Film Form – Outline Development + Pitch
Film FormMeet the Crew
- Ivan Wainwright – Producer
- Krisztian Kajtar – Director
- Sophie Marshalsey – Writer
- Ross Lothian – Cinematographer
- Hazel George – Sound Designer
- India Marshall – Production Designer
- John Kelbie – Editor
Outline Selection – Robbie Anderson ‘Frost’
My first choice out of all of the selected outlines was Robbie’s. I resonated with the ‘late bloomer’ protagonist, the emotional vulnerability of the story, and the complex emotions it explored relating to relationships and sexuality. We did not initially select Robbie’s outline as a group, but had opted for Fionntan’s outline as shown below.
Although I believe Fionntan’s outline to be a brilliantly creative, dystopian-surrealist idea, I was hesitant to try and convey all of the detailed world-building within 3-5 minutes. As a writer one of my strengths is in characterisation and dialogue, and The Cancer of Joy has no dialogue and minimal character development. This could be worked on, and I believe in the potential of the outline, it was just a matter of personal preference and writing style that prompted the unanimous change.
Outline – Next Steps
Our shift in outlines set us back temporarily, but we managed to work together to overcome the setback and plan the production process and story intentions.
The main focus for Robbie’s outline was visualisation of the story, layered and intricate characterisation, and well-crafted dynamics and relationships between the characters. As we are not the first group to select this outline, we wanted to modify the story to distinguish ourselves and take the idea in a new direction. Before we did this we contacted Robbie to ensure this was something he was comfortable with us doing – thankfully he gave the go-ahead.
Outline – Changes
Instead of the protagonist being a gay man, we opted to make him bisexual to present a different discourse around the experience and stereotyping of being a young bisexual man in modern society. We are also focusing less on the party as a location and script element, and begin with Finn (our character’s name) in the midst of leaving the party drunk.
A key component of the original outline was the older man whom Ethan/Finn interacts with functioning as an older version of the protagonist. This is something we have debated including on several occasions, and will likely opt for ambiguity and leave it open to interpretation as we don’t feel it is a crucial and unalterable part of the story.
Pitch
Above is our pitch for the outline. My presentation slides consisted of the logline, synopsis, character biographies, and the character arcs. Establishing these foundations helped to clarify our inspirations and intentions for the short film, and create a shared vision for the project in our respective roles. I feel we worked well to communicate our vision and present our ideas for the short film, and have a strong foundation for pre-production to work with.