Film plans and explaination of aims

Film Plan

A blank screen. 3 Seconds later, the sound of a computer mouse clicks, digetic sound. With this, a name of one of the actors appears in a small, white font, to the lower left-hand side of the screen. 2-3 seconds. It then fades. 2-3 seconds later, another click, digetic, and another actor name appears on-screen for 2-3 seconds in the same font as before. It then fades .2-3 seconds later, another click, and another name (in the same font) and then it fades. 2-3 seconds later, the screen gradually fades in, revealing a computer monitor, which occupies the entire screen. On the screen is a webpage, displaying news about rising university tuition fees. After 10 seconds, the webpage then scrolls downwards, revealing more of the article, as if someone was using the mouse. The screen remains fixed for 5 seconds.

Camera then zooms out. It reveals a teenage boy/girl, age 16-17, who is sat down on a chair in front of this computer screen. We can see the back of their head. They are wearing large, visible headphones, connected an mp3 player of some sort. This process should take 5-6 seconds. Digetic sound is introduced at this point, the sound of music from his headphones. 2-3 seconds later, a hand appears from the right-hand side of the screen, and it forcefully slaps the back of the teenager’s head. Close-up shot of the teenager, from the table that the computer monitor is on. Is it pointing slightly upwards, revealing that the person who hit them was a teacher (in his mid sixties). Dialogue is introduced at this point. The teenager removes their headphones and the digetic music stops.

Teenager: (placing their hands on the back of his head to show that they are hurt) OW!

Teacher: (appearing cross) Oi! You’re meant to be doing you’re UCAS application!

Teenager: (turning to face him) What? Why?

Teacher: Because I told you to! The application deadline is soon, and you haven’t even told me your university choices yet!

Teenager: That’s cause I’m not goin!

Teacher: (appearing surprised, but still angry) What?!

Teenager: University. I’m not goin!

Teacher: Why not!

Teenager: I can’t afford it!

Teacher: That’s ridiculous! You have to go to University, because what else are going to do? Nothing,

(At this point, the camera changes to a medium shot of another teenager, also sat down in front of a computer monitor, who shifts their eyes so that they look to their left, for half a second, and then looks back to the computer monitor. 1-2 seconds, the camera shifts backs to the close-up shot of the first teenager, in the same angle as before.)

that’s what! Without education, you’ll be nothing! This college will have nothing to show for your generation if you all said that you ‘can’t afford’ to go to university, so there are no excuses! Get a move on! (He walks away to his right, so that he is off-screen)

Teenager: (placing his/her hands over their face. He/she sighs.) Fucks sake!

(He/she spins his/her wheelie chair around so that they are facing a table that was behind them. They then lower their face and slam it against the table. Camera changes to a long shot, with the teenager positioned slightly to the left of the screen. After 2-3 seconds, the other teenager who was seen at the other computer earlier appears on-screen, also in a wheelie chair, positions themself next to the first teenager. At this point, the camera slowly begins to zoom in, and does so for the rest of the scene.)

2^nd Teenager: Hey, calm down. Do you really not wanna go to uni?

Teenager: (raising their head from off of the table, lowering their hands as well) No. I said I can’t afford it.

2^nd Teenager: I heard. Well, you don’t have to listen to him. (Indicating the teacher, nudging thier head subtly to their right) Have you talked to your parents?

Teenager: They said they’d kick me out of the house if I don’t apply. But I don’t even wanna go to uni!

2^nd Teenager: (after a 2 second delay) How come?

Teenager: They just want me to be independent don’t they? Fuck’s sake! I don’t have to go to uni to be independent! I can just work in Asda or something. I can earn my own money. Is that not independent enough?

2^nd Teenager: And you wanna do that for the rest of your life?

Teenager: Better that than pay nine grand a year for uni, isn’t it? So I’m not in huge debt for the rest of my life! They’ll still kick me out though. I don’t have a choice really. They tell me to do UCAS there, they tell me to do UCAS here. (Slamming their fists against the table, the camera should now be an extreme close-up shot of Teenager) Fucks sake!

The screen fades to black.

Explanation of aims

When thinking about the other films that we had watched, we noticed that they were often set against a political context (more notably 'La Haine') which was able to drive the narrative. As the aim of this project is to show power, poverty and conflict, but limited to filming around the college grounds, we thought that we could use a political theme that was relevant to the education setting, and display elements of power, poverty and conflict through this. Fortunately and unfortunately, there happened to be a big news story of this nature at present - the rise in tuition fees proposed by the government. As this rise sadly looks more and more likely to happen, we believed that we could present power - the hard, cruel fist of parliament. With the rise in fees, many students in future generations will sadly feel that the cost of university is out of their reach, and will reject to the idea. We were able to use this idea to create a teenage character, who does not want to complete his UCAS application because he 'can't afford' university - with this, we aim to show poverty. Students, for financial reasons, are denied education.

From personal experience, we've noticed that (no names mentioned) many teachers urge student to apply to university, weather it is in their interests to or not, and regardless of if they know what they want to study or not. This gave us an opportunity to present conflict. Using this viewpoint, we created a verbal argument between the teenager, who insists that he cannot afford to go to university, and the teacher, who insists that he must apply, because otherwise the college cannot claim merit for his future achievement. While watching 'City of God' and 'A Prophet' we noticed that their is a sense of facing an ugly compromise (Steak being forced to shoot one of the runts in 'City of God' to be accepted in Lil' Ze's gang, and Malik being forced to kill Reyab by Cesaer, who claims that if he doesn't, he will be killed himself in 'A Prophet'). Using this as inspiration, we formed the idea that our teenage character could also be faced with a grim compromise - if he doesn't apply to university, his parents will kick him out of the home. He doesn't want to apply to university, but he doesn't have a choice - much like Malik in 'A Prophet'. He is faced with a grim compromise - whatever he chooses to do, there will be a price to pay.