Shooting Script

Shooting Script

(non-linear narrative)

1. Interior, night, black and white close up tracking shot of scalpel scraping across a metal surface, eerie metallic scraping noise, half-fades in and out with a heartbeat sound effect. Short extract from a song giving an ominous feeling.

2. Interior, night, black and white mid-close up low angle of dark shadowy figure raising the scalpel and slashing across the screen. Sharp slicing sound effect as the scalpel is moving across the screen. Quickly fades to white as the scalpel moves across the screen.

3. Interior, night, no longer in black and white, John preparing for the operation, putting on the gloves and surgeons coat, can hear him breathing heavily. Long shot of John in the bathroom from the doorway, cutting to a mid-shot of John looking at himself in the mirror after splashing water in his face followed by voices swirling through his mind, mid shot of John putting on his coat for the operation and a close up of him putting on the gloves, followed by a gradual zoomed-to extreme close up of the gloves. Natural sounds throughout the scene, quiet song playing in the background as the camera zooms in on the gloves carrying on into the next scene.

(Multiple voices in John’s mind)

Even you can’t do this

You can fix anybody, but not this time

There’s just no way you can pull this off

4. Zooming out from the gloves, revealing the sky. Long shot of John and his father when he was a kid. Saturated colour throughout the scene, soft focus. Child's laugh. John staring at the sky with his father asking about the world.

John:I want to help people when I grow up, dad
John's father: You will son, you will. What do you want to be?
John: A doctor...

Props List

Props and Costumes

Scalpel

Black bath robe to cover entire body = shrouded figure

Blue gloves

Timetable of the project

*NOTES*

during flashbacks show the characters as 'fresher' versions of themselves, happy and carefree? looking cleaner. then back in present time show them as tired and 'dirtier'.
Slight slow motion in the flashbacks?
Reverberation on the audio during the flashbacks - gives a ghostly effect - makes the viewer subconsciously know and feel that the flashback has 'been and gone'?

Similar Camera Techniques Incorporated Into Films

Similar camera techniques:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZBjzXEEk1Q&feature=fvwrel

Sweeney Todd 'By The Sea'
2:56 - 3:18, the transition moving from behind the characters in one location, slowly fading to a different location as the camera pans over the characters looking behind them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q5Us5iVWNI&feature=relmfu

Devil 'lights out' scene
0:06 - 0:22, the POV shot as she looks around the elevator, giving the viewer that sense of involvement, as if actually being that particular character yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNxbL6L8zGU

The Hangover 2 'kid flashback' scene
0:15 - 1:20, the flashback used to incorporate what happened the previous night, with the white flare around the frame is the similar to what I will use in my film to show the history and relevance of the gloves.

Theme - My themes of murder and vengeance are dipicted in many other films, however the one difference I have is that my main character is the one to make the mistake rather than have something taken from him by someone else. (Couldn't think of any film similarities)

The Gloves

The Gloves

The character…

External:

·         Name - John

·         Male

·         Aged - 37

·         American, white

·         Family – used to be very close, now disjointed

·         Friends – lots of friends, loses all of them.

·         Class - very sociable and friendly, upper class.

·         Education – PHD, masters degree, medical license

·         Employment – world famous surgeon

·         Wealthy

·         Religion - agnostic

·         Political affiliation – capitalist?

Internal:

·         Desire: to successfully complete his career as a world famous surgeon performing hundreds of high risk operations perfectly. Main desire (and turning point of the film) he wants to successfully complete his father’s surgery.

·         Fear: Being shunned from the medical world and failing his career. Fearing how his father’s operation will go (he gets doubted, and the thoughts fill his mind, making him lose concentration during the operation). Once he turns homicidal he fears being caught and put in prison/executed.

First storyline:

                John, the world famous surgeon, famous for completing the most dangerous of operations and the most unlikely of operations, is enjoying his life as the face of healthcare. His father gets in a car crash and his legs have been mangled, some vital organs are slowly being damaged and he is rushed to hospital. John is the only available surgeon for the procedure that will take place the following day, John is thrown by this and starts to prepare, worrying for his father. People around the hospital aren’t sure that even John could pull this off, which fills his mind with even more concern. The operation goes well, until halfway through when the thoughts and doubts come flooding back to him and he loses concentration, making a mistake and losing all hope for his father.

                John loses his father, his self-respect, his career, his reputation, his friends and family, everything. He spirals into a world of drinking, depression and rage. He finally starts to question why he messed up, and turns to blaming all those who filled his mind with doubt. He turns into a homicidal maniac, with only one desire – to murder the people who he believes made him kill his father.

Second storyline:

John, the world famous surgeon, famous for completing the most dangerous of operations and the most unlikely of operations, is enjoying his life as the face of healthcare. His father gets in a car crash and his legs have been mangled, some vital organs are slowly being damaged and he is rushed to hospital. John is the only available surgeon for the procedure that will take place the following day, John is thrown by this and starts to prepare, worrying for his father. People around the hospital aren’t sure that even John could pull this off, which fills his mind with even more concern. The operation goes well, he successfully mends his father’s wounds, completes organ transplants and eventually gets him on the list for bionic leg implants so that he can walk again.

Third storyline:

                John, the world famous surgeon, famous for completing the most dangerous of operations and the most unlikely of operations, is enjoying his life as the face of healthcare. His father gets in a car crash and his legs have been mangled, some vital organs are slowly being damaged and he is rushed to hospital. John is the only available surgeon for the procedure that will take place the following day, John is thrown by this and starts to prepare, worrying for his father. People around the hospital aren’t sure that even John could pull this off, which fills his mind with even more concern. The morning of the operation, John walks into the hospital ready to perform the most important procedure of his life. Upon arrival he’s informed that his father didn’t make it and died overnight. John’s shocked by this and starts shouting and cursing, he rushes to his father’s room and sees him lying on the bed, lifeless. John spends the day sitting by his father and holding his hand, talking to him as if he were still there about how much he’s sorry and how he wished he had been there for him, how he’s loved the memories they’ve shared and other personal moments. John takes his gloves out of his bag and places them on his father’s chest, hugs him one final time and leaves to go home and talk to his family and friends through his grief.

Point of the gloves:

                These are the gloves John would always wear for every operation, he would have them sterilised after each procedure so that he could keep them. They’re blue because they remind him of his childhood, how close he was with his father. Blue to remind him of the summer sky when he used to play in the fields with his father all the time.
Blurb:
              The world famous surgeon John loses his father in the most important operation he's ever encountered and spirals into a world of rage and thirsts for revenge on those who doubted him.

How I'm going to show the history of the character:
                 I'm going to use flashbacks as a way of showing the necessary history of John, the relation between him and his father, and the importance of the gloves.