Major Project Pitch Notes

• TITLE CARD - Major Project Pitch

• ESSAY QUESTION - How Do Filmmakers Use Places To Tell A Story?

• THE FILM

• LOG LINE - Lost In Translation… In Port Talbot.

• The story of a couple who feel lost in their lives and try to find solid ground by returning to their home town.

• CHARACTER SHEETS

• Jess
• Protagonist
• Optimist
• Believes the solution to their problems is their location.
• Looking for the easy way out.

• John
• Antagonist
• Realist
• Believes the solution is to their problems is to talk about it/address it.

• SCRIPT BREAKDOWN

• Jess’ Dream
• Jess dreams of a day from her childhood.

• Car
• Jess wakes up and tries to convince John to visit Port Talbot.

• Plaza
• Jess and John come across the Plaza cinema and reminisce about it.

• Railway Crossing
• Jess and John have an argument about why Jess came back to Port Talbot.

• Beach
• The couples fight reaches a climax.

• RESEARCH

• PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY

• “The Study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals” Guy Debord - 1955
• Guy Louis Debord was a French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker.
• My Definition: “Psychogeography is how places have an effect on us emotionally and behaviorally”.

• PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY - Merlin Coverley

• Merlin Coverley - Author

• Believes that ‘psychogeography’ is used for many different things.

• A FIELD GUIDE TO GETTING LOST - Rebecca Solnit

• Rebecca Solint is an essayist, an art critic, an environmentalist, a political activist.

• VERY OPTIMISTIC She believes it is not particularly philosophy, rather a sense of wonder, an open mind and the capacity to see and feel more than just what can be labelled or defined

• PSYCHO - GEOGRAPHY - Will Self

• Will Self is an author, known, amongst other things, for his ‘psychogeography’ column in the Independent newspaper.

• Will Self has quite an opposite viewpoint

• Will Self writes about his effort to integrate his two geographical psyches, one in South London, his ‘home base’, and the other in his mother’s home town of New York City.

• SPACE VS PLACE

• YI FU TUAN - “Space is more abstract than place. What begins as undifferentiated space becomes ‘place’ as we get to know it better and endow it with value. … From the security and stability of place we are aware of the openness, freedom, and threat of space, and vice versa. Furthermore, if we think of space as that which allows movement, then place is pause; each pause in movement makes it possible for location to be transformed into place.”

• RESEARCH FILMS - And Directors.

• Lost In Translation - Sofia Coppola

• Wish I Was Here - Zack Braff

• The Gospel Of Us - Dave McKean

• Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

• Stuck in Love - Josh Boone

• SCENE BREAKDOWNS

• JESS’ DREAM - Space! (WHY THE BEACH)

• Ying & Yang - The sea and the land represent Jess and John’s opposing ideas.

• Full Circle - The first scene and the last scene set in different places.

• Abstract - In relation to Space vs Place.

• THE CAR - Neutral Location (WHY THE CAR)

• Introduction to the Characters - Jess & John.

• Merlin Coverly’s Theory - Walking through a place will give you a far more visceral experience than driving through it. There is a DISCONNECT.

• THE PLAZA - Nostalgia (WHY THE PLAZA?)

• Ying & Yang - The borders are JOHN and the paint is JESS.

• Rebecca Solint - Place’s invoke memories and remind us of how we felt at certain times.

• RAILWAY CROSSING - Breaking Point (WHY THE CROSSING?)

• The Divide - The crossing represents the barrier between the two characters.

• Visual - The Disconnect

.

• THE BEACH - Place (WHY THE BEACH?)

• Ying & Yang - The sea and the land represent Jess and John’s opposing ideas.

• Full Circle - The first scene and the last scene set in different places.

• Clear - In relation to Space vs Place.

• The Proposal - The CONTEXT of the scene.

• LOCATIONS - Port Talbot

• The Plaza

• Port Talbot Parkway

• Aberavon Beach

• SHOOTING PLAN

• Shooting Dates - The week of February 22nd.

• Location - Port Talbot

• Cinematography - Ciaran McCallion

• Assistant Director - Ieuan Rhys Peake

• Sound Recordist - Conor Hardiman

• HOW WILL I KNOW THE PROJECT HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL? - Project Aims

• The film will accurately carry out the planned sequences that use my research of place and psychogeography to tell a story.

• The scenes will be clear in their intentions.

• The film will accurately represent my skills as a writer/director.