With all the crews and job roles sorted, I've been able to collaborate with John and and read through and understand his idea clearly, and the vision he has for these short films. There are four micro shorts and I've begun writing the first of those four already. This is the first short we will be filming but will appear last in the chronological order of the shorts, it's called "The Babysitter".
The Babysitter is the story of a young student who is babysitting two kids, while their parents are out for the night. The night starts of fine but suddenly takes a turn when she keeps getting harassed and tormented by a mysterious person who keeps ringing her and telling her to "Check on the Kids". It builds up tension and finally ends with her checking on the kids who had been killed earlier in the night. Using John's step outline from his pitch, I have started and completed the first draft for the script, and been able to get a basic structure and development set for the characters and plot points. With it been a short, things have to move a lot quicker but appear normal which is something you would be able to take a bit more time with in a feature, but it's a good challenge to try and include everything that is important and necessary within the shortest amount of words you can. It makes you more cautious with your choice and really think what needs to be in to tell the story.
The first draft is more lengthly than I'd like to final draft to be, and maybe has little sequences that play no part in the overall story which we can cut and save time in the second draft. Overall in the first draft there is seven characters with speaking roles both major and minor.
Characters:
Rebecca - The Babysitter
Mr & Mrs Borden - Parents of the children
Brandon - Rebecca's Boyfriend
Restaurant Worker - Answers phone at restaurant
Jack- Killer behind it all
Reggie Reynolds - Radio Talkshow Host
Rebecca is the main character for the purposes of this short and I wanted to give her a little depth and background so the audience have something to grasp on to and to maybe relate to, so they feel what she's going through. She has doses of likability but she's also an average young student and she's going to do things some people don't like. The second character I tried to pay most attention to was the radio host Reggie Reynolds. Reggie is going to appear a lot throughout the shorts and I wanted him to feel existing and original, and not young and brand new for this specific short, as he'll have development throughout the other shorts. I made him quicker witted and a fast talker, he's not an average radio host nor realistic in any sense. He has a very specific purpose and it's almost as if he's recalling a film when he talks about the murders. He adds a touch of humour and commentary to the story, almost as if he's clarifying that what you just saw was crazy and weird. The rest of the characters are rather secondary and although play a purpose, can do so without the depth and development of the characters we really care about.
After completing the first draft, I sent it and showed it to John to review and check for any mistakes or inconstancies, or even just changes he feels will fit better. John will then pass this on to Drew who will do the same and annotate notes on the script which I can mend for the second draft which I will begin on once I receive notes back.
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