A gritty graphic film exploring the sub conscious of an urban youth. Delving into the mind of paranoia and how he leads his simple life. A story about a man who holds the key to making his obsession a reality with his secret, a secret so intense that it slowly begins to overtake his life. The possession of a gun, that ends in a tragedy.
A story of an old lady getting ready for a night out, cut with a twenty something man getting ready for a night out also. Two completely different people and backgrounds, but shows how they both prepare for a simple night out. The lady could be an old film star, or just a rich eccentric. She enters the pub and sits at the end of the bar and orders a gin and tonic. The man is a simple man, could be a builder or the like, he buys an over priced shirt for the night, texts mates, arranges the night while grabbing food and watching the Saturday football results. He also enters the same pub as the old lady, orders a pint and a packet of crisps. Sits at the same bar, but at the other end to the lady. After a while of silence his phone rings. He is let down by his mates. The lady and this man catch each other in the eyes and there is a slight moment of knowing. The piece ends. Throughout the story we continually learn more about them and how different there lives are and how they both end up at the same place and the in the same situation.
We see a DJ in a cab coming home from a gig. He is talking on the phone to whoever “yeah cool, was a good night, yeah, yeah, a good vibe down there, the kids were up for it, where did we play? just some place deep and new. Yeah ok, cool bro, bless” silence. The cab pulls up to his house, the guy pays the driver, gets in to the house, dumps his record bag, takes off his shoes. Logs onto his computer to check emails etc. Quick cuts and macro close ups throughout, random thoughts inside his mind. He logs off the computer, goes to the kitchen, checks the clock, which has stopped. Gets a glass of water, time slows down, meditated state, close up of eyes and drinking. Quick cuts of random thoughts again. Could be thoughts about the party that he was playing at. He goes upstairs cut to inside the bedroom, quick pan around. He opens the door (light behind him) Looks into a mirror, looks deep into his eyes, quick cuts, random thoughts again. He sits on the edge of his bed, the room is light as it is early morning. Splashes water on his face from a bowl next to his bed, Japanese style, pulls the curtains, puts on a record player, scratchy noise, music starts to play. As this is happening he collapses with exhaustion on the bed. His eyes shut and he falls into a deep sleep. The camera zooms into his head and we literally travel through his mind. His room is filmed in time lapse. Often we cut to what is going on outside of his mind, random mundane things like the postman arriving, the milkman making his rounds, kids off to school, daily life, in time lapse and normal speed, floating around the house, and back into his mind, as the day draws to a close we travel out of his brain, his eyes open up, close up. A little smile comes on his face, the music ends and he gets up and does everything again, but in reverse.
We see a packed bar, there is a glass shelf over the bar surface, fully packed with drink glasses of all sizes. A DJ/band is playing to the crowd. As the song peaks, the glasses explode on the shelf, and the shelf breaks. The people at the bar get cuts etc. This all happens in super slow motion. The DJ/band continue to play in real time. The injured people carry on as if nothing has happened. The scene is shot and lit beautifully. The crowd dance, continue to drink and talk but are suffering from horrific injuries. As the glass shatters, the fragments of glass showers the crowd, and twinkles in the light like stars. As the music ends, an old guy comes in with a dog, and orders a pint and a packet of cheese and onion crisps, and the injured crowd leave, as if nothing has happened.
We see two youths on a train talking about the night they are hoping to have. They are going to a rave/gig. We learn this because they say so, and the ticket is in one of the guys pocket. As they leave the train, and go into the subway exit tunnel, one of them stops, and tags the wall with marker pen and then leaves. He does it very self-consciously and looks around, paranoid of the cameras etc, everyone else ignores him and couldn’t care less. His friend pokes fun at him, because the tag was done badly. unknowingly to them both, they were sharing the same carriage with the premier DJ/band member of the event they are going to see, who sees the tag, and then completely covers the wall casually, in a huge piece of graffiti which is the name of the DJ/Band, and then walks of. The two friends are stunned. – The DJ/Band’s tag is filmed in time lapse so he can cover the wall in seconds.
The story of a tramp begging for food. He raises enough cash to get a big meal in a top restaurant but they refuse him entry because of his clothes and hygiene so he spends the money on getting a suit, a pair of shoes, a shave, a haircut and a bath. But he has to beg again to get money for the food. Its about him trying to keep clean, and the race against time before he begins to smell and needs another shave, or his suit cleaned, until finally he does it, gets the money, and gets clean, and gets the food. After the meal, he goes back onto the street the process starts all over again.
We see a guy on the last train home, on a Friday. He puts on his Walkman and falls asleep. He dreams that he is at a rave – we see his dream as the other passengers start to dance. It starts slowly, someone tapping their foot, a head nod etc, but soon everyone is at full pelt. He continues to sleep. Shot in slow motion, we see different scenarios that you would see at a club. Most of the passengers are just normal people not necessarily dressed like a clubber, they are just on their way home. When he begins to wake up he turns off his Walkman, With his eyes still shut everyone else sits down, as if nothing ever happened. He gets off at the next stop.
-please note, I came up with this idea, when Walkmans were still in vogue. Now it just seems retro chic.
A little girl from a big town wanted to escape. She dreamed often of seeing the wonderful things that the books told her. When this little girl rode her bicycle she imagined it was a time machine, taking them to past events and to the future. Sometimes when riding through the park she pretended that it was an enchanted forest, but the forest looked scary and the little girl wanted to be in bed under her covers. When the little girl peddled fast it felt like she could go on forever, faster and faster and even…maybe…leave the ground. As the late summer wind rustled her hair, the little girl wished that the four winds would carry her high above the big town below and across the ocean. When anyone asked the little girl to get something from the shops she would take her bicycle and pretend that she was on a secret mission. If she returned within the hour her mission was a success then the little girl would be rewarded with a slice of warm cake in front of thousands of people from her big town. When the little girl wasn’t riding her bicycle she looked after it by cleaning and preparing it for her next adventure. When she was cycling down the street, the little girl thought she was in a big race and that even the cars couldn’t pass her. If the little girl ever got lost she knew her bicycle would keep her safe and it will always guide her home. The little girl felt free on her bicycle, she could go anywhere do anything and see everything she wanted. The little girl’s bicycle was her ticket to leaving the confounds of her big town and to discover new lands within herself.
A man keeps getting business cards. Each one gets damaged because he keeps on leaving it in his pocket when he washes his clothes. The print left on the cards leave just a word or number that eventually spells out a message and an answer.
leaving a cinema on an afternoon in the summer. It’s raining. He puts on his headphones, puts up his collar and heads out onto the street. A couple leave next to him. The man has an umbrella which he puts up flamboyantly, he grabs his girl and they go off into the street like a dance routine from an old musical.
On the way home from work a man stops by an old friends house. The mum of the friend answers the door, and says that he doesn’t live there anymore, and gives him the new address etc. They catch up, all very polite, then the mum mentions that she is going to throw a surprise party for her son, and is going to get all the old faces back. The man gives her his details and says that he would come along. He goes to the party and finds out that he just doesn’t belong there anymore.
A short story about a man that spends too much time in his apartment on the Internet, watching TV, listening to the radio, or reading. He begins to have a distorted vision of what goes on in his apartment block. All done by what he hears, smells and sees through the security of his front door spyglass or by listening to conversations between the walls. He tries to work out what is happening in the apartments around him, or more importantly what he thinks is happening. The man is clean his apartment is perfect, just filled with many things. He just doesn’t like going out as he feels he can do everything from his home.
A guy sits in front of a blank cinema screen. Suddenly the screen flickers into life with thousands of images and a tremendous sound. For about 20 seconds. The screen then goes blank again. No one is in the room apart from an old cigarette vendor and the usher. He then leaves.
We see someone running away from something, clearly shaken and shocked. They are stumbling whilst running, very manic, quick cuts, paranoid. We reveal what they are running from, which is a couple of angry yobs, as they continue to run, the mob grows and grows behind, they see people looking, watching them run, then it builds up over time, by the end its hundreds. As the person runs and runs through the streets etc, the huge crowd are like zombies. As they turn down one street, they come to a dead end in an alley way and the mob engulf him. Fade to black. – You have to want them to survive and to get away from this mob, you have to feel his pain and terror as he is running. Is he running away from his own imagination?
We see a guy staring at his laptop wearing headphones with a tune on so loud we can hear it normally. Just sitting still, staring, in a dark room, the only source of light is from a computer blue screen and a music play list in front of him. The camera spins around and around the desk where he is sitting. No emotion on his face, but tears are welling up in his eyes.
We see a man carrying loads of notebooks around with him, which are stuffed full of ideas etc, his life. People keep on asking him what they are for and what is inside them, he never really answers. When he starts to breakdown he believes someone has read his notebooks and that’s when he begins to not be able to distinguish between reality and imagination. – A metaphor for the expression “ to have the world on your shoulders ”.
He looks closely at himself into a mirror in his bedroom, which is pitch black, He has a lighter in his hand which he uses to peer at his face, its as if he is trying to see into the darkness behind him. He sees something move.
A man is close to the yellow line on an underground train platform. He is reading a book, oblivious to his surroundings. A train rumbles into view, he doesn’t look up but the train nudges his book as it passes. The camera pans down, from an overhead perspective to reveal his face.
While in the bath late at night, when his parents are sleeping, he hears the floorboards creek a little, ever so faintly. Then hears shuffle of material as if someone is in his room wearing a bulky jacket. He shouts out and physically feels someone stand still. It is as if someone is looking for something.
Sitting on the edge of his bed he listens to music. He is tending to his self-inflicted wounds across his chest, shoulders and stomach, with antiseptic, like a soldier. He is doing this in front of a mirror. – The viewers must wince when watching this. The guy appears not to notice the pain, and is simply listening to the music.
We see a guy staring at his face in a mirror. He picks up a knife calmly and begins to disfigure his own face, gently slashing across his cheeks and forehead. As he does this, he does not flinch, there is no sound, no sign of pain, almost like an operation. Everything in the room is spotless and clean except for the blood. The camera closes in on his eye and a single tear rolls down his cheek. This then cuts to the same guy, and same shot of the eye, but closed and asleep on a bus. He has shopping on his lap, and without scars on his face, peaceful. A teddy bear pokes out of one of the bags. He wakes gently and we realise that the scene before was what he was dreaming. As he continues to wake up, he is not disturbed by what he has dreamt, as if he is used to those images, he wants it to happen. A kid on the bus is staring at him and the teddy bear.
Beautiful bright sunny morning. Looks slightly hazy and misty like viewing through vaseline on a lens, a rose tinted view of the world. We travel through the gates of a school, the camera pin points various activities all seen to be fake and like clock work, mums saying goodbye to three kids, kisses on cheeks, cars pulling up and dropping off kids, cool groups, pretty cheerleaders, geeky guys, the jocks, all stereotypes represented, like an 80s high school scene. Slowly, we pan overhead and focus in on a boy on his own, he is fumbling with something in his hand, he is clean, smart looking, but is clearly disturbed and troubled with something. Its just we don’t know what it is and I’m sure he doesn’t either. We find out that this establishes later events and that it all started way before he knew what was going to happen to him.
