@Phil From Script To Screen | First Script | Ant Jones and the Search for the Restaurant

Ant Jones - The Search for the Restaurant

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Script to Screen - Character concept

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Script to Screen - Character concept art

Life Drawing 25/1/16

Cutting Edge - Rope 1948

Fig 1.

 Alfred Hitchcok's 1948 film Rope is about two men who murder their former classmate. They stuff his body into a chest and then display this chest in the centre of a party that they held, in a way to celebrate the murder. One of the men, Brandon is extremely worried about what they have done and its made clear that he's full or regret and fear. Whereas the other man, Philip is proud of his achievement of taking the life of someone who he believes is 'less superior to him'. As Rodger Ebert said "Convinced they have found a victim who is inferior to them, they murder him, conceal his body in an unlocked trunk in their apartment, and then throw a dinner party with the trunk as the brazen centrepiece of the living room."(Rodger Ebert 1984)

Fig 2.

Throughout the film we can see the development of the two main characters very clearly. From the offset we can already see Brandon feeling fear of being caught and some remorse. Whereas Philip is proud of what he has done, he had a bottle of champagne on ice to celebrate as well as hosting a party at his. At this party it is as if he wants to put his work on display almost. He does this by using the chest which contains the body as a centrepiece table. Almost getting a sexual thrill from what the men have done. During the film we can see the characters moods develop, Brandon drinking more and more to drown his sorrows and Philip making comments throughout the night almost hinting. At one point when they are under suspicion he even puts a gun in his pocket ready to kill again to hide what he has done. " Philip, were he is intelligent as he is portrayed, would surely have realised in an instant what a liability Brandon was, but he simply ploughs on with his scheme of breathtaking arrogance,"(20/20 Films 2012)

Fig 3.

Once of the most noticeable factors of this film is that Hitchcock makes the film appear as if it is one continuous shot by using different camera methods to seamlessly changes scene to make it appear as if the action hasn't stopped. This effect gives you a a real feel for the time and you get a basis of the location that the film is taking place in. Due to this method it means that the film involves a lot of dialogue and at times can become a bit tedious to watch. But Hitchcock uses this to his advantaged to allow the audience to get a full understanding of the characters emotions. We can see that Hitchcock had tried to use the effect of a theatre style of film, as said by Vincent Canby "Hitchcock was interested in seeing whether he could find a cinematic equivalent to the play, which takes place in the actual length of time of the story."(Vincent Canby 1984)
Overall Rope was seen as a experiment for Hitchcock. From the way in which he tried to make a film from a play and shot as if it was a play in real time. This was new for the time and due to the time also had some limitations. Making it difficult to have the continuous shots due to lack of computer programmes for editing. This style of films with the continuous shots is being carried on in today's cinema and is still very successful as we can see from films such as Birdman, which shows Hitchcock's impact in today's film industry.


Bibliography

Ebert. R, RodgerEbert.com - http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/rope-1948

20/20 Film Reveiws - http://www.2020-movie-reviews.com/reviews-year/1948-movie-reviews/rope-1948-movie-review/

Canby. V, New York Times -  http://www.nytimes.com/library/film/060384hitch-rope-reflection.html

Images

Fig 1 - http://classiq.me/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/rope-1948.jpg

Fig 2 - http://criticsloft.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Rope-pic-1.jpg

Fig 3 - https://robertsnow.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/rope-superior.jpg

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Script to Screen: Idea Development Post OGR

We first start with four ants desperately clinging onto strands of carpet while getting sucked into the sky. The force pulling them up changes direction from left to right frequently which causes one of the ants to loose grip and get sucked up. Very shortly after another one of the ants can no longer hold on and gets sucked up. The two remaining are the main character, Ant Jones and his assistant. They both look at each other as if they know what they have to do and almost simultaneously they both let go and are sucked up into the sky. Scene fades to black.

From here the scene will cut to a line up of our ants. One, our main character, is an archaeologist (Ant Jones) the colony hired to lead the expedition as the kitchen still remains a legend. The second is the archaeologist's assistant. The third character is a solider ant to protect them on the journey. The last character to go on the expedition is a navigation expert worker ant. From the line up of the characters it will cut to a quick brief of what the expedition is and a greeting scene will take place where relationships between the main characters are made apparent. From here it will go straight into the ants journey. First travelling through the grass forest where they have an encounter with an unfriendly beetle, but the main character uses his cunning to help the group escape.

The group arrive at the house, which no ant has ever entered before and is rumoured that once entered an ant will never return. The ants find a crack in the door frame and crawl through to get into the house. As soon as entering they are met by a thick bright forest of carpet. The ants have never encountered a material like this and are extremely hesitant, but continue on the journey none the less.

The scene will fade as if to represent time has passed. After travelling through the forest for a while they start to become tired and need to take a break as it has been a tedious journey through the thick carpet. As they start to relax they hear a loud roar start in the room. almost immediately the ants can notice a change in the wind and the feel of danger is in the air. They feel as if they're going to be sucked from the carpet into the sky. Holding onto the ground and trying to secure themselves any way possible. (What is really going on is the house is being vacuumed by the owner) While the ants are struggling already the notice the power of the wind greatly pick up and the lights go down. The vacuum cleaner is directly on top of them. while still holding on the navigation ant starts to slide down the strand of carpet she is holding onto getting close and close to the end. This is where we cut back to the opening scene.

The scene starts with light slowly starting to build up and we are focused on our main character who is waking up from being unconscious. In a daze he looks around trying to find the members of his teams. Slowly finding them one by one the team reassembles. Once the shock of what had just happen starts to wear off the ants look around at their surroundings realising that they are surrounded by different bits of food. Thousands of crumbs from different types of food. They had found the legendary restaurant. The ants start rejoicing and collecting as much food as possible. While doing this they hear sounds coming from the dim lighted room that they are in and start to see a large figure coming out of the depths of the darkness from the restaurant. The Scene fades to black and the words "To be continued" appears on screen.

Script to Screen: OGR Presentation

From Script to Screen OGR

Life Drawing 18/01/16

Script to Screen: Idea in detail

The three words which I pulled from the blue box's where:

Character - Archaeologist 

Location - Restaurant

Prop - Vacuum Cleaner

We start in an ant colony's HQ. The top ants are gathered around a table having a discussion about the current food crises that they are suffering. After hours of debating ideas they agree on assembling a team to go on an expedition to the legendary 'restaurant' (that is the kitchen of the house in which the ant's colony is in). 

From the last scene it will cut to a line up of four ants. One, our main character, is an archaeologist (Indiana Jones type character) the colony hired to lead the expedition as the kitchen still remains a legend. The second is the archaeologist's assistant. The third character is a solider ant to protect them on the journey. The last character to go on the expedition is a navigation expert worker ant. From the line up of the characters it will cut to a quick brief of what the expedition is. From here it will go straight into the ants journey. First travelling through the grass forest where they have an encounter with an unfriendly beetle, but the main character uses his cunning to help the group escape. 

The group arrive at the house, which no ant has ever entered before and is rumoured that once entered an ant will never return. The ants find a crack in the door frame and crawl through to get into the house. As soon as entering they are met by a thick bright forest of carpet. The ants have never encountered a material like this and are extremely hesitant, but continue on the journey none the less. After travelling through the forest for a while they start to get the scent of an enticing smell and can see a bright light through the foliage only a few meters away (To them this is a few miles). As they start to get excited they hear a loud roar start in the room. almost immediately the ants can notice a change in the wind and start to panic. They feel as if they're going to be sucked from the carpet into the sky. Holding onto strands for their dear life. (What is really going on is the house is being vacuumed by the owner) While the ants are struggling already the notice the power of the wind greatly pick up and the lights go down. The vacuum cleaner is directly on top of them, After a struggle the navigation ant cannot hang on any longer and gets sucked up by the vacuum cleaner. Straight after this the vacuum cleaner goes off and the winds die down. The remaining ants vow to make it to the legendary restaurant in memory and commence.

Nearing the end of the carpet the ants get excited and put a final spring and burst through the foliage into the amazing restaurant. Food as big as an entire colony the ants cant contain their excitement. After eating as much as they possibly could they gather as much food as they can hold and make their way back to the colony. This time knowing where they are going and in the cover of night the journey is uneventful. Once returning to the colony they give them all of the food they brought back and give the location of the restaurant, which is now named after the fallen ant. The archaeologist and his assistant accept their pay and go on their way to the next adventure. 

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