Screenwriting Research Dossier

Screenwriting Research Dossier

One competition I would enter my short film screenplay into would be the 'Bluecat' screenplay competition. This is a short film competition that has been running since 1998. It gives writers the opportunity to have their film screen in Los Angeles and 1st place winner receives $10,000. There are a lot of guidelines to follow but the some of the most important ones are; all ideas must be original, all entries must be in English, short films must be between 1-50 minutes long and short screenplays must be between 1-49 pages long and for 2018 entry the film must of been produced after January 1st 2016.


Here is my annotated script of reservoir dogs showing my knowledge on the typical conventions of a script:

Here's a page from a pilot episode of a 2015 TV show called Mr Robot. I chose this to talk about development of character.

This script uses a method called 'breaking the fourth wall' to develop the protagonist in the pilot episode of this TV series. To give some context the character, Elliot, is known throughout the series as being very psychotic and unstable. He talks to his 'imaginary friend' in voice overs throughout the series when he is actually addressing the viewer. For example when he blacks out and wakes up after he'll ask in his head "Did you see what happened? I must of passed out". Straight away from the opening scene of the show it uses this to begin to build a picture of characters inner presence. From Elliot talking to his 'imaginary friend' we learn hes lives with psychotic tendencies and how he feels about American society & the world around him. Outer presence and context is little covered in this part of the script other than mentioning his age and what hes wearing, however I wanted to use this example because its so unique in the way it develops inner presence.

Here is my example examining dialogue;


A scene from slightly later on in the episode where Elliot is talking to his psychiatrist. She asks him "what is it about society that disappoints you so much?" and he replies with a series of voice overs whilst a montage of various elements of our society plays simultaneously. This comes together to make a really good scene and I think the dialogue correctly expresses the characters feelings and ideologies on the world.

For my example of good use of scene direction I used Game of Thrones S6xE09 'Battle of The Bastards'. I wanted to use this cause I knew even before reading the script that this large scale would of been really well written. So much is happening at once in the scene, I think the writer has really accurately portrayed how he wanted to scene to play out;



Audience Research:

Looking at the genre, time and setting of the story my primary target audience would be males aged 15-34. Due to it containing themes of violence, gambling and gang related issues I would have to aim for an age 15 certificate. I considered aiming for an 18 certificate but figured if I'm able to tone down some of the themes, having a wider target audience will be beneficial to the film. Looking into it furthermore, being set in the late 1970's in the east end these themes are very reletable to people living in the time/area. So my secondary target audience would be aimed at males 45+, particularly living in the south of England. 'Legend' (2015) is a good example of a film that expressed these themes and was attractive because of them.

Theme/Setting Research:

Wanting to set my story forty years before I was born, I knew I would have to research and look into some video footage of the East End at that time. This short clip on YouTube was very helpful at painting a picture of what that day and age might of looked like;



I think that video was beneficial towards giving me ideas for color schemes and locations I might use. However I then found another short clip which was perfect at showing me the misc-en-scene I would want to go for. Watching this video I took note of the outfits, accents and the food being eaten;


To look at character types, I looked an interview from the 1960's of the Kray Twins talking about a then ongoing court case involving their personally owned club;



Similar Existing Media Texts:

One of the biggest influences for the theme/setting comes from work directed by Guy Ritchie, specifically Snatch (2000) and Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels (1998). Both coming out and being set in late 90's east end, these type of films are exactly what I have in mind for my story. The unique part of these films are that they're able to have funny well written comedic moments all whilst maintaining their serious story lines and keeping you invested in the drama of the story. Take this clip from Snatch (2000) for an example of this;







Bibliography: 

http://www.bluecatscreenplay.com/
https://www.scribd.com/doc/25164568/Reservoir-Dogs-Screenplay
https://ewedit.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/legend-1.jpg?w=612
http://www.zen134237.zen.co.uk/Mr_Robot_1x01_-_Pilot.pdf
https://m.emmys.com/sites/default/files/Downloads/GameofThronesEP%20609%20-%20Battle%20of%20the%20Bastards%20-%20GOT%20S6.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4dzvy1oNuE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7-cfzV2BuE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1crhwQPKr7w