Story-Telling Development Exercise

We were put into groups and had to come up with a story for a 10 minute short film using a newspaper as our starting point for idea development. I was paired up with Sam 'Pepe' Ogden.

Here is the outline of our idea:

Title: Accused

Genre: Thriller/Drama

The Idea:

In a Courtroom, a secret police informant sits in the dock charged with the murder of his ex-wife. As the court case goes on and evidence is given against him, it cuts to descriptive scenes of events that took place leading up to the case.

There are multiple twists to the storyline but the major turning point is when the brother of a drug lord is arrested and imprisoned due to evidence supplied by the informant, he sets out to avenge his brother by setting up the informant in a murder case with the ex-wife as the victim.

The film is voiced over by the lead character as a first-person narrative.

To the audience, the film is set like a game of ‘Piece the Puzzle’.

Theme:

The moral to the story is dealing with subject matters of Vengeance, False accusation and Innocence. Another major theme is a ‘Reverse state of affairs’ in the sense that the major character finds himself in a position where he usually causes others to be in.

Characters:

The lead character ‘Jeff Neilson’ is a Web-Designer. However, he secretly works for the police as a police informant. He is responsible for hundreds of dangerous criminals imprisoned.

He is the caring father to a five year-old daughter but recently divorced from his wife of seven years.

Though dedicated to his job as an informant, he also knows that due to its nature his family is under much threat and risk from criminal, so his is always prepared to go to lengths in order to protect his daughter.

He has a huge fascination for photography.

He is framed for the murder of his ex-wife due to their legal divorce battles.

Rebecca Neilson is Jeff’s ex-wife who becomes a murder victim in a vengeful attempt to get him sentenced to life imprisonment. Prior to her murder, she was at constant battle with him over the custody of their daughter and other legal issues, which is then used as evidence against him in the court case.

Rebecca was stabbed in the neck in Jeff’s kitchen. The knife was stained with Jeff’s fingerprints and used as evidence in court.

Elizabeth Neilson is their 5-year-old daughter.

Simon Todd is a professional Lawyer dedicated to his craft. He is Jeff’s close friend and defendant which means he is willing to do all in his power to help him.

Don Fremlin is a drug lord who desires to avenge his brothers’ sentence because of Jeff so he sets him up in a murder case.

Setting:

Set in a courtroom with the descriptive scenes set at Jeff’s home, Don Fremlin’s office.