ALBERT
What are we going to do now Ma?
MRS. MARRIOTT takes a sip of her tea.
MRS. MARRIOTT
MR. MARRIOTT takes a sip of his beer.
MR. MARRIOTT
Well, umm, err…. how about the zoo?
ALBERT takes a sip of his lemonade as he thinks about this suggestion.
ALBERT
Is it true that there are ferocious wild animals at the zoo Pa?
MR. MARRIOTT chuckles to himself and leans over to Albert’s ear.
MR. MARRIOTT
(whispering)
ALBERT
(whispering)
What?
MR. MARRIOTT
(whispering)
ALBERT
(shouting)
Hell yeah!
MRS. MARRIOTT
(shouting)
Albert!
MR. MARRIOTT and ALBERT share a secret smile.
NARRATOR V.O
Synopsis
Your typical English family, the Marriotts, are off on a classic English holiday in 1971 to Blackpool. They expected to be entertained from morning to night but were very disappointed to find that there was little to keep themselves amused, especially Albert their son. After a few days strolling up and down the pier, eating enough candyfloss and toffee apples to make any normal person sick and finding the lack of drowning and shipwrecks to watch out for in the sea frightfully dull, Mr. Marriott suggested they all go to the zoo where there is known to be the most vicious, evil, dangerous Lion in the whole world, called Wallace! To their disappointment, especially Albert’s, they found this so called wild lion to be nothing more than sleepy and peaceful, just lying there enjoying the sunshine! In great pursue of entertainment Albert ends up trying to make the lion wake up but everything ends in tragedy when the lion becomes annoyed and eats Albert! Mrs. Marriott becomes extremely irritated that the lion dared to eat her son after the fact that they had paid to come in! She is determined to get what is owed to her for their inconvenience, which ends up with them all at the police station and then in front of the magistrate where things don’t go down too well with the awkward Mrs. Marriott.
Cinematic Ideas
To begin with there will be an aerial shot looking onto the pier at a 4 o’clock angle which will show the size of pier but will be close enough to see people moving about and get a sense of atmosphere. There will be distant music from a small brass band on the pier, which will gradually get louder as the camera sweeps into a 6 o’clock angle, down to human height and travels down the pier through the crowds to Mr and Mrs Marriott. There will also be sea gulls in the background and general chitchat from people talking and children playing. Blackpool tower will be present in the background to show the audience where the film is situated and furthermore, warm colours to give the audience the sense of summer and cosiness.
Observation shots of Mr and Mrs Marriott strolling up the pier will be used at first to allow the audience to look onto them and view the couple from an onlooker’s point of view. They will be hit with an image of an odd looking couple which will be comical to the audience and immediately obvious that the film is not serious but full of nonsense!
When Mrs Marriott looks round at her son we will see him through her eyes because it will show the audience how she perceives him and the impression that he gives her instead of the audience having their own view of him.
When Mrs. Marriott is talking she will be shot slightly from below at a low angle shot because she is very bossy and headstrong and likes to control the family. It will make her look intimidating to the audience and they are meant to feel as if she is bossing them around too. Mr. Marriott on the other hand is totally opposite to his wife. Whenever they have a conversation he will always be looked onto from a high angle shot to make him look smaller and belittled by Mrs. Marriot. Albert and his father have a much better relationship where they can actually look at each other in the eye because they are both in the same position under Mrs. Marriotts control and therefore have a connection.
Evaluation
In this film I have tried to use a humorous style that will appeal to children and adults. One way of doing this was through visible humour; I purposefully put the Marriotts in odd clothes that may be perfectly fine for the time but are now considered very out of date and amusing to a modern audience. I also used light, friendly, warm mise-en-scene that would helpfully give a relaxed kind of feel it and show the audience that the film is meant to be light hearted. I have also intentionally used someone with a Yorkshire accent to be the narrator as this is seen as a fun accent that is less formal to show that the film is about ordinary people from middle class background. It was not hard to come up with these ideas because I used a children’s storybook that used illustration, showing how the characters look. My dad used to read this story when I was young and always put on a Yorkshire accent which I found almost as fun as the book! I thought that children, who this film is mainly aimed at, would like this element added to it as well.
My family, who know this story well, really liked the screenplay. They found it amusing and true to the story. I felt, however, that because they knew the story well I would see what people thought who have never read it before. Most thought it was all right, that it was just your normal English film. Some commented on how it was a bit childish and adults couldn’t relate to it. I found trying to make a film both appealing for an audience of children and adults quite hard. To make it simple enough for children to follow and yet be quite witty for the adults proved a problem. If I did this again I would try to add more into the screen play purposefully aimed at adults so that they found it more entertaining.
Changing the book into a screenplay was so much harder then I originally thought it was going to be. The book is only a children’s book after all so there is no great narrative to work form. I had the simple outline but I had to fill in the middle myself to make it complete. To come up with the lines for the characters and to think about how they would act and how they would say things I thought to be really easy. I kept on changing what the characters said and sometimes who even said it because it did not fit in with the nature of them. To actually add more to the simple limericks of the book was a challenge but it was quiet fun to expand on a story that I had known for so long.
When I wrote the synopsis I found it hard not to turn it into the blurb that appears on the back of videos and DVD’s. I have never written a synopsis before so I wasn’t sure about what I was aiming for except for what I had been told by my teacher. I made the mistake of not using the 3-act idea, which would of broken the story up for me and probably made it easier to write. If I were to write another synopsis I would definitely use this idea as I have hared form fellow students that it is a great help.
The genre of my film is a light comedy. The book was already comic so it made sense to carry on with it into the film. I feel though that it isn’t that different to other films that are on an imaginary par to it, like ‘School Of Rock’ that is fun for children but adults can enjoy as well. This film worked really well but I feel that this film is missing that extra something to make it different to other films, which may make it less appealing to audiences. Even thought they may not of heard of the story before they would know what kind of story it would be, one of light humour and stupidity! I still feel that the film may be become quite entertaining though as the film develops because of the way that Mrs. Marriott reacts to Albert being eaten by the lion. I feel that this opening dose not show what kind of film this is going to be yet and therefore people cannot get a good enough picture of it. I feel that if I was to do this again I would have to make sure that the opening sequence really caught the audience as best as possible because it is where the audience gets its first opinions of the film and if it is a good opening that will catch the audience they will want to see the film through.
I lastly think that this film is typical of cinematic thinking. I have used ideas that I know form other films or have picked up along the way because this is my first ever go at doing a screen play. I was not over confident about what I was doing so I stuck to familiarity to make it easier. Now I have mope confidence with it and understand the process and how to go about it I would definitely try and be more creative with my cinematic ideas and make the film that little bit more different and edgy.
In conclusion I think that there could be some aspects of my work that I could work on like making it more adult friendly and try to catch the audiences attention more in the opening scenes because it would make it more entertaining. I would also try to experiment more with cinematic ideas and make my work more original. I feel though that I have produced a good screenplay that does all that it is asked to do but could do with a little bit more to make it more interesting.
