Story-telling | Story Workshop + Short Story Task (21st September 2016)

The first task for today was 'speed-pitching', in which we had to create a 25 (or fewer) word pitch and a title for a TV show or short film based on a news article in only 15 minutes.

Here's what we came up with:

1. Big budget thriller featuring a big Hollywood star
• We found a questionably reliable news article from The Sun about a tweet sent by a university student after her body had been found burned and dismembered, and a gym instructor had already been prosecuted for the crime.
• Our pitch was: A gym instructor, played by TOM CRUISE is charged with dismembering a student, but a tweet from beyond the grave suggests there's more to the story.
2. British comedy series for a late night channel
• This one was not too difficult but we were given the example of Channel 4, which is notorious for its edgy and sometimes controversial subject matters.  We found an article about a black pastor, who was killed by a US police officer as the officer thought the pastor was reaching for a gun.
• We twisted the story a considerable amount, as if the officer had moved to the UK, focusing on the struggle to cope with our gun regulations: A US cop struggles to conform to British arms regulations, already guilty of tazing a black pastor.  We also came up with the name Norfolk Five-O.
3. Low budget short film shot in a council estate
• This pitch was the most difficult, as we were faced with a limitation of being low-budget, and on a specific set, however we were free to decide on the genre, ours being a drama.  The article we used was about a young boy who died after participating in a recent playground game called 'the passing-out game'.
• We decided to dramatise this slightly, focusing on the community that the boy left behind: A small community struggles with the loss of a young boy, but they find solace by uniting against the social media fad that caused it.

This was a useful task to do as we were restricted by how much of the plot we could give away in the pitch, and having to entice potential producers to fund future work, all within 25 words.  This will become useful in the near future when it comes to pitching for my screenplay.

Later on, for our second task, we were in groups of three and were given a random location and two characters so we could draft a story, plot, and descriptions of the characters.  We were given 'FOREST' as a location, and the two characters were a 'SOLDIER' and a 'PHOTOGRAPHER', which was an odd combination and made the task quite challenging, as we struggled to decide on the circumstances that the two would meet in a forest.  However, after deciding on the names of the characters (the SOLDIER was called Sgt. Rajesh, and the PHOTOGRAPHER, Oakley Quake) and refining the setting (Bornea Forest), we were able to come up with three basic ideas:

1. OAKLEY enters forest with his dog, when suddenly his dog starts barking. Knowing his dog well, he realises he must not be alone, and whilst taking pictures he notices a figure in one of the trees, but looks up to find nobody there.
2. SGT RAJESH is over watching the process of deforestation. OAKLEY is an avid campaigner for the conservation of wildlife in the forest... But does RAJESH agree with the way the forest is treated?
3. OAKLEY goes on a walk for inspiration, and comes across a military veteran, SGT RAJESH, suffering from PTSD, and he shares his story.

Whilst I would have preferred to focus on the characterisation side of the story, choosing the third idea which would have enabled us to explore SGT RAJESH in a psychoanalytical way, as a group we continued with the second idea - here is a description of the characters we came up with, and an outline of the plot for this task:

Characters

SGT RAJESH

     A soldier; he is a short and stern looking man who appears unclean from his time on duty in the jungle; he has cataracts in one eye, which is the reason for his torment by THE GENERAL, and their relationship is not a pleasant one; he is only a soldier to feed his family, and does not share the same disregard of nature as THE GENERAL.

OAKLEY QUAKE

     A photographer and wildlife conservationist; he is tall, thin and has an unkempt beard; he is passionate about putting an end to the deforestation project being led by THE GENERAL, and will do what he can to fight it, but avoids violence at all costs.

THE GENERAL

     A fat, pompous poacher with little regard for those beneath him on the social ladder; he wears a stereotypical safari hat and prefers not to get his hands dirty.

(We decided we could explore the character of the soldier further if we introduced his superior, who added to his motivation to sympathise with the photographer's cause, as THE GENERAL is shown to act very harshly toward SGT RAJESH.)

Story Outline

A soldier is on duty on the outskirts of the Borneo Forrest maintaining the flow of work within the area, as he is approached by THE GENERAL.  The soldier stands straight in the presence of this man as he is aware this man must be a figure of authority. "Sgt" "Sir! "

"See much today?" The sergeant sniggers in offence of his eye. "Something wrong?" Replies the official. "The name is Rajesh isn't it?" "Yes s...!" 

In the distance, OAKLEY casually wonders along camera in hand notices a conversation between a soldier and his official, he quickly snaps a photo of the pair.

Noticing a flash the pair turn to face OAKLEY. "And who might you be?" exclaims THE GENERAL.  Startled by the brash voice of this bear like man, the young man quickly turns and darts for the forest; THE GENERAL orders SGT RAJESH to chase after the man.

RAJESH makes haste for OAKLEY, catching up with him in a clearing, and aiming his weapon at him.  There is a tense moment between the two, as OAKLEY pleads for his life, and explains his opposition to the deforestation project carried out by THE GENERAL.  RAJESH is conflicted, and so he allows OAKLEY to escape, and OAKLEY darts off into the forest, dropping his camera in the process.

Shortly after, in the distance, RAJESH hears shouting, and then short bursts of gunfire.  RAJESH runs toward the commotion and discovers THE GENERAL has shot and killed an orangutan, and OAKLEY.  RAJESH is shocked - later on that night, he slips away from the encampment with OAKLEY's camera, vowing to never work for anyone like THE GENERAL again.

This task was a difficult one, not only because of the creative differences one can encounter working with others, but also because of the obscurity of the characters and location in relation to one another.  Despite this, we were able to overcome these challenges, and come up with a basic outline of a potential screenplay, and this will be valuable experience for when it comes to creating my own screenplay.