4D Assignment 4 Synopsis

By Daniel Choo and Merlin Cheng (G5)

Tentative/Working Title: The Camelot Office

Main Characters:

Merlin

  • He is an overconfident person and somewhat cunning
  • A goal driven person, he won’t let anyone get in the way of achieving what he wants
  • Despite that, Merlin genuinely cares for the welfare of the company and for Arthur

Morgan

  • She is sassy, competitive and an egoist as well
  • Due to their similar personalities and not wanting to give way to each other, she always clashes with Merlin
  • Her hidden soft side and strong leadership is what made her get promoted more easily than Merlin

Arthur

  • He is naive, and kind of carefree
  • Young, a little impressionable but has a good character overall
  • He will develop to become a strong leader for the company who still retains his cheerful disposition but also more focused and forward-thinking

Secondary Characters:

  • Hector (Arthur’s father)
  • Lancelot (Hector’s Assistant)
  • Kay (Arthur’s older brother)

 

Inspiration:

  • Modern Family, The Office, The Muppets, What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

Trailer Structure Inspiration:

Although not a mockumentary, The Intern is a comedy and have a structure we are inspired to use, which includes The Turn Line, The Rise. Hits and The Buttons.

Genre:

Comedy, Mockumentary, Office-life

The project will be done in a Mockumentary style, switching scenes from recorded happenings to interviews with the characters.

Plot:

The story begins in the office after an employee review. The main character, Merlin, a manager at Camelot press is horrified to see that his rival at work, Morgan, has been promoted to a higher position he was originally aiming for.

Flashback to 3 years ago, Morgan is starting her first day of work at Camelot Press. Being an upstart lady with a prestigious college degree, she intends to show her fellow employees what she’s made of and that she’s not to be messed with. Unfortunately, she gets on the bad side with Merlin who holds a similar position to hers but has been there longer and expects some respect. They clash and hilarity ensues.

Fast-forward to the present time. Hector is the owner of 2 huge media enterprises; Camelot press and Avalon web-publishing. His son Arthur has just finished college and Hector wants to prepare Arthur to take over Camelot press. He wants Arthur to start by learning the ropes of what happens in the company so he makes Arthur work as an intern. Arthur is put under the tutelage of Merlin, who immediately sees this as a career opportunity as well as a chance to get back at his nemesis, Morgan.

Merlin starts to befriend the young man as his mentor and teaches him more about his work. At first, everything is sailing smoothly as Merlin does a good job, Arthur learns a lot and in doing so, Merlin is also promoted for his work.

Just as Arthur gets used to his lifestyle at work, Hector gets into an accident and is hospitalized. Now that Hector is not able to be present physically to do his job, the company starts to suffer losses and business starts to plummet. Hector and Arthur’s older brother Kay are both concerned if Arthur is ready to take over Camelot press and bring it out of the slump it is in.

When Merlin finds out that Hector is now of the picture and the inexperienced Arthur has to take over, he retains his position as Arthur’s teacher and advisor but begins cooking up a scheme to turn Arthur into his puppet ruler of the company. Shortly after however, he realizes that his rival, Morgan has been dating Kay, trying to convince him that the company should be sold as she intends to get some of the money and jump to Avalon. Determined to stop this, he confronts her and she find out about his own scheme. The two of them start battling it out with each other attempting to sabotage each other’s work and causing ‘collateral damage’ in the office.

At the climax, upper management in Camelot Press is preparing to take a final decision to meet up with the buyers and discuss the offer price for the company, Merlin causes a commotion to stop the meeting, Morgan joins in and it results in a battle of insults. In the process, both their schemes are also revealed. Arthur steps in and stops the fight while he explains that he was never comfortable with the decision to sell what his father had originally meant for him. Arthur takes over the company and realizing that a lot of damage had been done partially due to the in-fighting of Morgan and Merlin, he reluctantly fires them both. The last scene involves both Merlin and Morgan waiting to collect their final paycheck. As their eyes meet, they both roll their eyes showing disapproval at each other.