- Script
This is the first attempt
for me to write a script for short film. In the beginning I have read a plenty
of articles and books in terms of skills and tips for creating a character and
enrich its personality. For a truly effective screenplay, there must be a
comprehensive context developed for any character such as backgrounds, culture,
occupation, relationships and so on. Trivial and banalities are sometimes keys
to shape a convincing figure. In film <The way we are> the director
rebuilt a vivid environment of Tin Shui Wei community in Hong Kong where
ordinary people (especially paupers) are living a relatively prosperous and
contented life. Yet there is no major turning point in the whole film, it is
clear that the idea director Ann tried to convey was the authentic living
state, psychology and interpersonal relation. In my script ‘A perfect normal
day’ I developed a background for the female character ‘Ann’: She is
67-year-old who was born and raised in Nottingham; she worked as a waitress in
a coffee shop before she retired; when she was 22 she married a local fireman
Martin Russell but he died in a fire in the year 1963 which was 5 years after
their wedding. She has no children and lives a lonely life since then. The only
person often pays visit to her is her niece Rachel, but Ann is not very fond of
her…… After set the tone of the character I started to form the shape of the
story, I have modified the story for seven times under the guidance of my
supervisor Phil Nodding: I was still trying to find the right direction while
writing the first two versions, set a dramatic reunion as the postman is the
boy Ann’s husband saves before he died. The third version is the fundament of
further changes—the story was basically there but both my supervisor and I were
not sure about the ending of Ann saying “
Clever move, son.” My actress Anna Mottram has more than forty years experience
of stage play, after read the script she suggested that I don’t have to write
too much conversations and make it almost a monologue. If there is too much
talk she will not have enough space to perform and convey the character via
facial continence, gestures and movements. “Sometimes less is more” is the
number one rule she taught me—we together worked out the ending as the two figures:
without saying anything, they sit on the sofa and smiled knowingly at each
other since Ann already indicates that she knows postman Joe pretended to hurt
his ankle by a doubtful “really” in a high-pitched voice.
- Cast
One of the difficulties of this project was to find suitable performers. Owing to the reason that “Ann” is the spirit of the story, I determined to find a professional actress for it. This is a student project and my budget was tight, it is hard to find someone who is doing it for a living. Luckily my supervisor Phil introduced Tanya Myers—an actress and director based in Nottingham to me. At that moment she was directing her stage show <Inside out of mind> in the lakeside centre in the University of Nottingham. After the show she took me to the actors and actresses thus I had the chance to hand out my scripts and introduce myself (it took me a long time to braced myself to do this ) and this project to them. After several days waiting I received emails and calls from three actresses showed their interest in performing character “Ann”. The best candidate turned out to be Anna Mottram -- a professional actress based in London and she has achieved a successful career in the industry for more than four decades. Two weeks later we had a meet up in London to discuss about the script and shooting schedule. She did not only gave me opinions on the language, but also encouraged me to be confident and calm on what I was doing.
In terms of finding the actor I had asked information from several tutors and my supervisors Phil, unfortunately I mixed those information up and missed the junior workshop. As a result I had to ask my course mate Mic for help. But his personality matched the character well and the video was highlighted by his performance.
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