John is a normal man living his daily life, unaware that his every action is being narrated by an unseen narrator and dictated to him. The short film follows John through a typical day, from getting coffee to meeting friends, with the narrator describing each thing John does prior to him doing it. At the end, John picks up a book called "The Narrator" at the library, only to discover that everything the narrator has said about him is written in the book. The film ends on a cliffhanger with John waking up and hearing the narrator, leaving the audience unsure of what has really occurred.

1. A short Film concept by James Flanagan

2. Heavily inspired by the film 'Stranger Than Fiction' and the short game 'The Stanley
Parable', The Narrator is a short film concept that follows the life of a young man named
John Spencer. John is a normal, average, run of the mill bloke who is currently working
as a photographer for a local newspaper.
A narrator speaks over john’s life, where everything he says, or does is dictated by The
Narrator prior to the event unfolding. For example: “John picked up his coffee after
stirring in 2 sugars” (Actor that plays John does this action). This usually leads to
humorous or tense situations however John cannot hear this narrator who is only there
for the audiences benefit.
Another influence has been looking into community works submitted into Virgin Media
shorts, a competition annually run to find up and coming film makers. I wanted to keep
my idea original but simple enough to pull off, which is one of the reasons I may change
the ending in the scripting process.

3. I first came up with the idea after discussions with Joe about what I could do for my
coursework this year. He gave me the idea to do a documentary style video about the
life of a student which is where my initial idea developed from. Using this as a base I
watched and commented on many short films done by students and professionals to
gauge the main difference between them.
The main thing I found from watching the two is that most student media short films start
with the iconic, cheesy alarm clock scene which is something I want to move away
from.

4. The story starts with John in a coffee shop. His character, briefly explained by the
narrator through humorous flashbacks before returning to the scene in the coffee
shop. The first minute of this short film will be inside the coffee shop detailing Johns
life. After this John walks out of the shop and through town, meeting up with a
small group of friends.
John is then asked by a girlfriend of his to pick up a book called The Narrator from
the local library. To his surprise after picking up this book, he is the main character
where everything the narrator has previously said is written down. As he reads The
film ends on a cliff hanger where the final line of the book is read as
“John opened his eyes. John can you hear me? Wake up John... Wake up...”
(transition of old TV screen cutting off / heart beat monitor followed by credit roll in
silence. This should leave the audience questioning about what has actually
happened in the short film). This may change because of the currently expected
ending.

5.  Coffee shop – Possibly Costa coffee?
 Library – main library in Banbury (permissions to
film?)
 Scenes in Town – Banbury town centre
So far I haven't given much thought into who I think should star as the
main character. I would like to cast someone between the ages of 17
and 21 to suit my main target audience of older teenagers. One option
is to film at the local Middleton coffee shop where the owners should be
more lenient around the idea of filming.