Introduction:

The goal for this week was to create a scene by scene breakdown of the visual portrait with explanations as to the purpose and style of each scene and how it relates to the character.

 

Scene by Scene Breakdown:

 

In this breakdown I will look at two scenarios I have created for my character, each scenario has multiple scenes. The first is the interrupted day scenario and the second is the casual weekend scenario. Both scenarios would have a place in the final film script in a dramatized version of this story.

I have yet to decide which I would prefer to use and may end up mixing and matching depending on what I believe to be appropriate.

 

The interrupted day:

This scenario takes place in two locations, the first being Keir’s office and the second being his daughter’s school.

It starts with Keir arriving at his office, settling down and getting an important memo from an aide regarding a consultation with the Caribbean branch of his firm regarding defending convicts facing the death sentence. Time passes and then he gets a call from the school. He immediately makes his way to the school, somewhat baffled as to why he is being called in. When he arrives he discovers his daughter had been in a fight with another student, and that she was defending one of her friends from being bullied. We discover that this is not the first time this has happened, yet it is still rare enough for Keir to not expect it. Here the scene ends.

The purpose of the office scene is to set up his work life, his getting a memo from an aide and being consulted from overseas implies he has a rather high standing in the firm and shows that he is working on serious issues. Overall the point of this scene is to show a dedicated and successful lawyer working to better the world. Then his workday is interrupted.

The purpose of the school scene is to set up the character of Keir’s daughter, a feisty and spirited child who will stand up for her friends. It is also to highlight Keir’s dedication to his family which is an integral part of his character, the fact he immediately made his way to the school without hesitation and no interaction with his bosses implies this. His willingness to do this also implies some future issues that may evolve if he keeps putting family before work and is supposed to set up a future conflict surrounding this idea.

When considering the style in which I would shoot the scenes in this scenario I intend to replicate a shot selection and editing style that is similar to that used in legal and family dramas. So the camera doesn’t move a lot and follows most filming conventions and is cut together using continuity editing. The purpose of this is to keep a focus on the actor, trying to do something weird and stylised would in my opinion take away from the character and may even confuse the viewer.

This scenario would take place somewhere very close to the beginning of Keir’s narrative. The overall purpose of the scenario is to set up his standing as a good lawyer and to show his dedication to his family which are the two aspects of his character that I focused on when creating him.

 

 

 

The casual weekend:

This scenario takes place in three locations: the first being a park near Keir’s house, the second being in a café also nearby, and the third being at Keir’s home.

It starts in a park where Keir is watching his children play, they are off having fun and Keir is sitting on a bench doing some light work while keeping an eye on them. Then his son falls and hurts his knee, being a younger child his son is very upset and to cheer him up Keir promises to get him some ice cream. His daughter complains about having to leave and Keir placates her by saying they will have lunch at her favourite café. At the café, his son is finishing his ice cream and he orders lunch for his family. He calls his wife to tell them where they are, he has to tell his children off for fighting over their food and then spends some time talking with his children. They arrive home, his kids run off to their rooms and his wife teasingly berates him for being so soft with their children.

The purpose of this scene is to explore the relationship dynamics between Keir and his two children. His youngest son gets hurt and his daughter is upset with his decision which leads to him having to placate her. This scene would be expanding on earlier scenes that portray him as a loving family-oriented person. The scene could also work as an introduction to his son.

The purpose of the café scene is to further develop the family dynamic, primarily focusing on the relationship between the two children and how he reacts to them. Again this scene is supposed to further develop the image of the family man that I imagine to be synonymous with this character.

The purpose of the home scene is to show the relationship between Keir, his wife and to an extent their children, it is a short scene and is supposed to solidify the upbeat and happy family dynamic shown and implied in previous scenes.

When considering the style in which I would shoot the scenes in this scenario I intend to replicate a shot selection and editing style that is similar to that used in legal and family dramas. So the camera doesn’t move a lot and follows most filming conventions and is cut together using continuity editing. The purpose of this is to keep a focus on the actor, trying to do something weird and stylised would in my opinion take away from the character and may even confuse the viewer.

This scenario would most likely be somewhat close to the beginning of the narrative though maybe a little closer to the middle depending on whether or not it is used to introduce characters or not. The purpose of the scenario is to properly develop and solidify the happy family dynamic that Keir shares with each family member, and ultimately the purpose of this scenario is to highlight how very family oriented the character is.

 

Conclusion:

Overall I found this task to be most challenging. I had a couple of ideas I wanted to develop and no firm commitment to either of them. By creating this breakdown I believe I have found how I want to proceed. The breakdown helps showcase the strengths and weaknesses of each idea and overall I think that the first scenario the interrupted day scenario may one that I should focus on going forward. However, I might try to develop a bit of the second scenario to see if I think it works better for my purposes. I know that next week’s task is to create a scene inspired by my fictional character, I could use this to see how the second scenario feels to write and wether or not it produces something I want to continue and use as part of the final character portrait.