Crossing The Line Synopsis

My short film named 'Crossing The Line' is about an average working man. The character has been influenced by the media his whole life which has forced societies norms and values onto him. Throughout the short film we see quick shots of different forms of media which are repressing the main character.

This man represents the 'Nameless' public who spend their lives working.

In the short film we see the characters struggle to break free from the social norms and values. He achieves this by entering his own mind and crossing a symbolic line which represents a barrier top freedom. After crossing the line the main character realizes what has happened and the world becomes more clear to him.

The end of the film may come as a shock to the audience when the characters new found freedom leads to him falling down a set of stairs. A small twist is the fact that a close up of the man smiling at the start is also at the end after he falls down the stairs. The man is happy even though he is seriously hurt.

My short film is very simple but has a deep meaning behind it which may not be obvious to the audience on first viewing.

Location Details

Locations

Forrest Environment

The scene in the main characters head will be filmed in a forest type environment. The forest i have chosen for this is one that is fairly close to me and the actor and therefore is easy to access and also is not too busy which means the film will be easier to shoot on the day without having to worry about members of the public being in the background of shots.

After going to look at the location i picked up a clearing surrounding the trees which was a lot like what i imagined when coming up with the original idea.

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The meeting room

To make my short film visually effecitve and realistic i needed to find a location which could really resemble a company meeting room. I would also need to have access to this meeting room for a couple of hours aswell and having to be able to rearange the room to create the perfect mise-en-scene.

The ideal location i could think of was a room used for meetings in school as can be seen in the image below.

Character Profiles

John :

John is the main protagonist in crossing the line. He has a full time job working for a large organisation. He hates his job and has always wanted to leave but has never had the courage to do so as it would leave him with no income.

We follow John's day at work and we see into his mind where he crosses a subconscious line representing the the barrier between staying and leaving his job.

Four Businessmen:

Four actors will play businessmen who are in the meeting as well as being seen having a business related convocation they voices are also used as diegetic sound.

Man in the office:

The main in the office is seen twice in the film. The first time he is seen is as John is entering his workplace, the man in the office says 'good morning!" to John. The second time he is seen the man in the office asks John for a favour but John rejects this offer in a rude manner.

Short Film Plot Overview

Plot Overview/Synopsis

• We see a close up of the main male characters face. He is smiling.
• The same character is suddenly walking up a set of stairs. He seems to be in a hurry and looks unhappy.
• He walks into a ‘Meeting Room’ and sits down at a table with several other people. All people are wearing suits including our character.
• A discussion takes place between the people in suits but as the discussion goes on the sound of the convocation starts to become blurred.
• The man sees flashes of images of different forms of media as well as other symbolic images.
• His vision goes and all we can see is darkness.
• Suddenly, the main male character wakes up in the middle of a clearing in a Forrest. He is laying flat on his back and looking up at the sky.
• The man gets to his feet surveying his surroundings but has no idea where he is.
• He notices a line made out of sticks in the middle of the clearing.
• He slowly approaches it but as he gets closer seems hesitant.
• He stands at the edge of the line considering whether or not to cross it when he wakes up and is back in the meeting. The rest of the people in the meeting are staring in silence at our main character.
• He says sorry and the meeting continues.
• The meeting continues and images again start to appear in the characters head. Before he knows it he is back in the Forrest.
• He approaches the line again this time crossing it.
• As he crosses the weather turns from an overcast/cloudy atmosphere to a sunny day.
• As the sun beats down on him the man stands in shock on the other side of the line.
• He shouts out, throws his arms in the air and looks up at the sky.
• Suddenly, he is back on the meeting room.
• The main male character knocks over a chair to the shock of his co-workers who ,again, are staring at him.
• The man exits the meeting room. He runs down a corridor.
• The man trips of the stairs and falls down.
• He hits his head on the floor and slowly rolls over onto his back. As a puddle of blood forms around his head he smiles and a zoom is used to focus on his smiling face.
• Credits.

Theories

Representation

Louis Althusser (1971) says that individuals in capitalist societies 'internalise' ruling capitalist ideologies, unaware that their lives are being repressed.

I will take this theory and incorporate its idea into my short film. This theory will be presented by the main character in my short film who is in a job that he doesn't enjoy but can't leave as he is being repressed by society's rules which he is subliminally exposed to everyday.

Traditional Marxist theories suggest that owners of the media manipulate the media for their own benefit. Neo Marxist theories suggest that the media is influenced by the people working in the media but this is done subconsciously and not deliberately. Both these idea's are related to the themes behind my short film as it is the media which over time convinces the main character to stay in his job instead of doing something he really enjoys.

Both these theories have helped me to develop the idea of showing quick shots of different types of media convincing the man to stay working for this big corporation.

Narrative

I am going to heavily use Levi Strauss's theory on binary opposites in my short film as I want to emphasize the difference between the real world and the dream world that the main male character experiences. I believe that using the binary opposite theory to contrast both worlds will be very effective and convey the message to the audience that the two worlds are very different.

I am also going to dip into Christopher Volger's idea on creating a character who at the start of the story lives a stable but slightly problematic life. The character in my short film will have a stable life but he is not doing what he really enjoys and therefore his life is problematic. I hope by using these theory the audience will be able to relate to the main character and will be able to understand how he is feeling which will make the experience more intense for the viewer.

Instead of using a linear structure which is seen in most big budget Hollywood films, I am going to use a non-linear structure where the end of the narrative will be shown at the start of the film before returning to the start of the narrative and working to the end again. I believe that this method of structuring narrative will go against the traditional Hollywood linear structure as well as giving me an opportunity to put a small twist into the plot which will involve the ending shown at the start of the film.

Audience

The film I am producing is a short film and therefore I will not be using conventional methods to promote my short film. This is because I do not have the budget to spend on marketing and also because my audience will be a niche audience who are interested in artistic films instead of a typical Hollywood audience.

When delivering my short film to the required audience I will make use of web. 2.0 which involves uploading self made content to the Internet. This will include using social networking sites such as Youtube, Facebook and Twitter to promote my film.

George Gerbner(1986) says that TV and other media 'Cultivate the minds of consumers over a long period of time'. This theory is linked to one of the main themes of my short film where the media has influenced the behavior of the main character.

Genre
For my short film i have decided to use a drama genre as the story is very character driven rather than action driven. Throughout the whole film we focus on 'John' the main character, we go into his head and find out how the influence of the media has affected him.

Drama is also very obvious at the end of Crossing the line where John falls down the stairs and is seriously hurt. The tragedy of this scene fits well into the Drama genre.

Spider Diagram

<<<< Spider Diagram is here.

The spider diagram I have created is above, click on the small icon to enlarge the spider diagram.

I have used my spider diagram to dip into idea's from many different sources which i plan to combine and use in my film for the most creative output. The main sections are:

• Representation


• Genre


• Narrative


• Audience


• Influences and Research


• Media Techniques

From these main sections i have gone into more detail about theories and ideas related to each section.

Research into Drama Genre

Research into Drama Genre

The drama genre focuses on characters, their relationships and their lives

Drama Films are serious presentations or stories with settings or life situations that portray realistic characters in conflict with either themselves, others, or forces of nature. – Film site.org

I am going to research several short films and feature films in the drama genre.

Short Film - Meeting Life (2006 - Ansom Wong)

Part 1:

Part 2:

Meeting life is a very low budget short film directed by Anson Wong. The main plot is about a boy’s life and how he is trying to search for meaning in his life with the help of his friend.

This theme is similar to the theme that I had planned for my short film. The ending reveals that the main character and his friend are the same person. His friend represents his process of trying to work out the meaning of his life.

Short Film – Fence (Mathew Murdoch)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p004tzrd

Fence is about a boy starting at a new school, he decides whether or not he should dig a hole under a fence at his school and leave.

This film first stood out to me because the theme sounded similar to the initial idea of my short film. After watching I realized that it is a very similar concept but in a different setting.

One technique that I am going to make use of in my short film is the contrast between being bound by society's rules and breaking out. This takes place in ‘The Fence’ as before he breaks out of the school all the other children were ignoring him while after he had broken out of the school every child was staring at him. Another contrast is the change from loud noise to silence after the boy had crawled under the fence. This use of contrast can be seen in Levi St narrative theory on binary opposites where he states ‘Narrative tension is based on opposition or conflict.’