Treatment

Title

The title that we have chosen for our film is Relentless. The definition of ‘Relentless’ is unceasingly intense and persistent, harsh or inflexible. Being a story about perseverance and the struggle of reaching ones goal, this seemed like an appropriate title. Our main character is persistent in ensuring that he not only achieves his upmost goal of winning an extremely important varsity match, but also ensuring that despite past negative experiences in his life he will sustain a relationship that often fluctuates in satisfaction. Furthermore, the word ‘Relentless’ portrays the determination and forward thinking required to achieve both of these difficulties in his life.

Logline

‘It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up’- Babe Ruth. George Herman “Babe” Ruth was an American baseball outfielder who achieved greatness on such a scale that includes 714 home runs and won more than double games than he lost in his life. Babe Ruth also was the first person to receive over 50 home runs in one season, and this cannot be achieved without determination and a combination of both success and failure, so this quote seemed perfect to sum up the dedication depicted in our film.

Location

Location is paramount, and must be considered carefully before shooting a film. We will be filming in three main locations, which include a house in Park Wood belonging to one of our teammates. The preference to a house rather than a student flat accommodation was to ensure that it was as authentic as possible, and although our characters are students themselves, it is common for only first years to be placed on campus accommodation. Therefore as our story has two main characters that are living together in second or third year, it is more realistic if they live in a house; as if they are older. Notwithstanding this information, permission to film is often difficult to acquire, so with the permission with fellow housemates, a team member’s house on campus was the most

accessible and realistic to obtain. We will also be filming on the Sports Pavilion on campus. This is where the rugby team train most, and therefore will be plenty of opportunity to film the players in action. Further shots will take place in the Sports Centre, particularly training in the gym, and residential roads around the campus.

Character Profiling

Before proceeding with the filming process it was important to identify the characters that would be present throughout our film. This included both the protagonists and the other characters whether they be additional speaking parts, or extras. Please read below the following character profiles, and why we choose for them to fit this profile.

Name: JakeDescription: ProtagonistAge: 20 (Can be an older or younger actor, this is just his age in the narrative).Appearance: Dark hair, Tall, Athletic buildQualities: Sporty, Resilient, Determined, hardworking, ‘Relentless’.

Jake is a 20 year old male who is a competitive rugby player. He trains almost every day although always finds himself falling short of winning. To build a character profile of Jake we compiled a survey using the online resource ‘Survey Monkey’. This was aimed at our target audience of teenagers and young adults. We distributed the survey via the social network Facebook and asked a few questions based upon appearance. The survey was to ensure that we were able to see what our audience expect the appearance to be of a 'Male Rugby player' to be. The result of this was the ability to create a character profile before the casting process in order to cast the correct character that was based upon what the audience want to see. This would result in our film potentially having a higher success rate. It became apparent from our results that 100% of people that answered would want to see a male with dark hair and over 5'5 in height. The majority prefer 5'9+ although, we must still respect the minorities opinion and make sure he isn't too tall as some people would prefer him to be 5'8 and under. We chose him to be 20 years of age, as this is still not too far out of the ‘teenage’ age group, but also not too old so that our target audience can still relate to him. The qualities that we choose are simply those typical of an athletic competitive male, and although it is seen as forward thinking and modern to challenge stereotypes, it is important that we stay as close to the stereotypical ‘athletic male’ guidelines. This is because three minutes is simply not enough time to challenge a stereotype effectively.

Name: NaomiDescription: ProtagonistAge: 19 (Can be an older or younger actor, this is just her age in the narrative).Appearance: Under 5’7 in height, No other preferences. Qualities: Intelligent, Articulate, Well spoken, Independent, domineering

Naomi is the girlfriend of our protagonist Jake. She is slightly younger than Jake, but still in the same academic year so can fully relate to his academic pressure. However, she often fails to recognize is how sport is equally as demanding, and does not understand how balancing the two can be highly stressful. She wishes to spend more time with Jake, but this is almost nearly impossible due to university and sporting pressures, and often argues with her boyfriend. During

these scenes is where her domineering presence is displayed most to the audience. She is a well-spoken intelligent girl, and this adds to her dominant persona, as she often overpowers Jake in an argument with her linguistic capability. Her affluent background is often portrayed throughout the film, and she often sees Jake as being beneath her. We decided that Naomi should be under 5’7 in height, simply because this is shorter than protagonist Jake, and we wish for her to not tower over him. This was to create an interesting balance of hierarchy, as even though she is shorter than Jake she still manages to ‘look down’ on him metaphorically. We do not have any other appearance preferences for Naomi, and we have planned to cast her after casting Jake so as to see if the two of them ‘gel’ as a couple and suit each other on set.

Name: MaxDescription: Friend of JakeAge: 19 (Can be and older or younger actor, this is just his age in the narrative).Appearance: Athletic build, no other preferences.Qualities: Supportive, Helpful, Caring, Sporty, resilient, determined.

Max is the friend of Jake, he does not appear much throughout the film, probably three or four shots at most. He is just there to provide a ‘shoulder’ for protagonist Jake. He again has to fit the stereotypical ‘Rugby player’ profile, being athletic with a large build, and qualities to match the stereotype such as resilience and determination. Although Max has a more sympathetic approach to life, he is supportive, helpful and caring. Jake has no other specific appearance preferences.

Name: WillDescription: CaptainAge:20 (Can be and older or younger actor, this is just his age in the narrative).Appearance: Athletic build, no other preferences.Qualities: Supportive, Sporty, pushy, demanding, strong willed, aggressive

Will is the captain of Jake’s Rugby Squad. He is quite demanding, strives for excellence and is again athletic, so that he fits the classic stereotype. His strong willed approach on life can be deemed as quite domineering. He is overpowering and wants to ensure that things always go to HIS plans. He is impatient, and his aggression towards sport makes Jake more determined to succeed.

Extras Team mates Passer by Gym goers

These are people who will inevitably be part of the shots. We will ensure that if we use them or they are framed in the shot, we will encourage them to complete a participation form, we have no appearance preferences for any of these people, and qualities are irrelevant as they do not have a speaking part.

Target Audience

The story being based on young adults aged 18-25 usually calls for an audience of teenagers aged 15 to adults in their late twenties. So this would be classed as ‘teens and young adults’.We have identified our short film as that similar to a TV drama or documentary that would be shown on the popular channel BBC3. This channel is one for all ages, although most of their content has the same target audience that we do.I am going to look at some shows with a similar target audience to ours, so that I can analyses both the storyline and the micro aspects of them in order to gain an understanding of how they target their moving image at their audience so accurately and gain the desired response.

Influences

‘The Impossible’: ‘Nothing is more important than the Human Spirit’.The first inspiration for films with an impact was The ‘Impossible’ by Juan Antonio Bayona. This dramatic thriller was based upon the true horrifying event of the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004. The basic plot includes a family of 5 on a winter holiday in Thailand, when the beautiful holiday dream quickly becomes a nightmare as the colossal wave travelling up to 800km per hour wiped out the resort and everything in its path. Once separated, both parents quickly realise that it is now a race for

survival, and in order to find each other and reunite the family they must act quickly and efficiently. The action and suspense begins right within the first few minutes of the film. As soon as the tsunami hits, one instantly becomes tense and eager. With brief scenes of gore and horror, combined with tension and apprehension, one is completely fixated and eager to continue. For us the most important dramatic feature of the entire film was the deafening silences- with bellowing screams and underwater shots completely inaudible were extremely effective. Although budget will be extremely limited in our own film, there are some distinct techniques that could be taken from The Impossible. These include the true relationship between the characters, because when watching the film one becomes involved in the characters and empathetic towards their emotions. This is particularly due to the fundamental issue of correct actor selection, but also down to the relationship with each other as one becomes relaxed and trusting because the relationship appears so real and true. Furthermore, the plot twists and turns are important too to ensure that the audience does not become bored. This includes the ending too- which in fact is a very predictable, positive ending within The Impossible which although positive 'cheesy' endings almost disregarded by our team worked very well and left me emotional and fulfilled.  

‘Nothing Is Impossible’Although it doesn't really follow a narrative structure, the film compiles a great

deal of amazing diverse sporting shots, this will help us in the opening sequence of our film

where we want a variety of shots of sporting activities, the short snappiness of the shots makes it gripping, And the slow motion edited shots make it have an emotional aspect to the piece, it makes the audience see the hard work that goes into sport and the adrenaline rubs off on them, making the film more gripping and in turn gain a better response.

‘Awake’The first person narration works quite well and makes the film gripping, we could use this as an idea for our short film. The shots are good to, a wide range of angles, non-static, and static work well together, the lighting is also good and helps with the mood. The score is simplistic yet creates suspense, this is definitely something that we need to translate into our own work.

‘My shoes’This film is about a young boy who is living in poverty or neglect, he has to walk around in untidy clothes, he feels jealousy when the young boy who sits by him has better shoes than him, although the boy then gets picked up by his parent in a wheelchair, while the boy in the tatty shoes is running around jumping and playing. The moral is, be yourself and not to wish you could have someone else’s life, although it may seem idealistic on first impressions, you don't know the ins and outs and should not judge.

Subject

We choose sport as our subject matter, simply because it accessible on a student budget, it also doesn’t require high levels of special effects which we do not have access to the resources. It is a matter in which we can compile a short film effectively without it looking unprofessional. It also is a subject matter in which most people can relate to, either because they are personally associated with sport or they can relate to the competitive or draining aspects involved.Our short film will revolve around a young persistent man’s journey in perceiving his upmost goals in his life. Thus, the genre of our film will be sports-drama as the story will be involving the ups and downs of a young rugby player. The main aim of our short film is to inspire our main target audience which are teenagers and young adults to stay determined to be ahead of their objectives. Furthermore, the main subject of the film will be about motivation, support and building self-esteem. Motivation is one of the key things in order to pursue a goal and this is very important in the field of sports, and to portray in our film. This is because, without the determination and desire to improving performances, other mental factors such as focus, intensity and confidence would just be meaningless. Therefore, in order for our main character to become the best in his chosen field, rugby, he needs to be motivated to do what it takes to maximise his ability and this is what we aim our audience to learn from our film. Another main subject in our film is support; the support that the main character gets from his girlfriend and his close friend is significant throughout, making him inspired to be the best. His girlfriend’s support is very important to him as he never received recognition with less significant record of previous achievements.

However this support becomes diminished after the argument with his girlfriend, and this simply ruins his self-esteem. This starts having an impact on his motivation to succeed within rugby.

Narrative

We have come to the conclusion to have our main narrative structure in 5 key parts. The first is the opening scene will consist of multiple shots- including inspirational sports shots, still shots and snippets of people competing in different sports. We thought that this would be a suitable way to instantly displays the subject of the film; sport. Inspirational music will be played in the background to set the mood of the opening scenes, and this is the first time we will be introduced to the main character. The story begins with a young athlete named Jake, and he is training- aiming for ultimate fitness and varsity. Jake is due to represent the university in an important rugby match and this begins with his struggle and perseverance when training for his big day. This is appealing to the audience because it is aimed for children and young adults aspiring to achieve their goals. Jake lives with his girlfriend- Naomi and she is always supportive of him. No matter how hard he trains, he always falls short of winning and always appears second best- ‘Mr Second’. This is to relate to the main character, because it is rare that one is always the best, so it provides sympathy and empathy. This is where we are introduced to our female main character, as Jake is constantly hard on himself and the true strains of this sport and competition take its toll, but we see his girlfriend Naomi always being there to pick him up. During one of Jake’s training sessions, he pushes himself particularly hard and his coach is extremely impressed with him- informing him now that he is ‘Mr First’ and is completely ready for his big game tomorrow- creating a positive mood for the opening of the film.This takes us onto the second scene, as Jake is so excited and eager to tell Naomi when he gets home from training, and waited for their anniversary dinner that night. We see him coming home from his rugby match, ecstatic.The third scene is based around the dinner table for the anniversary meal. We see Jake telling Naomi everything and waiting for her reaction. However, the response from Naomi was not what he was hoping for. She scorned him- telling him that rugby was a terrible career and he will get an injury and fail. This argument escalated and resulted in a near break up after she states that she wants him to give up his dream to spend more time with her.Frustration is eminent. Jake, after assuming that Naomi would be supportive leaves the house to meet his best friend- Josh. This fourth scene displays his feelings of betrayal. These shots will include frustration as Jake kicks a rugby ball around the pitch in anger. The closing scene ends with him playing his rugby match, we assume as the audience that this will not go to plan- in conjunction with his anger the previous day and failing to score. However, the film ends when Jake turns around to see his girlfriend waiting for him at the edge of the pitch. As a team, we were eager to avoid the ‘cheesy’ and predictable ending, so the result of the game is unknown

to the audience, and possibly it will end with a loss from the team, but the positivity comes from the girlfriend as she is cheering him on.

Duration

The duration of the film can be a maximum of three minutes. This is a very limited time frame to tell an entire story, although it can be done. After looking at the timing of several short films online, we have noted when the introduction usually stops, how long the climax of the story is and when a problem is resolved, I have noticed that within a three minute time frame, the storyline is broken done into three sections…

1. A beginning2. A middle (The climax)3. And end (The resolution)

Each section is roughly a minute long, so it is distributed evenly. Although some short films have a much shorter introduction varying between 15-35 seconds, this allows more time for the climax of the film and resolution. I think this is a more sensible option, as this allows us to almost go straight into the depth of the film, as three minutes is an incredibly short time frame to fit the high volume of shots we want to include, therefore the quicker the introduction, the more time we have available to go into the depth of the film.We have decided as a team that the duration should be as follows:The introduction: Any time between 15-40 seconds*Climax (Central part of the film): 1.10 ( 70 seconds)*The end (Resolution): 1.00 (60 seconds) **Please note that all these times are approximate**.This leaves 10 seconds which we will use for credits at the end, although if any section fails to meet the timing guidelines we have set ourselves, there may be another section which exceeds our guideline, so we can assign the time over to another section. Although real emotion can be created in just a few minutes, it is still a limited time slot to do so. We must ensure we use micro aspects effectively. Such as the use of sound, not only the score, but also diegetic, non-diegetic and ambient sound equally have the power to create the desired emotion and response from our audience. This is essential within our film making process We must ‘show’ not tell, as film is a visual medium, therefore showing emotion through body language and the camera angles are more important than words, as words take up time. For example, you could have a 10 second shot of someone shouting at a child, although you could have a two second shot being a low angle one, where the child is made to look intimidated. This would still create the same emotion and have the same impact on the audience, although you have saved yourself 8 seconds.Furthermore the opening of our film is extremely important, you must make an impression in the first ten seconds, as would be depicted in the first ten pages of a book, you are still telling a story, purely on a much smaller scale, the time scale has been dramatically reduced. It is important that we write a detailed script for our first ten seconds, then reduce the ‘lines’ into actions and shots, rather than words. This way we will be visually communicating with the audience and the use of silence sustains an audience for the first ten seconds, once we have got

their attention we can drop the tense approach and we will have an attentive audience for the entire duration of our film.

Filming

Cinematography is defined as the art of photography and camerawork within film-making. As a group we have attended workshops, which were based upon the art of camerawork. Within these workshops, we learnt how to use camera angles and different shot types to create emotion and meaning. Here are the following shot types that we will be using during our film. Long shot: Long shots are used to display the location around the subject- often used to set the scene. An example of this is of a family eating at the dinner table; a long shot will be used to portray the surroundings. We could use this shot while the protagonists (Jake & Naomi) eat dinner together.Establishing shot: As the name suggests, an establishing shot introduces a new location and allows the audience to ‘establish’ where they are in the new scene. We could use this shot outside the gym to introduce the new location to the audience. Medium shot: Medium shots, often abbreviated to ‘MS’ in scripts are the most common types of shots within filming. Showing most of the subject’s body, medium shots are halfway between long shots and close-ups, displaying the character from the waist upwards. We will be using this shot type throughout the film in various locations such as when Jake is training in the gym with weights.Close up: Again, a close up has an abbreviated script name which is ‘CU’. In close-up shots, the subject dominates most of the frame, allowing very little observation for exterior influences. This means that the audience is drawn to the actors face, close ups are often used to illustrate emotion, we will be using these in the last two sections of the film, as emotion is prominent here.Extreme close up: Often known as an ECU or ‘Detail shot’, extreme close-up’s do exactly that; they show every small detail. These details include facial features of certain relevance that would otherwise be missed in a longer shot and intense emotion that is important to the shot.  This could be used for one of our protagonists eyes, to show raw emotions of disappointment, or could also be used for a smirk on someone lips.Over the shoulder shot: (OSS). This shot is framed from behind a person who is looking at the subject. The person facing the subject occupies about 1/3 of the frame- predominately to the left or the right of the shot. This shot helps to establish the position of each person, and get the feel of looking at one person from the other's point of view. It is common to cut between these shots during a conversation, alternating the view between the different speakers. We can use this when both protagonists talk to one another throughout the film and we, as an audience can experience both characters’ view.High angle shot: This is when we look down upon a subject to make them look inferior; we could use this when the coach is talking to Jake when he is training to display hierarchy, or similarly when he and Naomi are having an argument and Naomi is making him feel small and unimportant.It is important that we comply with the ‘rule of thirds’ and the ‘one hundred and eighty degree’ rule whilst filming. The rule of thirds is part of the golden ratio;

this is the framing used to balance a shot. The ‘one hundred and eighty degree’ rule is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between two characters within the scene. An imaginary line- 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 to the right of the second character.Editing will be a vast element of the film, and one idea of editing techniques showing time travel is called ‘cross dissolve’. This is what we will use during the final scenes and will create a ‘flashback’ effect of our protagonist Jake failing- giving him the determination to keep going and to beat his personal best. The ‘dissolve’ shows time travel, but the alternating between scenes creates emotion and suspense, which is essential in a successful film.The main aim of the film is to encourage our audience to have self-belief and become motivated within their chosen discipline; whether that is a sporting activity or not. We aim to encourage our audience to chase their dreams in a non-cliché way and to show the true grittiness involved in sport. This will be achieved by showing how hard sport can be, and how perseverance and determination can really pay off. Simply defining our title ‘Relentless’.