1. Daniel Hopkins
Working Title: More Than A Feeling
Genre: Short Film
Author: Daniel Hopkins
Duration: Approximately 3-6 minutes. Time may vary depending on final cut/edit.
Target Audience: The target demographic for my audience will be the categories C1 and down. The
film is not aimed at any specific ethnicity nor is it necessarily aimed at one gender. However,due to
the practically all-male cast it is likely that men will be more attracted to it than women. Also, the film
deals with various emotions and feelings of men, so males may be able to connect with it more.
However,the general themes of love and decision making along with the comedy are gender neutral.
The age of people this film will be targeted at will be around 15-25 year olds.
Scene 1:
An awkward looking male teenager is stood at a bus stop, leaning against the bus shelter. A car roars
past before a similarly aged girl approaches the bus stop and stands a short distance away from him. A
few seconds pass and the girl walks closer to the boy. Following another brief pause, she turns to him
and the two have a short conversation. After a couple of jokes the girl finally drops the biggest
question the teenager has ever had to answer: Can I have your phone number? The boy hesitates,
which allows his emotions and inner-feelings to make the decision for him.
ALTERNATE SCENE 1 (This is an alternative scene which I may choose to produce rather than the
one above):
A teenage male is on the phone to a girl and the two are clearly not (as of yet) too close with
eachother as they discuss trivial things such as college and the weather. After a brief conversation, the
girl then asks if the boy would like to go on a date. The boy is taken aback and after restating what she
just said, the boy freezes and the film then moves into his head where his emotions debate on what
decision to make for him.
Scene 2:
Several emotions, identities and characteristics of the teenage boy are sat together in a room and one
answers a ringing phone, which relays the question the girl had just asked moments earlier. Shocked
at the importance and pressure of the question, he then summons the rest for a debate in what the
response should be. All of the anthropomorphic emotions all look like the teenage boy, with slight
clothing and physical differences. The characteristic taking charge of the debate is ‘Common Sense’,
while he is joined by Sadness, Anger, Libido, Supressed Intelligence, Paranoia and possibly others.
Scene 3:
The following engagement between the emotions is a humorous one, with each inputting their reasons
and concerns. Their is also arguing amongst them as they attempt to come to a suitable decision.
'Common Sense' struggles to control their rowdiness as they all bicker and become increasingly
hostile towards each other. Their will be bullying amongst the emotions which will make up the
majority of the comedy.
Scene 4:
2. Daniel Hopkins
After each of the emotions/characteristics/feelings have made their choices known, Common Sense
rallies them for a vote. They all cast their votes on the matter and the ultimate choice is to accept the
proposal. He then relays the message to the boy.
Scene 5:
The boy repeats the words of Common Sense through the phone to the girl, who is realy excited at the
prosect of a date with the boy. They then briefly discuss the idea of a relationship before the boy
references the title of the film while also breaking the fourth wall. The boy then hangs up and walks
off.
Characters:
The main character in my film is a teenage boy, who is somewhat awkward looking and not
necessarily the 'coolest' of people. He is white and approximately 18 years old. The female love
interest will be of a similar age and more relaxed and confident than he is. They are both students and
will discuss this during their conversation. The other characters in the film are feelings, emotions and
characteristics of the male and will appear in his mind. They all have the same appearance as him ,
with slight differences such as different clothes and hairstyles.
Common Sense is the characteristic in charge and will lead the debate amongst the others. He is the
natural leader and though he has to remain neutral to the others, he often bullies them and is quite an
arrogant figure.
Sadness is an emotion that remains very unsure of the choice to go out with a girl. He constantly cites
reasons,statistics and figures for failed relationships and marriages, which is something he
desparately wants to avoid. He very easily becomes upset at any sign of confrontation.
Anger is quite literally an angry emotion and gets annoyed easily with what is happening around him.
He doesn't offer much to the debate and often ends up arguing with the others.
Intelligence is the smartness of the boy and is a calm and collected figure. However,Common Sense
frequently gets annoyed at him for his perceived lack of trying. He does not take anything seriously
and does not bother too much with what is occuring.
Libido is the literally the boy's libido and has a high sex drive- something which the others find
revolting. He clearly wants to date the girl for a certain reason and he has a habit of finding double
entendres in many circumstances. He will be dressed like a typical 70's disco male.
Sloth is the boy's laziness and can think of nothing better than sleeping and quite literally 'slothing
around'.
Happiness is the opposite of sadness and has a very optimistic look on life. Happiness is one of the
more positive ones in the group and tries to keep everyone on friendly terms with eachother.
There may also be cameos from other emotions/ feelings but these will most likely written into the
script, when I am in better control of the story and can more easily assess the situation and see what it
needs.
3. Daniel Hopkins
Rationale:
I have decided to create this project as comedy is something I enjoy and I have wanted to attempt to
create a short comedy film for a while. I plan to utilize writing skills I have acquired over the years for
the script, as well as editing skills for the post-production phases. I hope that the project will be good
due to it's unique story and themes,as well as the effects I intend to use.
Budget:
My project will be completed with no costs, as this is a college project and therefore will receive no
funding. However,I may use a small amount of personal money to buy props for the short film, if
necessary.
Primary and Secondary Research:
I have conducted much research during the pre-production phases for this project which I hope will
result in a more professional outcome. I have watched many tutorial videos on how to effectively
create clones for the short film and have read many articles and documents on how to write the
comedy short. I have also spent some time looking at existing products, so I can look at how a similar
premise has been created and conducted.
Legal and Ethical Constraints:
The short film should hopefully not breach many legal constraints, as I will not be using any
copyrighted material nor will I be committing plagiarism. Any third-party material I use will be used
in a minimal way, such as through sampling. A possible ethical issue I may have to take into
consideration is the fact I will be depicting a person’s emotions and feelings arguing amongst each-
other. It is meant to be a parody of people’s tendencies to have varying personalities and emotions,
though there is a slight possibility that it will come across that I am mocking people with mental
health conditions such as split personality and bipolar disorders. Thus, I will ensure that my various
characters’ actions are done in a humorous and sensitive way. I have no intentions whatsoever to
parody or mock mental health disorders.
Constraints and Contingency:
A few problems I may encounter are continuity and cloning editing. As there will be a sole actor
performing for the majority of the film, I must ensure that if scenes are filmed on separate days,the
clothing and positioning of the character is the same. The sole actor will be playing multiple
characters that appear in the same scene and to create this effect I will be using a cloning tool in
Adobe Premiere Pro. If I encountered any problems with the cloning tool, I would have to seek
alternative editing arrangements which could include using different approaches as well as possible
reshoots.
Requirements and Resources:
The cast and crew required for this project is extremely limited, as I am directing and acting within
the short film. As I am the only actor, I will only need someone to operate the camera. This could be
anyone available at the time, such as a friend or family member. There will most likely, depending on
production needs, be a maximum of 3 cast and crew members.
