Research Dossier

Bluecat competition 

Bluecat Screenplay Competition is a a competition for young screenwriters to develop, get discovered as screenwriters as well as getting their screenplay out there for people to see by submitting their original screenplay to Bluecat competition. The feature winner of the 2015 competition will receive $15,000. Four feature finalists will receive $2500. The Short winner of the 2015 competition will receive $10,000. Three Shorts Finalists will receive $1500 each.  

 Rules & Guidelines

Submitted scripts must be original screenplays and the sole property of the applicants.

Feature screenplays must be between 75 and 125 pages in length. No exceptions.

Short screenplays must be 5 to 40 pages in length. No exceptions 

All screenplays must be in English and PDF format.

Screenplay PDF must have a properly formatted file name.

The submitted screenplay must not have previously won any screenplay contest, competition or award of any kind. 

There is no limit to the amount of screenplays you may submit.

Screenplay Format

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In the Club - Character development

Examples from Existing Scripts

Outer Presence

Outer presence is the "Dominant Impression" created by the character's exterior. This screenplay uses this to introduce what kind of character they are to the audience. In this action it says "They walk confidently one abreast the other, strutting their stuff along the Bond Street shopping precinct." which tells the viewers about their movement and posture.  This is also used in this short paragraph when"They laugh, swing their bags and stroke their bumps." This shows the characters are very happy in the fact that they will soon be a mother. Outer Presence is used a lot here when describing what the six pregnant woman are wearing for example: "Jasmin 26 yrs beautiful, wears a loose colourful sari." This gives the audience some information about the characters just by their costumes.

Context

The context is the stuff around a character which tells us about them. The woman are walking along the Bond Street shopping precinct and shoppers are moving out of their way and some stop and stare. Context is also used here when telling the audience the characters age, class and job. For example: "Diane 39 yrs housewife and mother."

Inner Presence

Inner presence is the "Dominant Attitude"of a character, created by their interior. This is used when "the woman are oblivious, happy in the knowledge they will soon be experiencing the ultimate creation." Inner presence is also used in the sentence about Rosie "wears her school uniform and an oversized sweatshirt to hide her bump." This gives the audience some information about what the character likes/dislikes about them self. Here it tells the audience she dislikes her baby bump so she tries to hide it in public.

Dialogue

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I like this piece of dialogue because it tells the audience a lot about the main character Molly, what type of character she is and the relationship between her and the other characters. In this particular scene Molly is trying to save Smurf who has been shot in the groin by an enemy sniper. Through his dialogue you can tell Molly is worried and cares for Smurf as she says "Come on Smurf" to stay strong and don't die. Molly also says "No, if you die they're all gonna think it's my fault so that ain't gonna happen, alright wanker?" This shows that the relationship between these two characters is a fun, love/hate relationship and comfortable with each other due to the fact they both insult/swear at each other. It also shows that Molly isn't a girly girl as she uses language like "wanker" to the other lads in the army. As well as this the dialogue between Molly and James gives the viewers more information about the character Molly. James says "Dawes, do not go up that winch, that is an order." and Molly says to Smurf "I can't hear a thing, can you?". This shows Molly is ignoring her captain to try and save Smurf, this tells us that the character Molly is brave and trying to be a hero when it comes to saving a friend. She's also a bit of a troublemaker as she doesn't listen to superiors when she thinks she's doing the right thing even if it gets her in trouble. In the action it says "Molly grabs the winch which has now reached them." and James says over the radio "Dawes, do not go up that winch." as there is still an enemy sniper out in the field. This also backs up Molly's personality as defiant but also fearless and a heroine.

BMW Films - The Hire - Hostage



Act 1: The Set-up - The viewers establish who the characters in this short film are with the first shot of Clive Owen the protagonist driving his fancy car and then the antagonist sitting in his armchair. We understand straight away that the genre of this short film is action as the opening shows a gun being loaded. The also viewers understand the story/situation and what the short film will all be about in Act 1. Here we know there is some kind of ransom happening to free the protagonist daughter.

Plot Point 1 - The FBI charge in suddenly changing the atmosphere from slow and tense to fast paced. The Antagonist then shoots himself in the head, this is when the Protagonist goal is set throughout the rest of the film. He must take the challenge of working out and finding where his daughter his on his own now the Antagonist with all the information shot himself.

Act 2: Confrontation - This is the "unit of dramatic action" This is when Clive Owen encounters a series of obstacles which keep him from reaching his goal. In this case the main Protagonist is racing against time to get to his daughter before she drowns but the police are getting in his way of achieving that goal.

Act 3: Resolution - This is where the story resolves and the protagonist and reached/achieved his goal through the film. Here the main protagonist has found his daughter and freed her from the back of a stinking taxi and brings her back to life.

Micheal Radford - Addicted to the Stars

Act 1: The Set-up - Opening scene in space so the audience can establish where they are and the protagonist and another character are talking about what they will do when they get back to earth.

Plot Point 1 - The Protagonist is back on earth and realizes how much everything has changed such as highly intellectual robots as humans, holograms and new buildings which have been built more than 40 years ago. This plot plot is all about Daniel Craig getting to grips with this new age.

Act 2: Confrontation - Protagonist tries to get home but the tub is broken so he walks back. This is where he finally sees his son for the first time who is now much older than Daniel Craig as he was in space for many, many years and his body didn't age. The protagonist cries when seeing his son and looks at all the picture of him when he was just a child.

Act 3 Resolution - The story resolves with the Protagonist leaving after putting a rock from space on the table as it's too difficult for him seeing his son like that.

Audience Research

To gather research on my script idea and find out what people thought about it I pitched my script to my class and received feedback about the idea. My target audience is teenage males from 15 to 30 and luckily the audience I pitched my script to was all teenage males which helped a lot finding out what they thought about my idea and what they thought could be improved as they were the target audience I was aiming my script at. 

Themes, Location and Character

I decided I wanted to set my short film in a small quiet village that's out of the way from everything  just like my own, Winterton-On-Sea. There is also a woodland setting in my short film so I went out and found a woodland like area which would be suitable for my short film close by.  I wanted a location like this for my horror short as it would create more tension as it's a small village where nothing ever happens and everyone knows each other so the audience wouldn't expect anything bad to happen, however something won't seem right, keeping the audience on edge . For example Hot Fuzz (2007) is set in the small quiet village Sunford where nothing much goes on but one of the protagonist Nicholas Angel knows there is something out of the ordinary going on in the village and find out there a cult with friendly characters you wouldn't expect murdering people.

A news story which influenced me slightly on the narrative idea was news story about online pranksters as sometimes they can go too far with their prank where it becomes illegal, insulting, racist, disrespectful or stupid where it longer is funny. Some pranksters think they can do this and get anything and do anything if they say "It's just a prank" and they will be forgiven and it's alright to do something as long as it's a prank. I found some news stories about a internet prankster pretended to have a bomb in a suitcase and threatening to blow up London and some angry follower of his said comments like "I'm pretty sure all the peoples family from 9/11 and the London bombings wouldn't find it funny, doesn't matter if it's a joke or not, some things you don't really joke about"and a more recent news article I found was about the YouTuber star Sam Pepper who uploaded a YouTube prank video of him pranking woman by grabbing their butts while he had a fake hand in his pocket so they wouldn't expect it's him. This video blew up and got banned from YouTube as it was sexual assault towards woman. After Sam Pepper realized how much trouble he was in, he made another video claiming it was just a "social experiment" but obvious this didn't go down well either. These type of prank stories influenced me to create a narrative about two boys who do pranks on Halloween but this time they have drastic consequences.

Other influences and similarities to my short film are films like Friday the 13th (1980)  and Halloween (1978) as they are generic horror films just like my short as it's set on Halloween, at night and in a creepy house. I wanted the antagonist in my short film who is known as "The Strange Man"in the script to be quite shady and mysterious, a character who the audience aren't too sure about and not knowing what he is capable of. I wanted the main characters Ben and Jake to not see him as a threat until much later in the short film. Films that use this and films that influenced me to create a character like was Norman Bates Psycho (1960) a character who wasn't seen as a threat to the other characters but really he was the antagonist who murdered people and the other characters don't find this out until much later in the film. Another film which has characters like this is the recent film Tusk (2014) about an old man who is kind, welcoming and warm to a U.S Podcaster who interviews the old man at his house about his extraordinary past. However further into the film the old man's dark secrets start to  reveal and the podcaster is trapped and tortured in the old mans house into becoming a walrus.

Bibliography

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/22/sam-pepper-prank-grabbing-butts-youtube_n_5861002.html

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/420917/Internet-prankster-sparks-fury-after-threatening-to-blow-up-London-in-outrageous-clip

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425112/ - Hot Fuzz

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3099498/ - Tusk

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077651/ - Halloween