MEETING FEAR
Sorry about confusion of dates. We are definitely ON next week. The task I outlined in class was to write another 'meet' piece, this time meeting Fear. And to make it a film or TV. That is, you do dialogue and also describe what is happening 'on the screen'. You don't need to show camera shots, or imitate a TV script, unless you wish to. You can get advice on layout and much more from http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/write-a-script/
The value of this exercise is it gets us thinking about making the dialogue the centre of the piece, and thinking of the setting in terms of the point of view of characters, or of the narrator, and focusing on the visual without getting into literary 'description'.
The example below needs a lot of work, and some backstory to
make it at all credible. But it’s
intended as and idea of how you might do things, the visual bit and the spoken bit. NOT, of course, a proper film
script.
We see a clump of grass in a muddy field.
Then our view lifts and stretches into the distance across the field.
The back of a small girl's head. She's a walking
away across the field. She slips on a
muddy lump, gets up, walks on, almost
falls over again.
We cut to a car going fast through country lanes.
The driver, a young man, watches the road with staring eyes, driving much too fast. Once the car lurches dangerously and he
slows, then speeds up again. The
passenger, a woman, scans the fields.
Her face shows acute anxiety.
MARTHA
There! Look.
Stop, Jake. There she is!
The
car stops at the side of the road. They
run out towards a gate. Over the gate there’s a sign. First we see
Martha’s face looking up, then we see the wording.
KEEP OUT UNEXPLODED BOMB
We see the child again, walking and
slipping over.
JAKE
Penny! Penny!
Penny! Penny!
The
girl still stumbles on, then stops,
turns, looks back and waves.
Jake
is already climbing over the gate.
MARTHA
You can’t go in there!
She’s got a mobile phone out of her handbag. Lots of papers blow out of it.
MARTHA
I don’t know. Police, I
think. Maybe fire! -
She stops and tries to pull
Jake back but he shakes himself free. He
drops down on the other side of the gate.
We see his face looking
across the field. Then we see the field
as if his eyes are scanning it
He starts walking.
MARTHA
Jake! They’re coming!
We see Jake’s face, set,
not looking back, walking forward, then hear, but don’t see
PENNY
Daddy! Daddy!
Now we see Martha’s face.
MARTHA
Why? What’s the point? Why?
Why? Wait you stupid. . .?
Penny! Don’t move, darling. Don’t move.
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