[DN1015] Revealing Emotion – GUILT

Being given the emotion GUILT to create a 3 shot story, we had a rather rough time at the beginning, trying to work out how we could portray the idea of ‘guilt’ as dynamically and as creatively as we could within 3 shots & 1.5 minutes.

Writing the script, we had multiple drafts throughout the ideation process due to various feedback sessions with Yue Han and in-group discussions. However, we were able to come together and work out 2 main plans for our work-place drama with JOSH and SAM set as our protagonist and antagonist respectively.

First Edition:


Idea: The guilt of getting a job that your friend really needed / needed more than you did.
Sequence of events: Present to Past

Title Sequence overlaid w/ News Audio of the 2009 economic recession

1st scene:
– Josh is drinking with his friend (/ a group of friends), he is in work attire and looks visibly uncomfortable while the rest of his friends are at ease and having a good chat.
– His friend makes a toast to him / congratulates him for being the first one of the lot to get a job. The group’s conversation gradually becomes inaudible and the VO of a phone call takes over. 

Phone call content (not happening at present time) – The company that XX is now working for telling him that he had passed the interview and has gotten the job. 

  • Location: Quiet Location (anywhere as long as they are gathered there)
  • Characters: Protagonist + 3-5 friends (depending)
  • Grp of Friends → Meeting to celebrate our protagonists success. They don’t know that our friend applied for the same position and failed.

2nd scene:
Josh is at work (an office worker?) while he’s working he gets lost in his thoughts and goes into a daze, perhaps he could look in a certain direction as if someone is opposite talking to him off screen. The voice comes from his friend who talks about how he wants to get a job as soon as he can so he can provide for his aging parents and young siblings. (or some sad backstory) A colleague snaps Josh out of his daze and jokes, “Hey, don’t let me catch you slacking on the job so soon.”
– A potential transition could be a shot of Josh talking to Sam who was listening to him in the 2nd scene. 

3rd scene:
– Sam telling the Josh about how he needs a job quickly.
– Sam rushing to the meeting/lunch and explains that he had to send his father to the dialysis centre. Josh asks the Sam what he’s been doing. Sam says he has been sending in resumes.
– Josh got the job for a while now but he’s still affected by the matter and is guilty.

→ VO to bridge the gaps between shots, it could also explain that our protagonist has some self-esteem issues: they don’t feel as competent as their peers + don’t mind taking longer to find a job. Therefore, the guilt sets in when they think they are undeserving of the job they got. An emotional angle that I think can be used to patch up any rough acting.


Second Edition:

Ultimately, we decided to put them in competition with one another, each vying for a promotion to be the company’s assistant director. With tension injected in the right areas of the plot and an easy to follow storyline, we were finally able to work things out!

1015 Guilt: version 1 w/ 2 endings (shot 3.1 and shot 3.2)
1015 Guilt Final

 

Though I am aware that our filming set-up was one that could be considered rather small scaled when compared to a regular production’s, but it being my first time on-set, I was really overwhelmed with all the equipment, what their functions were and how to operate them. I am therefore, really really thankful to my group mates Eliza and Sean who sped taught me how stuff worked and what I could do to help them on-set.

 

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Vanessa Chiu

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