Scriptwriting, the ups and downs.

The script for "See You Soon" was inspired by a summer I had spent with my family in Germany. From what I've observed this year, I've noticed that nearly all the women in my family are extremely headstrong. One of my aunts ran the family events, the other aunt took care of everyone's insurance and medical papers, my cousin is seen as the determined athlete, my mother acted as the pillar of support, whilst my grandmother was the head of the family. We all lived under the same household every summer. 

For reasons that cannot be written here, my mother stated that "this would be our last holiday with this part of the family." It dawned upon me that 21 years of memories in this household were coming to an end. It was the only home I had with childhood memories in it, since my lifestyle involved moving to a new house every four years with my parents. I made a conscious decision to cherish every remaining day I had with my extended family. 

Just like how I had made a conscious decision to cherish every holiday I had with my mother. 

Whilst at University overseas, I would be jealous of the local students who got to go home to their families every weekend. It would turn Farnham into a ghost town during the weekends. This feeling of jealousy would intensify when I met their parents as they came into the student's kitchens to clean up after them. My own mother has yet to visit the United Kingdom for the first time.

Loneliness was not a stranger to me. When I saw my mother in Germany this summer, I enjoyed every moment I could knowing that I only saw her for 30 days a year.

Whilst being hosted by my two aunts, my mother, sister, brother and myself would take the same bedroom. This meant I was witness to some verbal disputes between my sister and mother. The root cause of these fights were simply because my sister was either rude or lazy, I recognised such traits in myself from when I was her age - back when I took everything for granted. When I was given the opportunity to speak, I told my sister to calm down "because you'll miss mom when you're gone for University." My advice was met with the silent treatment from my sister. 

This is what inspired my first draft for "See You Soon." I wanted the main focus of the story to be the importance of what little time we have left with our loved ones. Unfortunately, I found that my first draft was way too dark. 

In a tutorial with Nigel, he gave me the following advice: 

• How can you engage with characters in just a montage?
• Can’t have rising conflict, because there’s no where for her to go. The funeral is the final act.
• Mum’s grieving for grandmother. Older sister comes back, younger sister is behaving like a brat. Has a potential for dynamism. Or change.
• As a DFSAer – maker it more experimental.
• The material was like a soap opera. It had the arguments, but they were just cyclical.
• Use that material in a “DFSA” way, I would need to abstract it more. Ways such as:
• Cleo Bernard’s “The Arbour.” It’s reenactments lip syncing to other voices.
• Carroll Morley’s “Dreams of a Life.”
• If you break naturalism, I can have both Stephanie’s in the same frame.
• Deconstruct it: a story should have a beginning, middle and end. The model for a story for a three act structure.
• Set up a routine, interrupt it, set up a new routine, incorporate, success.
• Hero gets what they need, but they can never get it. But probably not what they wanted.
• “400 Blows” – it’s about a boy who has a uncomfortable home life, Antoine is either the victim of injustice or he behaves badly. He tries to balance it.
• Watching someone cry will not produce melancholy or catharsis. It’s not sympathetic magic. A purging through pity and fear, when you engage with somebody trying to carry out a goal, and being sworn to it in an unfair way. Older sister is trying to convince her sister.
• “SHIRIN” by Steve Phingleton. Naturalism. It picks a key moment and hangs everything on that. It could have unfolded over a number of scenes.  It’s choosing a key moment to tell and enter a story.
• Abstracting autobiographic material – Guy Madden’s “my Winnipeg.”
• I either need a compressed naturalistic piece, choosing a Key moment. Stay clear of soap opera. I need a non naturalistic distancing. A goal that they want to achieve.
• Mother doesn’t want to be a saint. Don’t ever explain the thesis in the film, especially not in the voice over. It could be expressionistic.
• Can’t start with an earthquake, and have a climax. That’s what my story currently does.
• The timeline – things progressively worse. The classic resolution, 40 year old Stephanie, forgiving herself. Problem is getting a character to be self involved. Give her a sister, she is no longer self absorbed. It’s altruistic, more likely to root for someone who isn’t wallowing in self-pity.
• RELATIVE MORALITY, if you want someone rooting for an antagonist.
• Tone will do a lot: british sit com. Stay away from pity, and turned it into a comedy. “Shameless.” DO NOT ask for sympathy or handouts.
• The Bauhaus – form follows function. Find out what you want to do to an audience, then follow it. The rationale for every decision is “what is this going to do to an audience.” Structuralist approach, “how do I solve this problem? How do I impact the audience.”
• “just imagine you get hit by a bus after you make in this film. Do you want this for you to be remembered by?
• What I shouldn’t do is what is expected of me. If it’s something I’m not good at, or speaks to me. (i.e: scriptwriting)
• Follow what I’m good at - producing.

Following our tutorial together I looked up "Shirin" by Steve Phingleton. I saw that it did not take a consistently dark undertone throughout the film to express a family's issues. I was inspired by its minimalistic approach at a modern-day issue. This showed me that I did not have the knowledge of a scriptwriter, and that I should focus on what I am best at - producing. This is when I decided to recruit a BA (Hons) Film Production scriptwriter, Sam Harding. 

As a new recruit to the team, Sam wanted to know how much freedom he had with this script. I stressed on the importance of depicting loss in a parent-child relationship, whilst working with past and present timelines. The following day, Sam had a meeting with the crew to discuss ideas and our expectations:

• It will no longer be of a deceased mother, but a deceased daughter. Sam suggested that this would more of a natural tragedy with more ideas to work with. 
• The mother could be a midwife (perhaps for the NHS?). The irony being that our protagonist is someone who deals with life as a vocation, and death at home.
• The daughter dies accidentally and suddenly, so that the mother hadn't yet come to terms with her loss. 
• The past timeline depicts the week leading up to the daughter's death.
• The present timeline depicts several months after the daughter's death, and how the mother copes with her loss. 
• Both timelines will be met through match-cuts (inspired by Shunpo and last semester's dance unit) and the accidental death itself.
• The production value has to be minimalistic, as we want the focus to be on the mother-daughter relationship. 

We all then negotiated to have the first draft finished for the 26th of October.