Synoptic treatment for film - The Guitarist’s Way

This is a story about one man’s dream of achieving his maximum potential in a world that offers no opportunities. Set in the grimy streets of downtown New York one man will do everything that he can to achieve his dream, to make the impossible possible to become the best guitarist that ever lived.
Our hero begins his career playing in sleazy bars and clubs that no one has heard of. It seems to be a mediocre lifestyle until a tragic accident where the owner of the main bar that he plays at gets shot when his house is broken into.
With no real venues that he can play at and the people that he knows turning on him by the second he can’t pay his bills and he has no where to turn to.
This was the case for many weeks until one day whilst sitting in an internet cafe he discovered youtube a popular website that hosts videos of anything that their users upload to it.
Our hero created a profile and quickly went home, that night he recorded seven videos using his mobile phone. Happy with the recordings he went straight to the cafe the next day and began uploading his videos.

Two weeks later he discovered that he had many views and comments from other youtube users, and to his surprise they were all positive. He looked up towards his inbox and he had several messages from one user who claimed to own a recording studio and a record label, saying the offer was there if he wanted it.

Our hero quickly took the deal, he became successful selling hundreds of thousands of copies of his albums, and he owed it all to one website.
Compare this film to the likes of the 2003 hit school of rock directed by Richard Linklater. Both films tell the story of a man who makes something out of playing his guitar. Whether there is a band or not that core ideal is there in both films. School of rock did well in the box office It grossed $131,282,949 internationally. The budget of the film was $35 million.

Other similar films include Wayne’s world a film about two guys who have a local TV program that become famous through the media. This links to our film because they both involve people seeking fame through the media, although our film centers around the more modern medium of youtube, Wayne's world focus on the television. This shows an evolution of media throughout time. Wayne’s world had a budget of $20,000,000, and it made $183,097,323 gross venue it also spawned a sequel and gathered a cult following.

This film would attract both the young and old; young people would like the inclusion of youtube and of the internet emphasizing the importance of the evolution of technology in recent years, that the internet isn’t just something for use of social networking sites, that you can make something out of it.
It will also appeal to the teenage market because this man has ambitions that he will stick to no matter what; this would inspire others to have ambitions and goals in their life.
The older people in the audience would enjoy the display of emotion in this film, because emotion is a very important aspect of this film, our main character goes through several stages including depression and eventually happiness at the realization of his goal.
To display these emotions extreme close ups will be a major shot used in the development if this film, this will allow the audience to connect with the character in the moments that he is most vulnerable.

Camera map, Shooting Schedule, Story board, Script and Group responsibilities

Camera Map Scan



Storyboard scan



Shooting schedule



Script

THE GUITARIST’S WAY
BY
Stephen Wilcockson
Tom Colledge
Andrew Barsby


SECOND SHOOTING DRAFT
February 26th 2010


THE GUITARIST’S WAY – Rev 06/11/09

FADE IN:

1. INT ROOM INTERIOR LIGHTING

We start with a view of a room; one man (Steven) is sat on a chair apparently in deep thought. Another man is trying to talk to him (Eddie)
Close up of Eddie

EDDIE

Hey man. . . you ready for this?

STEVEN
I have to be

The camera focus on a guitar case, the audience sees Steven grab the neck of the guitar
FADE OUT:

FADE IN:

2. INT STAGE INTERIOR LIGHTING


We open on a blank screen and hear the sound of a heavily distorted electric guitar we then see a fade in of Steven playing on a stage; he is playing a Yamaha erg121BK. He is wearing a black canvas jacket opened over a greenish brown T shirt, with a funny slogan on it. He is also wearing a pair of blue jeans with a pair of black trainers.

STEVEN (narration)

So yeah I love this movie, I’m in it by the way. This is my favourite part of the movie where he is playing guitar on a stage. . . oh wait sorry this is the end of the movie . . . You didn’t see that urm we’ll go back
(Whilst narration is occurring various camera shots of the venue are taking place, after panning shot low angle shot from perspective of audience member from front row, we see various shots of guitarist from different perspectives around the stage.)


3. BLANK SCREEN NO LIGHTING

We then see a rewind effect like one would see from a video cassette recorder appear on the screen with the sound effects of a rewinding tape. We see a rewind symbol appear on the bottom right hand side of the screen.


STEVEN (narration)

Ah here we go

We then see a dark room

DEEP VOICE

Let there be light

The audience then sees a close up of a light bulb turning on.


STEVEN (narration)
Oops too far. . .

We then see the rewind effect again with a fast forward symbol on the bottom right hand of the screen

STEVEN (narration)
There we go


4. INT BEDROOM INTERIOR LIGHTING


We then see a room with the same guitarist from earlier sat on a bed in a room playing an acoustic/classical guitar badly. . . Not just Mary had a little lamb bad; we’re talking bad, like uber happy birthday bad . . . terrible so to speak.
Camera change to over the shoulder of guitarist looking at song book, After effects of logo of WTF productions on current page of book, he changes the page and credits of Director, camera man and team involved appear as pages change.


STEVEN (narration)
AH my youth my first guitar. Aren’t I . . . good? Ish, look we all start from somewhere even you! You’re the ones who bought the ticket I mean a movie about a guitarist?

We see Steven look towards the screen in a questioning way,

STEVEN
Who’d pay to see that?

QUICK CUT OUT TO BLACK

Logo of The Guitarist’s way appears with the sound of a heavily distorted guitar chord


Group Responsibilities

Stephen Wilcockson: wrote the script, came up with the idea for the story, played the main protagonist in the film, wrote the music for the film, designed the film’s logo, provided the musical instruments for use in the film.

Andrew Barsby: Wrote the camera map, operated the camera during filming across all film days, all of the film’s editing

Thomas Colledge: Wrote the shooting schedule, expanded the idea of the story, provided the idea for the “let there be light” scene, played the protagonist’s friend in the opening scene, provided voice acting for the “let there be light scene”.

Conventions of the comedy genre

Conventions of the comedy genre

The comedy genre is rarely referred to as just comedy. This is because there are so many types of comedy these range from the romantic comedy to the black comedy type.

The romantic comedy focuses on two people and possibly their friends and relatives who find love with each other. The stereotyped plot line follows the "boy-gets-girl", "boy-loses-girl", "boy gets girl back again" sequence, however there are multiple variations of this plot line. This genre is generally seen as light hearted and sometimes simply referred to as a “chick flick” this means that it is believed that the film is aimed at a female audience. Examples of the romantic comedy include: It's a Wonderful World (1939), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), Sabrina (1954), When Harry Met Sally... (1989), Pretty Woman (1990), and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994).

A parody or spoof is a film that uses scenes or concepts from other films and employs sarcasm, stereotyping and/or mockery of these scenes or concepts for comedic effect. Examples of parodies or spoofs include Blazing Saddles (1974), Airplane! (1980), and Young Frankenstein (1974).

A film that uses the Black comedy genre is one that employs topics or scenarios that would normally be considered taboo for comedic effect; examples of these scenarios include death, murder, suicide and/or war. Examples of films that use the Black comedy genre include: The Loved One (1965), MASH (1970), Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983), The War of the Roses (1989), Heathers (1989), Keeping Mum (2005), and Burn After Reading (2008).

A film that uses the Gross out comedy genre is one that employs vulgar, sexual or toilet humor into the film for comedic effect. Examples of such films include: Porky's (1982), Dumb and Dumber (1994), There's Something About Mary (1998), and American Pie (1999).

As well as the standard comedy genres there are also hybrid genres of comedy, these can range from the Action comedy to the comedy horror.

The Action comedy genre is a genre that includes comedic antics like slapstick or jokes with aspects of the action genre like a thrilling plot or daring stunts. These could also be martial arts slapstick films like the many starring Jackie Chan and others. Other examples of the Action comedy genre could be the buddy films, whereby mismatched partners find themselves in a situation that they solve over the course of the film in a comedic manner. Examples of films that use the Action comedy genre include: Beverly Hills Cop (1984), Hot fuzz (2007) The forbidden kingdom (2008) and Hancock (2008)

The comedy horror genre is a type of horror film in which the usual dark themes of horror are treated with a more humorous approach. These are often spoof movies that are simply parodies of horror movies for example Scary movie (2000) which was a parody of many movies of the time including Titanic (1997) The matrix (1999) etc etc. Other comedy horror genre films include zombieland (2009) and Shaun of the dead (2004). These comedy horrors focus less on the horror aspect of their genre but reflect the horrific moments as comedy like a parody.

A film that uses the fantasy comedy genre is one that magic, supernatural and or mythological figures for comic purposes. Most fantasy comedy includes an element of parody, or satire, turning many of the fantasy conventions on their head such as the hero becoming a cowardly fool. Examples of these films include Being John Malkovich(1999), Princess Bride (1987), Night at the Museum (2006), Groundhog Day (1993), Click (2006) and Shrek (2001).

The History of Comedy

The history of comedy

Comedy as a movie genre puts the majority of its emphasis on humour; it is one of the oldest genres of film. A very early comedy short was Watering the Gardener (1895) by the Lumière brothers. The film is a French short black and white silent film, it runs for approx 49 seconds, it is known as the earliest comedic film and uses slapstick as its main device.



A still of the film watering the Gardener (1895)

A popular trend during the 1920s and afterward was comedy in the form of animated cartoons. Several popular characters of the period received the cartoon treatment. Among these were: Felix the Cat, Krazy Kat, and Betty Boop.



A picture including the main characters of Krazy Kat: "Ignatz Mouse", "Officer Pupp" and "Krazy Kat".

As the 1920s came to an end and the 1930s began the addition of sound to films gave comedians the option to use verbal comedy in the films they made for example W. C. Fields an American comedian who became a well known actor in movies. Very few comedians held on to making silent films for example Charlie Chaplain, who continued to make films devoid of dialogue during the 1930s.



A picture of Charlie Chaplain

In the 1940s with America joining World War 2 Hollywood became obsessed with movies about conflict, comedies began to involve military themes such as service, civil defense, boot-camp and shore-leave. The post war era saw the emergence of a new way to watch movies; this was the dawn of the home television. In 1948 TV to acquire commercial momentum and by the following year there were nearly a hundred television transmitters in American cities.

By the 1950s the television industry had become a serious competition for the movie industry. Despite the technological limitations of the TV medium at the time, more and more people chose to stay home to watch the television.
Initially the Hollywood studios saw the television as a threat to their business but then they began to discover the television as another outlet for their films. A few comedic film types that had previously been exclusive to the movie theatre transitioned to the television, the cartoon and the B movie for example.



A television of 1958

The 1960s saw an increasing number of broad, star-packed comedies including It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) and The Great Race (1965). At the end of the 1950s early 1960s darker humor and more serious themes had begun to emerge Dr. Strangelove (1964) is an example of one such darker theme; it is a satirical comedy about Cold War paranoia.



A poster for the film Dr. Strangelove(1964), a comedy about cold war paranoia.

In the 1970s black comedies such as Catch 22 and MASH dealt with issues like the anti-war sentiment as well as treating the sensitive topic of suicide. As well as the above comedies there were many successful films over the 70s, a major star in some of these was Mel Brookes. He wrote directed and starred in some of his movies such as Young Frankenstein (1974) Blazing saddles (1974) and High Anxiety (1977)



A poster for the film Catch-22



A poster for the film Blazing sadles (1974)

Most British comedy films of the early 70s were spin offs of television series for example Dad’s army (1971) and On the buses (1971), both received a positive reception from the British public. Some of the greatest successes of the 70s were the Monty python team’s films including And Now For Something Completely Different (1971), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979).



A poster for the film The life of Brian (1979)



A poster for the film Dads army (1971)

In 1980 the gag-based comedy Airplane!, a spoof of the previous decade's disaster film series was released and paved the way for more of the same including Top Secret! (1984) and the Naked Gun films all of which were directed by David zucker among others.



A poster for the film Airplane! (1980)


One of the major developments of the 1990s was the re-emergence of the romantic comedy film, encouraged by the success of When Harry Met Sally... (1989). Other examples included Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Clueless (1995) and You've Got Mail (1998) from the United States, and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Sliding Doors (1998) and Notting Hill (1999) from the United Kingdom. Spoofs remained popular as well, especially with the Scary Movie series and Not Another Teen Movie.



A poster for the film Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)

The late 90s to early 2000s saw British comedies examining the role of the Asian community within British life Bhaji on the Beach (1993), East Is East (1999), Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and Anita and Me (2003). These showed a growing interest in looking at how Britain has changed culture wise since the days of Dads army for example.



A poster for the film Bend it like Beckham (2002)

Also in the early to mid 2000s there were "stoner" comedies, which usually involve two guys on an adventure with random things happening to them along the way. Big movies of this sub-genre would be Dude, Where's My Car (2000), Big Nothing (2006), Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004), and Pineapple Express (2008). These movies usually have drug-related jokes and crude content



A poster for the film Dude where's my car? (2000)