Initial Treatment

“Simon Says” [working title] is a refreshing, modern 5-minute comedy drama exploring the romantic misadventures of an awkward twenty-something male as he attempts to land the girl of his dreams.
We follow the main protagonist, Simon, as he embarks on an emotional journey, trying to create an original, heartfelt romantic gesture that will win him the beautiful Hattie’s love. He writes poetry, buys her flowers, psyches himself up to ask her out, and generally fails at all his earnest attempts. We eventually discover that all his efforts have gone to waste – Hattie is not romantically interested in him after all. Simon is heartbroken, but soon finds another girl to capture his attention, suggesting that this storyline is a never-ending cycle.
While the film draws on conventions from the romantic comedy genre, using carefully-written humour as an underlying theme, one of the original aspects to the plot is that the story is told from a male point of view, rather than female. Exploring different degrees of perception in romantic endeavours, and the different emotions surrounding love and relationships, as well as touching on intimacy while still having an overall theme of innocence, the film will be a fresh take on a widely experienced life event, creating an end product suitable for and relevant to most audiences.
Taking inspiration from the new-style generation of programming which exemplify the use of new technological camera, sound and editing developments, such as E4’s Misfits and Skins, the film will explore the capability of DSLR technology by employing stylistic techniques such as bright, clean, recurring colour themes (as well as using filters and visual effects to distinguish mood and emotion), shallow depth of field, POV shots, and soft focus to create emotion and intimacy, shooting from and cutting between a variety of angles to keep the pace modern and fresh, and generally creating a aesthetically pleasing visual piece, including techniques such as lens flare, well-composed establishing shots, inventive camera movement and use of 2-camera set-ups. Layers of ambient piano and guitar music will be merged with wild tracks and manipulated sound recordings to create a soundtrack that complements the visual elements, including sequences with sound warped and muffled by the character’s internal thoughts and emotions.

 

- I used this treatment in my pitch to our tutor, and one of the points he made was to try and keep the number of specific techniques to a manageable level. For my final treatment I will try to rectify this!