Narrati ve Frameworks

3 Ideas for ourShort Film

Produced by: James Perfect Idea by: James Perfect & Tom Smith

Short Film- Idea 1The short film begins with the main character, a teenager lying asleep in bed the door bell rings, so he decides to go downstairs and see who it is. He opens the door to unveil a wrapped-box but no-one insight apart from the post man across the street, he’s glances around but see’s no-one. After opening the box, there is a stopwatch and a note next to it saying “use with care” , he picks up the stop watch and starts to fiddle with it unknown of its power (the stopwatch is able to fast forward, rewind and stop time).

He presses a button and everything freezes, insight a car freezes driving along the street he is amazed by the stopwatch. So he decides to venture into the living room where his brother is sitting down watching TV, he asks his brother what he is watching, there is a disagreement between the two so he stops time and takes the remote. After resuming time he changes the channel and the two start fighting, at this point we see the postman at the opposite side of the street, he too has a watch in his hand as well as another box to be delivered. The post man stops time with his watch and realises he has mistakenly delivered the wrong package to the lad.

The post man uses his stopwatch to rewind time and at this point the film rewinds to the start point. Here the start is repeated as the lad walks downstairs to find a package, this time in the package is a video game entitled (the name of the film) with the image of a postman on. The lad stops and thinks. The camera then shows the postman delivering the correct package to another house further down the street.

Short Film- Idea 2This idea begins with the shot of the post man delivering both post and parcels, he already posses a stop watch and is able to stop time. As he steps off the kerb he sees an oncoming car just meters away from him, he stops time and walks across the road safely to deliver a package. At the next house he drops off a parcel in the shape of a box.

A lad answers the door and takes the parcel inside, it’s his 17th birthday and is expecting a new video game that is uncle proposed to buy him for his birthday. He is quite disappointed when he finds an old stopwatch. He begins to tamper with the stopwatch and mis-abuses its power to play pranks on his brother, after fiddling with the stopwatch it malfunctions and time is sent in reverse towards the past, 3 years backwards (so that it is his 14th birthday).

He awakes goes downstairs and finds a parcel by the front door (after hearing the doorbell ring). Inside the box is a stopwatch, he picks up the stopwatch and hits the fast forward button, unknowing. The film then flashes back to the post man delivering the parcels again, however this time the post man delivers the video game that his uncle has in fact sent and the stopwatch is delivered elsewhere.

Short Film- Idea 3The short film begins with the main character, a teenager lying asleep in bed the door bell rings, so he decides to go downstairs and see who it is. As he gets downstairs his brother is having breakfast and he opens the door to unveil a wrapped-box but no-one insight apart from the post man across the street, he’s glances around but see’s no-one. After opening the box, there is a stopwatch and a note next to it saying “Use with care, but never rewind time” , he picks up the stop watch and starts to fiddle with it unknown of its power (the stopwatch is able to fast forward, rewind and stop time).

He presses a button and everything freezes, a close up of the clock on the wall stops, as he turns to talk to his brother about the powers of the stop watch he realises that the stop watch froze time and everything not touching the watch. He resumes time and tells his brother about the powers of the stop watch. His brother doesn’t believe the watches capabilities, therefore he shows his brother by allowing him to both hold the watch while he stopped time.

His brother is amazed by the capabilities of the watch and says “what shall we do with it?”. The brother takes a deep stare into the stopwatch while ignoring his brother talking and begins fiddling with time, he then accidently hits the rewind button sending him back into time without his the Main character. The main character is then lying asleep in bed the door bell rings, so he decides to go downstairs and see who it is. As he gets downstairs he remembers the occurrence, and his brother is no-where to be found.

Short Film- Theory• Todorovs NarrativeTodorovs narrative can be applied to our short film ideas hence the plot has the 5 distinct stages (3 main stages) that are needed to fulfil his theory. The short film begins with a state of equilibrium, the postman is delivering post as usual. As he approaches a house he delivers the wrong package, this is the dis-equilibrium. There is then a disruption where the postman realises he has delivered the wrong package (later on in the plot). He then realises this when he see’s the stopwatch in the boys possession and has to rewind time (an attempt to repair the disruption). The short film then rewinds to the beginning and all is restored. This is the new-equilibrium, however a change in the fact that, the boy this time receives the correct parcel or as in idea 3 he looses his brother.

• Classical Hollywood NarrativeThe classical Hollywood narrative can also be applied to our short film framework ideas. All 3 ideas revolve around getting things back to normal after the stopwatch ends up in the wrong hands. In addition there is a closed narrative in-place, where all loose ends are tied up at the end of the short film. In examples 1 and 2, the stopwatch is delivered elsewhere and in example 3 he looses his brother. Also within fitting of the theory, the storyline must be far-fetched and this is certainly the case, where time is adjusted by a simple object (a stopwatch).

Short Film- Theory• Levi Strauss Binary OppositionThis theory can be applied where there are instances of conflicts brought up in the film. In our short film I have detailed a few examples that cover all of the 3 narrative ideas.

- Normality and Extra-ordinary- Control/ power and weakness (e.g. power of the person with the stopwatch in their possession)--

• BraniganBranigan’s theory can be applied whereabouts a story is organised into a set of stages by which people remember them. This is clear in each of the 3 frameworks where I have explained a clear plot for each. In accordance to Branigan’s theory there is firstly an introduction to the setting and characters (this is clear in narrative framework 1) where the postman is shown visiting houses in the village. There are several other steps in this theory such as stage 3 where the protagonist has an emotional response or statement. E.g. in narrative framework 3 he picks up the stopwatch and fiddles with it, making time freeze, here the main character has a surprised reaction.

http://pov.imv.au.dk/Issue_05/section_4/artc1A.html

• Laura Mulvey Male GazeIt can be argued that Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze can be applied to my short film, in the way that none of my narrative frameworks include the use of a female (all roles are played by males). This empowerment given to the males who feature in the short film can be classed as being sexist towards females, hence men are given dominant roles.

Short Film- Theory