Project: Plausibility, causality, significance and ‘big turns’.

Exercise: Check plausibility, causality and significance

Whilst developing my treatment, I was very conscious of the need to ensure that all of the events were realistic and plausible.  Of course, depending on the context, what is or isn’t ‘plausible’ can be a little more fluid, but as my story is set in the present day and world, it was easier for me to ensure that all events were ‘life-like’.

However, as the events in my story revolve around advanced scientific theories, I did have some flexibility in terms of what is ‘possible’.   Fitting within the Sci-Fi genre means that my main goal was not necessarily making it realistic, but rather ensuring that the events are plausible and intelligently explained.    This way, the audience is taken into a world much like our own, but with sinister twists and turns along the way.

In addition to ensuring that my story is plausible, I have tried to make sure that each story event, whilst being relevant to the story, has some element of ‘cause and effect’.  Each of my story events aims to either:

·       Move the story forward

or

·       Reveal a different element of a character’s personality

As this story is very character-driven, it is essential for me to slowly ‘reveal’ different elements and changes within each character.  This way, the audience begins to understand, empathise and relate to each character, each time making a decision on whether this character is ‘good’ or ‘bad’.    Also, as my story contains elements of a ‘whodunit’, I will have to slowly reveal clues through dialogue and actions in order to give the audience the necessary hints throughout.

Exercise: The big turn

Throughout my story, I wanted to make sure that the story remains fresh and constantly changing.  Aiming to write a screenplay of around 45mins – 1hr means that I must ensure that my scenes are informative without being too long or boring.  Ideally each of my scenes should contain a dramatic event that either thickens the plot or gives us more insight into each character.  However, there are a number of major ‘turns’ within my piece.  There are:

·       SALLY FINDS HER PARENTS DEAD IN HER LOUNGE

·       SALLY REALISES THAT HER WORLD HAS CHANGED

·       SALLY ABANDONS HER MORAL BELIEFS

·       SALLY DISCOVERS THE IDENTITY OF THE PM

·       SALLY KILLS HERSELF/THE PM

Sub-plots and Themes

Before continuing my treatment plan, I have decided to change the story a little to include a subplot and a bigger overriding theme.   I believe that by doing this, the audience will have a better sense of the secondary characters and the theme can be used to ‘ground’ the whole project and help with plausibility. 

In terms of my subplot, I have decided to include a few scenes focusing around the Prime Minister, Geoffrey Soillen.  As the PM is a major character in the story, I felt that it was important for the audience to build a sense of trust in his character before finding out his true identity.  I hope that this will help to keep the twist a secret, giving the audience the sense that the PM isn’t behind the attacks.  The other reason I chose to include these scenes was to give the audience the opportunity to work out ‘clues’ about the story and, in turn, the PM.  By just giving a small number of cryptic clues and suggestions, this will help the audience to believe the twist – linking back their experiences of his character throughout the project. 

In addition to the above changes, I have also chosen to include the Kubler-Ross (1970) model on the five stages of grief.  I plan to use this model to portray the symptoms of the ‘infection’, with victims moving between denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.   Each of the three main characters, Sally, Blaine & Tara, have their own individual timeline, showing when they move through each stage.  This can be seen at the bottom of my diagram for my three-act structure. 

For this reason I have chosen to entitle this piece “On Death and Dying” after a famous book written by Kubler-Ross (1970) on the five stages of grief.  I hope that this title will give the learned viewer an insight into the patterns of this story.