Five Minute Analysis By Lucy Davies.

LOVEFIELD (Short Film by Mathieu Ratthe)
For my own choice of a short film analysis, I focused my decisions on finding a film that had a running time of 5 minutes, also including a twist at the end. These were the prime factors I decided to revolve my film choice around, as I thought it would give me and my group a better implication to how a 5 minute film could fit a storyline and a twist in it, without making it too difficult.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4meeZifCVro







Shot 1- Striking opening of overexposed lighting to immediately capture the audience’s attention, but then the lighting decreases revealing the production of the film. The music begins (Piano is the main instrument at this point creating an eerie effect).

Fade out

Shot 2- Fade in to an extreme long shot of field full of crops which informs the audience of the set in which the film is taking place. (Slightly looking over the field) The title ‘LOVEFIELDS’ fades in and out of the shot, establishing the link to the film and the title. Crane shot panning down towards the field, ending with the camera in the crops. Music builds tension using a crescendo of violins. Non-diegetic sound of wind added blowing through the crops which creates an isolated atmosphere, which is another technique used to capture the audience’s attention.

Shot 3- This is a clever shot that is used throughout the opening sequence. Mathieu uses the same shot as before, however, the top and the bottom thirds of the screen is blurred, emphasising the middle section. This shot is used to gradually build tension.

Shot 4- Dissolve effect is used, overlapping the previous shot of the crops with another shot of the crops. This creates a wipe, as if it had happened over a period of time. Panning is used right to left. Crops are still on the shot, continuing the use of the non-diegetic sound to create wind, however, another non-diegetic sound is added being the squeak of a sign being blown in the wind. This creates a ghostly atmosphere and alerts the audience immediately as an unexpected noise is used. The camera pans to the sign, making the crops blurred as it pulls focus on the sign. The camera the pans upwards to the top of the sign revealing a crow sat on top.

Shot 5- Close up shot of the crow, as it squawks several times, still with the squeaking of the sign in the background.

Shot 6- Cuts to another shot of the crops. Shallow focus is used, leaving only a few of crops are in focus. This is a medium long shot as the camera pans so the audience can just see over the crops. This shot shows how secluded the area is. Non-diegetic sound of the crow and sign is still used.

Shot 7- Close up of crow again.

Shot 8- Cuts to the crops again, using the same shallow focus as before. Camera pans down into the crops. Crow and sign sound are still used in the background, however, another non-diegetic sound is added, which is a beeping noise. When the sound is introduced, the audience don’t know where it is coming from, but it indicates that someone is there leading the audience to believe that something is going to happen, which is another technique used to keep the attention of the audience.

Shot 9- Another dissolving effect is used, using two different shots of the crops again, however, the second shot is a close up of the crops near to the ground. This makes the beeping noise louder implying that the beeping noise is getting closer. The camera pans to a close up of a mobile phone using a shallow focus, so that the main object on the screen is the mobile phone. The camera then continues to pan backwards on the ground leaving the phone out of focus (beeping noise decreases) and making scattered on the floor the main focus. A woman cries alerting the audience that there is most definitely something wrong. The camera continues to pan leaving the scattered money out of focus. Suddenly, a woman’s hand comes into the shot using a close up, as she grasps some straw on the floor, indicating that she is in pain. The woman cries louder. Her hand leaves the shot as the camera pans further backwards, as it pulls focus to a piece of womens underwear on the floor ( at this point there is no sound apart from the woman’s cry) The camera then pans even further backwards pulling focus to a womans foot as it is moving. The camera stops moving when it is on a close up shot of the bare foot. The woman scrunches her toes to suggest that she is in some sort of pain. Crescendo of violins is used again to build tension as the woman is struggling and crying. All of a sudden, the music stops and her foot stops moving giving the impression that she has been killed. The shot is very quite so the audience are less prepared for the next bit which is a sudden strike of loud music and a males hand stabbing a knife into the ground, in front of the woman’s foot. Immediately, the audience presume that this male is a murderer as his hand is covered in blood and the music becomes more dramatic suggesting that something bad has just happened.

Shot 10- The shot then goes back to a close up of a crow squawking. The piercing sound of violins is used to create tension.

Shot 11- The camera pans a male from the side of his waist to his head. It begins by showing the audience the blood on his hands, and then gradually coming up to his shoulder, emphasising a tattoo. This makes the audience nervous as the tension is built up tremendously, as no characters have been introduced properly in the film at this stage, and the fact that the first character being shown is the ‘murderer’ makes the watcher on edge. Finally, there is a close up of his face looking worried. The male looks behind him to look at the sign and the crow on top. There is a long pause of the male looking at the crow, giving the impression that he is wanted help or advice on what to do next. At this point, the music becomes less dramatic as the camera pulls focus to the sign and crow. (Non-diegetic sounds are added again).

Shot 12- Close up of crow again.

Shot 13- Medium long shot of the male stood in the crops looking around to see what he can do. This shot was used so the audience can see the anxiety in his facial expression and body language. After he looks around (music fairly calm) he looks down at the floor giving the impression that he is looking at his victim, making the audience curious to see.

Shot 14- Cuts to a medium shot of his knees to his waist as he is walking back from whatever he looked at in the previous shot. The music becomes more dramatic. In this sequence, the audience are anxious to see what the man is going to do. The man begins to turn around.

Shot 15- Continuity editing is used in a medium length shot. The male continues to turn around and runs forwards.

Shot 16- Sudden cut back to the crow.

Shot 17- Cut to a full length shot of the back of the male running towards the car through the crops.

Shot 18- Continuity editing used as he leaps out of the field and runs around the side of his car. The car door is open, and he hesitates (as if he was panicking and not knowing what to do) He then leans into the car. The camera pans the males but slightly moving away from the car. This technique was used so that it gave a full length shot of the car, enabling the audience to see where he was and what he was doing.

Shot 19- Camera suddenly cuts to another close up shot of the crow. These quick cuts to the close up shots of the crow creates a slight confusion towards the audience as it gives a variety of unexpected shots making more things happen in the film rather than just having similar shots of the male.

Shot 20- Cuts to a medium shot of the males shoes as he gets out of the car and runs to the boot of the car.

Shot 21- Continuity editing is used in a medium length shot of the man coming to the boot of his car.

Shot 22- Cuts to a close up of the man trying to open the boot. There is an emphasis on his hands shaking as he is panicking to chose the correct key.Blackout

Shot 23- Using a wiping technique from the bottom to the top of the screen, the camera is set at a low angle looking up at the man using a medium close up (this shows the man looking around in the boot of the car for something)

Shot 24- Cuts back to a shot of the crow.

Shot 25- Cuts to an extreme long shot of the back of the male, still searching in the boot of the car. The road is also in the shot showing that there are no cars or people around.

Shot 26- Extreme close up. Hand held shot on top of the car. Slightly at a low angle shot. Nothing is really shown on screen but the audience can make out that it is the back of the car boot and the man and the man is on the other side looking for something. This builds tension because the audience is restricted to what he is trying to find.

Shot 27- Cuts back to the crow.

Shot 28- Cuts to a close up shot of the man pulling out some plastic bin liners. This is taken from the side.

Shot 29- Cuts to a medium long shot of the man pulling out the bags. Non-diegetic sound is added. (which is a loud tapping noise) This alerts the actor and the audience.

Shot 30- Cuts to a close up of the man peering over the boot door. Music becomes more intense. The audience can’t see what the man is looking at, making them feel more on edge.

Shot 31- Cuts to a shallow focus shot of the crow on the roof of the car suggesting that the crow is making him feel bad for what he did. This is another technique used to make the audience believe that he has just murdered a young woman.

Shot 32- Cuts back to the close up shot of the man. This shows the man sweating, emphasising the worry in his eyes.

Shot 33- Cuts to a long shot of the car. Slightly at a low angle shot, showing the crow on the roof of the car. The crow begins to tap again on the roof with its beak, revealing where the tapping noise was coming from.

Shot 34- Close up shot of the crow from the back. Shallow focus used, although it is till obvious the man is still peering in the background. The camera then pulls focus to the male. The music is high pitch. He suddenly puts the car boot door over his face so that he can carry on his search. Music then changes more dramatic when this happens.

Shot 35- Cuts back to the low angle shot of the man looking in the boot (as if someone was looking at him from the boot)

Shot 36- Like shot 25, an extreme long shot is used as he continues to find something. The road is still in the shot to show isolation. Violins are used dramatically. Male pulls out a blanket to give the impression that he is going to use this to cover the body.

Shot 37- Hand held shot used by someone in the car as it pans the males walking from the boot of the car to the front at a slightly high angle.

Shot 38- Continuity editing used as it changes to a long shot of the man walking around the front of his car. Shot showing the back of the male as he looks to his left and suddenly stand to a halt. Non-diegetic sound of squawking added.

Shot 39- Cuts to a medium close up shot of the crow sat on the top of the sign again.

Shot 40- Cuts to a high angle shot in the crops, using a shallow focus with the man in focus as he walks towards the womans body. Her feet are in the shot so the audience know she is still there, even though they aren’t in focus. The man walks to the body and stops at the womans foot. Shot 41- Cuts back to a close up of the crow.

Shot 42- High angle shot of the man. Medium length shot is used of his top half as he kneels next to the body. He lifts the sheet up as if he is going to cover the body. Crescendo used to build tension to the extreme and the audience are captured during this time.

Shot 43- Cuts back to the crow.

Shot 44- Male continues to put the sheet over the camera using the same shot as 42.

Shot 45- Cuts back to the crow as it shows that it is still watching what the male is doing. The music has suddenly stopped at this point, implying that something has happened. This leaves the audience in suspense as nothing is happening but they know something serious is going to happen.

Shot 46- Side on shot using a medium close up of the man looking downwards slightly. Everything is silent as he continues to look. The twist is revealed when a baby in handed to the man in the sheet he collected from the car. For the music, a piano is used to uplift the mood. Man is smiling and laughing. Everything changes to a happy mood. The camera pans slightly to the left so the woman, man and baby are all in the shot. Medium close up is still being used.

Shot 47- Close up of a woman showing her smile as she holds her baby.

Shot 48- Cuts to a side on shot of the man using a medium close up shot, as he smiles too.

Shot 49- Cuts back to the crow.

Shot 50- Crane shot from the crops to looking over the field as a police car comes down the road and the man runs to get its attention. Extreme long shot used to get a shot of the whole scenery.

Throughout the film, the audience are lead to believe that the woman who was crying at the beginning had been raped and killed. Due to the characters used, it gave the impression that the male was the stereotypical type of person to do something like that. Furthermore, Mathieu cleverly persuaded the audience to believe that the woman was dead and he was trying to get rid of the body. Right through the film, the crow played a main part. In shot 4, the crow was first introduced making the audience wonder why a crow was sat on top of a sign. With the immediate close up of the crow that followed (shot 5), the audience are given the impression that the crow is in the film for a reason. With the cuts from the crow to the crops then back to the crow, this enhances the importance of the crow as it gives the impression that it is looking at something. Skilfully, Mathieu used the crow throughout the film implying that it knew what the man supposedly did (which was rape and murder in the audiences point of view), suggesting that he did something wrong, making the male act more nervously during the film. I furthered my research to see why the crow was such a prime factor in the film, and I found that Steven King wrote several short stories that Mathieu produced into films, which included the crow. Close ups were used throughout the 5 minute film to show facial expressions and emotions (an example is shot 30), which is a technique we will use in our film. It also includes full length shots so the audience can establish what the main character is doing and get a better understanding of what is happening. The long opening at the start of the film leaves the audience in suspense until they can hear suspicious noises. This is a technique we want to use in our film, so that the audience’s attention is captured throughout the 5 minute film.

A Crescendo of violins was used to gradually build tension in several parts of the film, also using a piercing high pitch sound to alert the audience that something was wrong. Furthermore, in certain parts of the film it would become silent, so that the audience were less prepared for the ‘jumpy bit’ that was to follow (like at the end of shot 9 when the males hand strikes the floor with a knife). Non-diegetic sounds were added at the beginning of the film creating an eerie effect, also giving the impression that no one was around to inform the audience that the area was isolated (Meaning, there were no traffic noises or people speaking in the background, only the non-diegetic sounds being the crow and the sign squeaking were used).

Throughout the opening sequence of the short film, the shots were panned slowly creating a calm atmosphere. (This technique was shown in shots 2 to 4). At this point in the film, nothing was revealed leaving the audience confused and in suspense. The shots that were used in the opening sequence were extremely similar as the same shallow focus and dissolving techniques were used when panning the crops. With the shots used, the audience are drawn in by the tension that is built up as they are eager to see what is to happen. In shot 8 to 9, new, unexpected noises were introduced which implied that the film was about to become more dramatic. As the camera pans, emphasising the different objects and underwear covered in blood scattered on the floor, a woman begins to cry, enabling the audience to start making their own decisions on what is happening so far in the film (This technique is cleverly used to make the twist at the end more unexpected, as the audience make their own minds up). In shots 14 to 29, the music became more dramatic and different shots of the man and crow are used more frequently and rapidly to make the audience feel tense and anxious to see what is about to happen. In some sense, it makes out that the situation is serious, leading the audience to become more concerned and attached to the film. A variety of different shots were used to make the scene more frantic, for example shot 20 and 22.

As the audience were given the impression that the woman was killed, the twist is made more unexpected leaving the audience in shock when they found out what actually happens. In shot 46, the twist is revealed and the mood of the film changes totally with the use of soothing music and content facial expressions used in close ups to create a sense of relief for the audience as the actors are holding the baby. As a group, we wanted to use this technique so that the audience would be surprised when our twist was made known. Overall, I thought the film was produced perfectly. It left me in suspense till the very end of the film, and I was in total surprise when the twist was revealed, which I thought was truly inspirational, which is why I chose to analyse this 5 minute film, because the basis of the film is similar to ours, and we are wanting to use techniques, like the close up shots to show emotion and how suspense was carried throughout the film. Having it been set on a sunny day, the use of natural lighting complemented the scenes and actors very well. I was impressed with the use of varied camera shots, to change the mood as well as making the audience feel more involved in the tension that was built throughout the film. Furthermore, I believe that the music chosen proved that it can have an effect on the way the audience feel when watching a film. When I watched ‘Lovefields’ for the first time, the music had a great impact on me and I felt that if the music wasn’t used in the correct way then the film could have been less impressive. All in all, this has given me important factors that I wish to use in our group film. This has given me a better insight to how a short film should be produced!

Title Sequence Research by Shelley Brookes (ideas from Hayley Outhwaite also)

In the title sequence the font plays a big impact as it is usually a mixture of typed and hand written writing. This creates a variation in font. Also a lot of blurring of objects and words is common because I causes mystery and makes the person watching more intrigued.
A big aspect of the entire film is music so it is really important to choose the right genre because it adds to the effect. Orchestral, drum and base and pianos solos we found were used a lot within horror and thriller films or rather than music sounds may be used, these could include whispering and breathing. Or, finally no sound at all could be used making the audience clueless about what’s going to happen. A long period of silence causes suspence.
Flashes of what’s going to happen in the through have appeared in openings before. This makes the audience excited and causes suspense. The music goes along with what’s happening on the screen and so does the lens filter for example a red colour filtered on to the shot imply blood. Special effects could also be used for example smoke as fog or clouds could be used as a background whilst black font could be used for the titles over them. This would make the writing stand out.

5 Minute Film Analysis By Matthew Helliwell

I have decided to do an analysis of a 5 minute film by some other A level students as i think this will give us more output into what we want from our film, It was edited on I movie just like ours will be so the outcomes are realistic to us. The films’ in black and white and is called Wrong Turn. I chose this film becasue it was made by A level students like us, and also it was edited on Imovie and that is the software we are using so watching and analysing this film will give us a lot of ideas because everything they do we could probably create too.
Here is a link for the short film,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw72aMfI7kc

The film starts with a bluesy piano and bass making up the score, the first title in white over a black background reads the production company, and then it soon switches to this fuzzy dim lit picture of an overhead high angle shot of a man walking. We cannot tell who he is because we cannot see his face, there is a little jump cut and it jumps to him moving forward. The music changes when the man appears, a saxophone comes in and drums come into the score but they are of different texture they seem to be more driving than the angelic blues of the piano before. The next title reads A Low Budget Production. The organ comes in and the man who is lit from the left hand side cocks his pistol whilst lifting it to the air the picture is so distorted we cannot see any of the features of his face, perhaps this is to suggest he is very mysterious, the way half his face is lit could mean that there is two sides to this man. The next title reads “In association with Quick Short Home Movies,” Then a short close up as the man lowers his gun until it comes into the camera. The music builds up suspense and we here a gunshot as the last title is shown, the title of the film Wrong turn. Throughout all the blurriness and distorted flashing black and white images the black background underneath the title of the film flashes white as we here the gunshot, this is very dramatic. The next shot is a close up of an eye still very fuzzy but the fuzz sort f pulls into a clear picture, like you would pull a focus. But the image gets sharper. The director’s title is shown. And that bring an end to the title sequence. I think the title sequence is quite good as it doesn’t go on forever but just gives you what you need to know, it is not boring either and gives you a kind of insight into what the film may be about with the scenes in between each title. The music carries on through into the start of the movie, I do not think that it is clear enough that it is the actual start of the movie, I think this is down to the music not changing. It is quite confusing. The titles were very darkly lit with high contract, and there was this old television feel to it all. Most of the music was non diegetic, the music for example, but sounds like the gun cocking and the gun shot where all diegetic.

First scene, the score is still playing the same music as the title sequence but the picture is not as distorted, the first shot zooms from a close up to an extreme close up onto a box being held by an actor. It gets closer and pulls focus so you can see that it is white powder, possibly drugs. Then the next shot is to the side and is a close up again, the actor tips the powder onto some kind of surface he is sitting at. The next shot is an eye line match in the point of view of the actor, then an extreme high angle shot from over the head of the actor the camera moves slightly as he collects notes from his pocket, as the saxophone wails on the score, there are a series of jump cuts of him cutting up the drug with a credit card then a shot which appears to be hand held but has the attributes of a dolly shot. Gets closer to the substance, the cameras quick shots move around the substance and this gives us a feeling of rush, a mixture of close ups and extreme close ups also speed things up. More jump cuts, as he separates the substance into lines, and even more as he prepares and rolls his notes. This gives us a meaning of urgency as the jump cuts get more and more often, the director tries to portray the actor as being excited, There is no diegetic sound in this scene, only the music which keeps on playing, as the actor has rolled his note and he bends down to snort the substance we see an extreme close up of the substance moving up the note and then we see the actor’s face for the first time, he looks like a young adult about 16 or 17. More jump cuts as he snorts each line and lifts his head back, the music gets more dramatic as the last line has been dealt with, and we see an extreme close up of his face.
The next scene is of him putting his coat on the lighting is still kept very low this maybe to produce an essence or eeriness, still the director uses jump cuts but now this could be to display the actors confusion in his drug addled mind.
The next shot of the next scene is a dolly high angle shot looking down on a road, as it pans up it is cut to a car approaching, the score is still playing and violins come into the piece, now another diegetic sound as he pulls the handbrake. A close up on the actors face and the camera trembles and moves slightly, his face looks troubled. However he gets out of the car and the music becomes rockier, the next shots are medium shots of him walking with his gun in his hand, as he stands under the streetlight the contrast is very high. He cocks the gun and as he shoots a white flash appears on the screen to match the shot, this is very amateur, and doesn’t look too good, at this point he is lit from the right hand side as he raises the pistol in his other hand. He runs towards the door.

Then the next shots are in slow motion, as the door is forced open we hear a smash and a few medium close ups of him holding both guns in the air. He starts to climb the stairs, he walks into a room and we see a familiar high angle overhead shot, the one we saw at the beginning of the film. The score is now fully fledged rock; he wanders round the house apparently looking for someone, an eye line match occurs and he is looking at a door. He loads his gun then the man he is looking for opens the door and an eye line match to what the new character sees occurs and it is of the main character heavily lit from the side again, and the camera may be set at a low angle to convey that the main character has some kind of significance over the new character. He points his gun continuity editing used between these two scenes on the lowering of the gun. He shoots once and the new character when he drops his gun it is dropped in slow motion,. When he gets the pistol out it is the same shot as the one in the titles and we see these flashes on the screen with every shot and then a shot of the bloodied boy dying in the shower. We see another shot which featured in the titles the eye shot is repeated again. He walks out of the house and shortly after we see these flashback types of scenes, the shots fade in and out of black onto another shot, the shots are mainly of the boy in the shower dead. There is a very interesting shot where the camera is above him in the shower and in slow motion it spins around a little bit so the picture blurs. The score changes as we see these flashbacks it goes spooky and tense. It soon changes back to rock though as we see the murderer walking he stops with his back to the camera, then suddenly on the last shot we see a close up shot of his face, and then the credits roll.

Conclusion
The film has an obvious drug influence so maybe is classified as a gangster related genre, I think it was very graphic and under the BBFC guidelines i think it would’ve been made an 18 or a 15, for reasons like obvious hard drug abuse and the very violent gory murder.

The title sequence was good and I thought that the high contrast images worked great and how the film later on involved the images to give the viewer an explanation was a really good idea and it worked well. The way the music did not change when the titles were over and the film began did not work, it left me confused not knowing if it had started or not. I also did not like the lack of diegetic sound; it made me feel as though I was not involved in the film. Plus the lack of script and dialect was also a bad decision; it did not feel like a film. However the score was very good for this film, I like the interchange between the soft blues at the start to the heavy rock at the end.

The use of Editing in this film was very interesting, the director had filled the film with jump cuts which worked very well, especially around areas of confusion. It worked brilliantly. The use of continuity editing was also present, and a few uses of temporal editing and eye line matches.

The director had used lighting to his advantage, he used a lot of side lighting to put across the feeling that the main character was maybe two faced, or he was not all there. Although all the film was really dark I think it worked reasonably well.

I think the film had a good use of camera angles it varied them which made easy viewing; the director used angle shots to portray the characters importance. The director used tracks and also had a few hand held shots too. This helped vary things up a little; it stops it from getting boring.

Overall the film had little plot and the lack of dialogue was really disapointing, in our film i would like to maybe introduce some jump cuts as it really worked on this film, i would also like to add lighting tricks, and a score would be nice to have for our film. Also i think this film lacked focus tricks like pulling focus and deep focus, shallow focus i think they are very important in films. The black and white option was contraversial but i really dont think that film would have worked in colour.

Audience By Lucy Davies

Primarily, the younger generation (being 12 to 25 year olds) was the focus for our short film. As a group we decided this was the most obvious age group to target as our main audience because our two main characters play students in the short film. We thought this was an advantage as it made it easier for the targeted audience to relate themselves to the film. Furthermore, we wanted the language in the script to indicate the stereotypical view of the way a student speaks, which again will hopefully interest the main audience group. However, the genre of the film is a psychotic thriller making it more mature in certain places. This expanded the age group of our targeted audience making it suitable for people above the age of 21. If we were to produce this as a Hollywood production it would make more profit because there is a larger variety of people to watch it.
From the data we collected from our questionnaires we could see that comedy would have been the best choice to use for our targeted audience. However, we thought it would have been too difficult to make a film 'funny' especially only have 5 minutes. So, we decided to take the next option being horror/thriller, which we thought would appeal to our targeted audience even though it wasn't comedy.
By Lucy Davies

Questionaire Results Analysis By Shelley Brookes

My questionnaires were done by eight people. There were five males and three females. All eight of the participants were aged 12 to 18. The most common of the favourite film genres was comedy getting 3 people choosing it as the genre they liked. Then romance and horror got 2 people saying they liked them and thriller and action/adventure both got 1 person that liked them. Science fiction was the only genre that no one liked.

All of the participants apart from 2 could name a short film they had seen in the past. So the questions ‘what do you like about the short films you’ve named above?’ and ‘where did you see the short films?’ were also answered by all of them except 2. The most popular answer for where it was seen was at home (2 people gave this answer) and the most popular answer for what the particpants liked about the films were ending, style and characters because they all got chose twice. Whereas storyline and music only got one tick each and genre didn’t get any.

The question ‘what would you not like to see in a thriller film?’ got answers that told us the least thing people want to see is murders and rape because these got ticks off 4 people. Drugs and sex got 2 whereas psychopaths and swearing only got 1.

The favourate type of thriller was mystery because out of the 8 there were 4 people that said it was there favourate. Second was psychological with 3 people liking it and then spy got one person voting for it. Crime got 0 people liking it.

When a question was asked about narration it was found that people prefer films with narration because it got 5 people saying so. Whereas 2 people said they disliked it and 1 person said they didn't mind wether it had it or not.

Overall, the data collected from the questionaires contibuted to our decisions when coming up with ideas for our short film. It will also help us when the films in production.

By Shelley Brookes

Character Profiles By Hayley Outhwaite

Lucy Casken played by Lily Thomas.

Lucy is a 17 year old girl who has just left school and is ready to start college. She is short with long brown hair and piercing blue eyes. She is a shy and retiring character who lives at home with her mother. Her mother worries about her and so there is some conflict between them. She finds it hard to make friends due to her lack of confidence, which leads to her being a victim of bullying.

Emily- Jayne- Hart played by Laura-Jayne

Emily- Jayne is also 17 years old like Lucy. However she is tall with short brown hair. Her eyes are blue and she finds it difficult to make friends as well. Her dress sense is somewhat different to present day fashion although she looks very smart. She works at the library as a voluntary worker, this is where she first meets Lucy and they become very close friends. Unbeknown to the viewers who are watching the film Emily-Jayne is a fragment of Lucy’s imagination. Lucy is on tablets for her schizophrenia and due to the fact that she is forgetting to take them, she begins to see Emily-Jayne who in fact passed away many years ago. This is not discovered until the end of the film.

Bullies played by – Lucy Davies, Shelley Brookes and Hayley Outhwaite

Jade Turner played by Shelley Brookes

Sharon McQueen played by Lucy Davies

Danielle Squires played by Hayley Outhwaite

Jade Turner, Sharon McQueen and Dannielle Squires together make a group of vicious bullies who get a thrill out of making other people’s lives a misery, especially Lucy Caskens.
Jade Turner is the leader of the group with her bright blonde hair and blue eyes; she is the most outspoken out of the three. Her dress sense is casual however she tends to wear a lot of jewellery. Sharon McQueen and Danielle’s Squires on the other hand are the followers in the group they do whatever Jade tells them to as if their scared to disobey her. Sharon has short dark brown hair with blue eyes and even though she is influenced in a huge way by Sharon she is a lot more fashionable than her. Danielle Squires is the least intelligent one out of the group; she has long blonde locks and light blue eyes. Her dress sense is similar to Sharon’s as they dress a lot more girly to jade. Together they see Lucy Casken as a good target for their bullying as she is new at college and has struggled to make friends on her first day.



Mother- Michelle Outhwaite

Lucy Caskens Mother has short mousy-brown hair with bright blue eyes. She dresses casually around the house which is a contrast to when she is going to work as she dresses very smart in suits and high heels. She is like any typical mother, she worries about Lucy however sometimes she often suffocates her as she is always pestering her to take her medication and asking her is she’s ok; she would be devastated if anything happened to her daughter.

Teacher- Simon Casken
Simon is a media teacher at Lucy’s school; he has short blonde hair with sparkling blue eyes. He is an ordinary teacher who is friendly and caring towards his pupils. When Lucy is being bullied, he pulls her to one side and asks if she is alright in an attempt to comfort her.

Extras

Cashier- Cafe owner
College pupils

By Hayley Outhwaite

Script By Lucy Davies and Matthew Helliwell

Interior, Lucy's house. The scene is shot early in the morning and she hurries as she is late for college.

(Alarm clock rings and Lucy hits her hand alarm clock to stop the sound)

Lucy: Crap

(Runs around the house murmuring inaudible things to herself)

Interior, College. The scene is shot in the corridors of college as she is trying to find her class.

(Quick cut shots of her searching for her classroom again murmuring inaudible words)

Interior, College Library. Lucy sits down in a huff. Emily-Jayne comes over.

Emily-Jayne: Hello,
Lucy: Hi
Emily-Jayne: are you alright?
Lucy: Yeah, I’m fine, just a little lost.
Emily-Jayne: Oh, maybe I can help, where do you want to go? I’m a volunteer librarian here so I know this place like the back of my hand.

(Lucy gets a piece of paper out and indicates where she needs to go)

Lucy: I need to find this place here, E572?
(Points to paper)
Emily-Jayne: Oh yeah I took media there a while back. Just give me a minute.

(Emily-Jayne puts some books that are on the table on the shelf)

Emily-Jayne: Come on then, sorry I didn’t catch your name.
Lucy: Oh I’m Lucy, what’s yours?
Emily-Jayne: My names Emily-Jayne.

(Cut to the corridor of the classroom Lucy needs)


Interior, college corridor. Lucy and Emily-Jayne are having a conversation about As Levels as they come round the corner.
Emily-Jayne: So what is it you are doing A levels?
Lucy: Umm yeah, Media, Biology, Sociology, Use of Maths.
Emily-Jayne: Well you’ll get sick of the sight of this room then, I do. This is it.
Lucy: Okay then thanks a lot. See you around.
Emily-Jayne: Bye.

Interior, College Classroom. Lucy walks into her Media class. The teacher is teaching and everyone turns and looks at her.

Lucy: Sorry I’m late, I got lost.
Teacher: It’s okay, just find a seat quietly.

(She scans the room to look for a spare seat)

Lucy: Okay

(Sits down alone)

Interior. Lucy’s House. Lucy walks through the door and goes straight upstairs; Lucy’s Mum calls her from the Kitchen.

Mum: Hi darling, did you have a good day at college?
Lucy: Yeah, it was alright.
Mum: Did you make any new friends?
Lucy: Yeah a few. Ones called Emily-Jayne, she’s nice.
Mum: Ohh good, dinner will be ready soon.

Interior, college Library. Lucy is sat alone on a computer in the college library. Bullies are murmuring insults at her and she catches some of the words.

Emily-Jayne: Just ignore them

(Lucy is startled because she doesn’t realize Emily-Jayne is sat behind her she jumps)

Lucy: Jesus Emily, You nearly gave me a heart attack.
Emily-Jayne: Oh sorry, you really shouldn’t listen to them.
Lucy: I Don’t.

(The bullies shout more abuse because Lucy is talking to herself)

Emily-Jayne: Come on let’s get out of here. Do you fancy getting a coffee?
Lucy: Yeah sure.

(They walk out of the library away from the bullies.)

Exterior. Pavement outside college next to a main road.

(Emily-Jayne and Lucy are walking on the pavement, a car goes passed and throws something at them. They realise it was the girls from the library)

Emily-Jayne: God, are you okay? You really need to do something about that.
Lucy: Why should I, I’ve been dealing with it most my life I can handle it.
Emily:Jayne: Yes but,

(Lucy cuts her off)

Lucy: Look I don’t want to talk about it, please just forget about it.

Interior, Quiet Café.
(Both girls walk into café.)

Emily-Jayne: Oh sorry, I’ve forgot my money.
Lucy: No No, it’s my treat, I’ll get it for you.
Emily: Thanks.

(Lucy goes to the counter, while Emily-Jayne takes a seat. Cashier walks over to Lucy to take her order)

Cashier: Yeah?
Lucy: Ermm just two Lattes please.
Cashier: Two? (Confused expression)
Lucy: Yeah two if that’s ok? (Confused expression back)

Cashier: No problem love

(Lucy hands the money over, gets the drinks and goes to sit down opposite Emily-Jayne)

Emily-Jayne: I know you probably don’t want me to bring it up again but I think you should tell Simon about what those girls just did.
Lucy: Yeah, you’re most probably right. I’m just glad you’ve been there, I don’t make friends easy.
Emily-Jayne: Yeah me too, shall we go see Simon after the coffee?
Lucy: Maybe (Looks scared)
Emily-Jayne: Oh I was going to ask.

(Lucy’s phone interrupts Emily as it starts to vibrate on the table)

Lucy: Oh it’s my mum, just give me a minute.
Emily-Jayne: Okay no problem

(Lucy answers phone and a graphic match occurs to Lucy’s mum on the other end of the phone)

Lucy: Hello.
Mum: Hiya darling.
Lucy: What’s up?
Mum: Well I was vacuuming your room this afternoon.

(Scene cuts to her mum vacuuming the room)

Mum: And I found your medication under your bed, have you not been taking them?
Lucy: Oh crap. I must have forgotten to take them.
Mum: How could you forget? .....Well you need to start them again immediately. Do you want me to bring them to college?
Lucy: No it’s okay I was going to come home for dinner anyway.
Mum: Okay well hurry I’ll make you some food before I go to work.
Lucy: Okay bye.

(Lucy hangs up and stands up)

Lucy: Sorry I’m going to have to leave you. I’ll see you tomorrow yeah.
Emily-Jayne: Yeah sure.

(Lucy leaves the café in a rush)

(Mum rushes towards Lucy as she walks through the door of her house)

Mum: Your medicine is on the table and your dinner will be about 5 minutes I think.

(Rushes about to go to work)

Lucy: Okay. Cheers.

(Lucy goes over to the table gets some water and takes her tablets)

(Whilst the mother is talking she is putting her coat on and getting ready to go out of the house)

Mum: So what you done today then?
Lucy: Well kind of just had media and then hung out with Emily.
Mum: Ohh great. Maybe you should invite her round for tea sometime.
Lucy: Yeah she’d love it, maybe I will.
Mum: Okay love, well I’ll see you after work. Bye.

(Cut to Lucy’s bedroom she is looking in the mirror muttering to herself, she gets her bag and walks out of the door)

Interior: college corridor. Lucy walks around the corner on the phone to Emily and sees her standing there she continues talking to her on the phone.

Lucy: Okay I can see you now. Signals kind of going anyway.

(Lucy hangs up the phone)

Emily-Jayne: So are you ready for this?
Lucy: Yeah sure, I mean it’s not that much of a big deal really.
Emily-Jayne: I suppose not.

(They walk round the corner to the door of the classroom. Lucy takes In a deep breath and knocks on the door)

Simon: Hello Lucy, what’s the matter?
Lucy: Hello, I think I need some help.....from you, are you busy?
Simon: No not at all, come in. Shut the door after you.

(Lucy walks into the classroom, shuts the door behind her and sits down opposite Simon)

Lucy: Okay well...well. Right, I’m having a little bit of trouble with some of the girls in our class.

Simon: Oh okay, well let’s start with who?
Lucy: Well really it’s just Jade, but also her friends Sharron and I don’t know the other one but she has long blonde hair and sits near the window just over there.
Simon: Ahh you mean Danielle Squires.
Lucy: Yeah I think that’s her name.
Simon: And what has been happening then?
Lucy: Well it started out softly you know just like muttering in the library and whenever I see them really. But I just saw them today and they threw something at me and Emily and I dunno I’m just a little bit fed up now. I feel daft coming to you at this age, but I just don’t know what to do.
Simon: No worries, that’s why I’m here...... so it’s not just you getting bullied then? Who’s this Emily girl?
Lucy: Emily-Jayne Hart? Um yeah

(She looks to the empty chair. She looks confused and puzzled at why Simon is reacting so blankly)

Simon: What?
Lucy: Emily, yeah she’s um.
Simon: What are you talking about Lucy?
Lucy: Emily-Jayne

(Lucy Points and looks to the side of her)

Lucy: (Mutters whilst she looks around the room)

(Lucy looks and she sees no one there, she looks a second time but there is still no one in the seat)

Simon: Lucy, Lucy? Is everything okay?

(Lucy looks sick and confused)

Lucy: No no I’m not at all. What’s happening?

(She puts her hand on her head and stands off her seat)

Lucy: I don’t know what’s happening.

(She continues to mutter to herself whilst pacing up and down)

Simon: Just calm down Lucy,

(Simon looks through a filing cabinet in the corner of the room he flicks through the folders until he finds the folder Hart, He pulls out her file, Lucy is wandering around the room pulling at her hair)

Simon: I have found her file.

(Simon scans the sheet of paper in his hand; he suddenly looks at the file in shock)

Simon: What the....

(He says to himself)

Simon: Look this is most probably a misunderstanding, but it says, it...it says (he stutters) well it says she died Lucy.
Lucy: She was my friend, I knew her. She was the best friend I have ever had.

(Lucy doesn’t really take in what Simon had just said to her then she falls silent and stares at the floor)

Lucy: Oh my god.

(She realises what has just happened and sits back in her chair)

Flashbacks occur in Lucy’s head, they cover the times they spent together and what they must have looked like to a normal person. She is sat in the café alone, on the phone to no one, walking down the corridors laughing to herself trying to find her class, the bullies watching her having a conversation with herself in the computer suite, they are laughing at her. The bullies throwing an empty bottle at her.

(The camera pulls focus onto Lucy’s Face)

Lucy: NOOOOOOOOOO!