Pre-production- Production/Shooting Schedule

Production/Shooting Schedule for Sunday 2^nd October, 2011

Location

Ruth’s House, Orton Malbourne

Order of events

Arrive at 11oclock am- Set up, rehearsals, briefing for 40 minutes. Aim to start filming at 11:40

11:40- 1- Aim to finish filming within this time, allow time for re-shoots, etc.

1-1:40- This should be enough time to record voiceover. Allow till 2 just in case.

Things to bring:

-          Camera

-          Tripod

-          Tripod clip

-          Sound recording equipment: mixer, microphones, XLR to XLR wire, two mini jack stereo to one mini jack lead, kettle lead

-          Laptop and charger

-          Lighting equipment

Contact

Tom- 0779292***

Ruth (and so Patricia)- 07742902***

Shooting schedule

Try to shoot shots in purely chronological order- there is no reason not to. The shot list details the order.

Pre-production- Script- Preliminary Task- 'Life After Jim'

 Life After Jim

By

Tom Leatherbarrow

1. INT.CAROLINE’S HOUSE- LIVING ROOM- DAY

Opens with a close up of CAROLINE’S face. She is staring blankly ahead, obviously deep in thought. The only sound is of the diegetic house silence. Cuts to a close up of a picture frame of her and JIM. Cuts to a close up of a cigarette in an ashtray. Cuts to black with same diegetic sound. SUPER: LIFE AFTER JIM. Cuts back to mid shot of CAROLINE sitting on the chair

CAROLINE V/O

It’s on days like these that I miss him the most. When the house is empty and it’s quiet.

Cuts to a wider angle to show her loneliness

It’s at these times that a tiredness seeps over me, a weariness that has nothing to do with sleep.

Back to a close up of her with her head in her hands

Jim would always know how to cheer me up when I was feeling like this. I can see him now, walking into the room, smiling, the way he would, and saying ‘cheer up, deary, you’re not dead yet.’

As she says ‘walking into the room’ Jim walks in, slightly faded, like a ghost. As she recalls his words, his voice sounds alongside hers.

Of course, it wouldn’t make me as happy as he always was. But the fact that he was there made me feel that little bit better.

I think that’s what affected me the most about when he died. It felt as if all the hope and goodness had been drained from the world. I remember the policemen arriving at my door.

2. INT- DOORWAY- DAY

CAROLINE is standing at the door, light on her face. The camera is positioned at her side in a close up. She is expressionless, unmoving. Music comes in

When they said the words, I didn’t feel it. I caught only glimpses of what they were saying. It was as if I had been stripped of all of Jim’s words of comfort, hope and kindness and a bleak, nothingness was left. I just stared, stared into a future that I could see no prospect of.

3. INT- KITCHEN- DAY

CAROLINE is making a cup of tea. She sounds weary 

 But life goes on- it was 10 years since his death last week. Scary how time flies... it feels like only yesterday that he was here- just walking about the house, cooking or cracking jokes. In another sense, these past 10 years have been the longest of my life.

CAROLINE is sitting at the table, with a cup of tea, looking at photos of her and JIM when they were younger

Our daughter and her husband took me back to where I grew up, and where me and Jim met. I didn’t realise how much I missed the grassy expanses of the Irish countryside. I felt a peace that I haven’t felt for a long time, living here. I suppose I always thought we’d move back to Ireland eventually, but when he died I didn’t feel like going anywhere. I couldn’t face a fresh start without him. Maybe I will move back there at some point.

4. INT- CAROLINE’S LIVING ROOM- DAY

CAROLINE walks back into the living room, shot from a medium low angle. She stares around the room, longingly

Everything about this house reminds me of him- which sometimes feels like a blessing, because it feels like he is still here, with me. But sometimes it’s a curse. It reminds me that life is passing me by, and I have no choice but to watch. He is never coming back.

She sits down. Her voice is tinged with acceptance, the she has reached her loop, and has fallen back into old ways. She is still sad, but feels more content- a full circle. 

But whenever that crushing realisation hits me, I try to think of him and how he would want me to be. He was always so full of life, and I intend to live out my life for the both of us. After all, I’m not dead yet.

                                                     FADE OUT

Pre-production- Plot Development- Preliminary Task

Plot

The short begins with Caroline sitting in her chair, as she does every morning. She is obviously in a depressive state, shown through her expression and the voiceover- “It’s on days like these when I miss him the most, when the house is empty and it’s quiet”- the reason for her depression is revealed. Her mood varies throughout the plot, her voice, the look of the pictures and tone all representative of this.

The plot follows her as she recalls when Jim died, has a flashback, makes a cup of tea, has a flashback of being in Ireland, looks through photo albums, before going back to her chair. Throughout, the voice over gives away why she is in the situation she is in, alludes to depression that even she is unaware of, and presents her constant inner battle between action and inaction, resulting in the latter.

Caroline is both a protagonist and antagonist, depending on her state of mind. Protagonist and antagonist are, of course, old Greek characters and so do not really fit into any modern Media Theory. The closest, however is Goffman’s Character Theory, with Caroline as the protagonist and deuteragonist (derived, of course, from  Aeschylus’s plays with the introduction of a second character). 

Pre-production- Similar Characteristics- Preliminary Task

Characters Caroline is similar to…

Sara Goldfarb- Requiem for a Dream

Caroline is similar to Sara in her housebound manner, age and loss of her husband. They are both lonely and wish for a better life, but they differ in that Sara tries to do something about it, whereas Caroline does not, and is stuck in a loop of indecision.

Mr Lazarescu- The Death of Mr Lazarescu

Mr Lazarescu and Caroline differ in obvious senses- gender, age, nationality, but are similar in their living patterns and inability to see that they are ill. Mr Lazarescu is mortally ill and Caroline’s depression stops her from having a life. They are the same thing.

Briony Tallis as an old woman- Atonement

These two women are similar in their sense of loss, regret and nostalgia. Caroline does not have the same feelings of guilt and need for atonement as Briony does, but she still harbours a long seated regret for not cherishing her time with Jim when she had the chance.

George Falconer- A Single Man

Again, these two characters differ in many physical attributes and personality wise, but they are similar in their loss of their dearest love and inability to move on from it. Furthermore both their partners were called Jim and died in a car accident, but this is coincidental.

Pre-production- Character Profile, Caroline- PreliminaryTask

Caroline

Caroline is an Irish widow, originally from Navan, but moved to England in 1991 with her husband, Jim. Jim died in a car crash in 2001. They moved to England to be closer to their daughter and her husband. Her age is irrelevant to the plot- she is representative of any widow or person who has suffered loss. She is average/short, and shows signs of lost love in her appearance. She has never worked, and lives off Jim’s life insurance and pension fund.

She spends her days feeling lonely and lost. She has very few friends and the only person she really speaks to is her daughter, who tries to make as much time for her as she can, as she worries about her well being, but finds it difficult. They have a good relationship and were both very close to Jim.

Caroline lost faith when Jim died, after years of devoted religious worship. Both her and Jim were Roman Catholics. She visits Jim’s grave regularly, however which is buried in their local church, as that was his wish.

The many years she spent with Jim were happy- he was a good man, and she was utterly dependent on him in nearly every way. She is in constant battle with herself over the desire to let the past go and her inability to do so. She constantly falls back into old routine; desperately clinging onto the life she had with Jim- she has changed very little in the house since his death. However this reliance turns into misery, depression and lethargy, which comes in episodes before she feels okay again, wondering whether she should leave or start again. However, she falls back into comfort and the familiar as usual. We track her progress as she goes from misery and nostalgia to possible hope and back to nostalgia again.

She has suffered post-natal depression since the birth of their daughter, which accounts for a large amount of her depressive turmoil and inability to move on. She has never had medication, as she is not aware of her illness.

How and Why

I created Caroline primarily out of a wish to work with a different aged actor. I found inspiration in family members who have suffered loss and have suffered with depression. I wanted to create a film about the second half of life from a nostalgic, regretful viewpoint and so created a character to allow me to do so.  As the piece is a monologue I didn’t see things such as physical attributes or background as a primary focus for the character, but rather her internal turmoil and thought processes.