in the amount of time that I had to get this message across. Also, if I leave this piece of information out, it makes the audience intrigued as they do not know.
Another element that I had trouble with, was what subjects to give her to do, as initially I had her doing BTECs and health and social care, and these subjects are too stereotypical for a misbehaved student. I also wanted to give her some intelligence, as otherwise the film would be too dark. But, I had to be careful here, as in reality, a student like this wouldn't be allowed to stay on the course or even in school if they were that badly behaved.
The final factor that I came across was the name. I didn't want to give her such a stereotypical name that people will work out straight away that she was a bully. This is why I liked the name Lucieanne, as it seems like a nice innocent name, and can throw the audience off if they see a different personality to the name, which is a common theme in my film.
Hum! It's empty, I got all excited.
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