Narrative Structure for "Derogatory"

In order to create an opening sequence that will lead on to the rest of the film in a suitable manner, the rest of the film has to actually be planned. With the help of my filming partner, Muhammad Rahman, we have decided on the final narrative structure for our British Social Realism film.

EXPOSITION

We are introduced to the main character whom is denoted writing an anonymous blog entry about his life. He speaks about how his life is not exactly the best and how he wants to gain his route up through immoral duties. We are also aware that he has a few friends, but nobody too close. This section also showcases a fight, a fight that he is involved in. His closest friend is a friend from school called Jenna, a girl whom he also has a crush on. To the left is an image of the type of character playing Ben. The exposition is pretty much a restricted point of view aspect, this has been chosen as it enables the audience to only see the film from the main character's point of view, thus only allowing one aspect to be viewed.

AGENTS OF CHANGE:

Within this section, the audience are presented with scenes of an anonymous call being made. This moment is done only on the side of the bullies so that a sense of tension of created. The bullies are then sent to go after the antagonist, Jenna's, sister. Before this we find out that Jenna is very protective over her sister. This is again done from a restricted view, but makes the overall film turn into being omniscient. The image to the right is the kind of character that would play Jenna.

CONFLICT COMPLICATION:

Once the bullies get into action, they threaten Jenna's sister with a knife and hold it to her face. Her sister is attacked. Jenna then finds out about what has happened and wants to get revenge on the bullies.

ELABORATION:

Jenna then realises from one of the bullies than an anonymous caller had set this all up, so she sets a goal of finding out who this anonymous caller is. Jenna and Ben get close due to Ben feeling as if Jenna is not acting herself. Jenna then allows Ben to hear her plan, in which he tells her it's a good plan but does not speak much of the topic. At this point, Jenna and Ben are now dating. One time around Ben's house, Jenna is there. He pops out to make a phone call in which Jenna goes onto his laptop and sees his blog open. She reads some of the things and finds out that he is involved in the fights as well as being the anonymous caller. This infuriates her. Once he comes back in, Jenna tries to get it out of him, but he acts casual and expresses no sign of admitting the truth. The audience are not aware that Jenna knows.

CLIMAX & RESOLUTION:

After not finding out the truth directly from her boyfriend, she storms in mid assembly, in front of the entire school in the afternoon and tells everyone, showing them the blog on the projector. After having everyone yell mean things to him about how they can no longer trust him, how shocked they are and how negatively they see him, Ben runs out of the school immediately. Once he gets home he throws things in his room around then heads out the door in a rush. He is out of breathe after running and realises that he has nowhere to go.

CODA:

This then leads him to run towards a lake in the park and jump in, fully aware of the fact that he cannot actually swim. This ends the film on a sad note by having the protagonist commit suicide. This section is done similarly to the opening sequence where the fight breaks out but it ends completely different so that the audience are surprised.

OTHER POINTS TO NOTE:

This film will be made from an omniscient perspective as we see views from Ben, the bullies, Jenna and others. This will help to allow the audience to see different perspectives as well as being able to pick up clues that may help them realise who the caller is.

The narrative will contain some form of non-linear movement as the first scene that is presented on the screen will be part of the last scene. This will help the tension to be increased as well as creating an enigma as the audience are unaware of what has just happened. This cut to action technique is also known as a 'smash mouth opening'.

The following themes are all encountered:

• Violence

The bullies are set up to do violent things such as knife crime. They must threaten, and in some cases actually do, bad things that may end up getting them into tough situations.

• Aspirations

The whole point of this is so that Ben can find a new life. At the start of the film he expresses his wishes for this 'new life' and the audience are shown the transition through his voice over. As a typical BSR convention, the aspirations have all corrupted and he loses everything.

• Family

Jenna and her sister connote a close relationship in the film as Jenna is quite protective over her. Also, Jenna risks getting into a lot of trouble in order to save her sister in the future

• Bullying

The people organised by the caller bully others into certain situations, as well as being bribed (a form of bullying) into doing this themselves. This can be a great way to dive into what many people, typically the youthful population, go through.

There are also many typical BSR conventions that my film contains. We explore the typical things such as having fights, rejected dreams, negative family situations and neglected from love.