Film Idea

I have decided to make a film shot in the style of Edgar Wright about two babysitters who accidentally kill the girl they are meant to be looking after. It is a comedy so the humour has to overpower the horror of the death of a child. 

Here is a list of the as yet unnamed characters and the people playing them:

Babysitters - Laura Anderson and Louise Eden

14 Year Old "Child" (possibly named Prudence) - Hermione Pratt

Child's Parents - Mary Eden and John Anderson

I will take photos of these characters (and my locations - which I'll talk about in the next paragraph) in costume when I have a chance in the next few days or so.

Now here is how I want my introduction to look although I will probably change a lot around but I'm thinking about doing my storyboards pretty soon as I know what most of the shots are going to look like. As for the locations, Louise has kindly agreed to let me use her house for filming in but I don't know where I will film the "digging" scene at the start yet. I can picture the place in my head but can't imagine anywhere in Jersey that looks like it so perhaps I will have to just make do with anywhere I will be allowed to dig body-sized holes in. At the moment these are the only two locations I need for the intro but this may change as I write the actual script and possibly add flashbacks or something. Anyway the next paragraph is a basic (or sometimes painfully detailed yet strangely indecipherable - please be patient and await my storyboards if these bits really make no sense) outline of my intro....

The film starts with the film studios' logos (I'm thinking Universal, Working Title and Studio Canal - the ones backing Shaun of The Dead and Hot Fuzz) and the sound of digging, nothing else. After that the digging continues but a close up image comes on screen of a 16 year old girl (Laura) who is sitting outside in the dark smoking a cigarette. A voice-over starts. It is Laura's speaking, talking about what has happened, not giving away too much. During this voice-over there is a shot showing a new character (Louise, also 16), knee-deep in a ditch she is digging. Louise is on the left of the screen and Laura on the right, further away from the camera, sitting on a low wall.

The scene and voice over ends with Laura saying something like "It all started when..." or "It's quite a funny story actually..." or something like that - but not so cliched.

The next scene starts with Hermione sitting on a sofa watching TV in her house. Her parents are fussing over her before they go out to dinner (they are dressed in posh clothes), leaving her behind with Laura and Louise. Hermione is 14 so it is supposed to be ironic that she in fact is legally allowed to babysit other children yet she is being babysat herself. Her parents are very over-protective. I am thinking of then having a quick Edgar Wright-style montage kind of thing with the two babysitters ringing the doorbell, parents saying goodbye, closing the door, babysitters sitting down on the sofa etc. all in quick succession to make the awkward silence after even more intense (Hermione tries to ignore them most of the time and continues to watch TV, turning up the volume every time they try to speak to her). Louise is "the stupid one" (oh, the comedy) and thinks that she's coming to some kind of sleep over so turns up in her pyjamas and brings a teddy bear etc. - Laura wears a t-shirt and jeans.

Laura is eager to help and do stuff for Hermione so when she says she wants some cereal, Laura is happy to help her and as they go to the kitchen and open the cupboard, Laura knocks Hermione out with the door.

Louise will be eating in as many shots as possible - when they see that Hermione is dead there will be a close up of her head and shoulders then she slowly raises a chocolate bar to her mouth and takes a bite then Laura hits it out of her hand... which will hopefully be quite funny because you won't be expecting it as the atmosphere would be quite tense.

Laura checks Hermione's pulse and announces that she is sadly deceased.

She is panicky. Louise is too stupid to react so just stands there, not really getting it.

Then there's a little bit of dialogue that goes a little something like this:

Laura: "I'll go get a spade"

Louise "What for?"

Laura (dramatic zoom in) "We're gonna bury a body"

Then a quick montagey bit of Laura leaving the room, turning on the light of a messy storage room, looking around, grabbing a child's plastic sand castle spade from a dusty corner, turning off the light again then she hears a noise from the kitchen. It all slows down a bit as she walks cautiously towards the kitchen (dolly/tracking shot all the way showing the back of Laura's head/shoulders and what's in front of her). She turns and sees Louise standing over Hermione's body, holding a bloody frying pan and breathing heavily. She had "panicked" when Hermione woke up so grabbed the first thing she could find and hit her over the head with it. There is now a pool of blood around Hermione's head.

I think this will be where my filming will end as I don't want it to be too long. I am happy with this introduction and now I have to do a proper script and storyboards so that I can really set this straight in my mind.