Group Meeting #1 - Discussing Ideas

After the seminar today, we discussed how we would approach the brief through our own different roles and who needed to do what. This mainly focused on the director, producer and cinematographer as they had a lot to plan in terms of filming. However we also discussed with the director what the idea was for the overall film that he had already planned and how we were going to bring this in to the 2 minute brief. We began by discussing the whole film and we were given a synopsis and a brief explanation of what it was about:

Cemetery Road Synopsis

The film opens with credits (a white font against a black background) complemented by a dull underwater sound effect. The titles are interspersed by sudden bursts of dark footage of a man, seemingly drowning, gasping for air. The flashes increase in frequency until the image and sound cut out completely leaving just the title ‘Cemetery Road’.

Soft piano music begins to play as the film fades into a shot of the protagonist, dazed walking down a street. He is wearing an incongruous bright red coat which draws glances from passers-by. As he wanders he bumps into a stranger who looks subdued and traumatised. The final shot lingers on a street sign that reads Cemetery Road.

After a short sequence of the character walking around, he checks his pockets and finds a business card. The card bears his name and a cryptic message. On the reverse he finds an address and in his other pocket he finds a key. He seeks out the address and lets himself in. Dangling from the ceiling at the door is a second business card. This time it reads ‘welcome home’ followed by a second strange message.

He determines that this must be his home and begins to search for clues and at this point we realise he has lost his memory. After an implied passing of time he is no closer to retaining his memory or figuring out his identity. He begins to study the two business cards intensely and realises that the cryptic messages are in fact anagrams that take him back to cemetery road. He returns to the street and begins to walk down it. In the background on the opposite side of the street we see the confused stranger from the opening sequence walking away from the cemetery wearing the same red coat and dazed expression as the protagonist was when he is first introduced.

In the cemetery at the end of the street he finds a mysterious box with a similar business card to the ones from before. He reads it and opens the box. Inside he finds a record which he decides to take back to the house to play.

Back home he plays the record (classical music) and sinks into a chair. As he listens to it he suddenly seizes up and jarring flashes of a painful memory begin to appear. The memory enfolds in short flashing segments to the song that he is playing.

After reliving the traumatising event and after an implied period of grieving, the character begins to search for way to erase his memory. He comes across a company that claims to be able to completely erase your memory and seeks them out.

He finds the company in an office and pays the receptionist to undergo the procedure. She walks him through to the room where the process takes place; on the way there is a row of red coats. He is placed in a chair and strapped in so that he has no way out. He looks reflectively around the room as sad piano music begins to play. He suddenly realises he does not want to go through with the process but it is too late and he is forced into it with a jarring edit. The same shots of him drowning that were playing in the opening credits flash up. He struggles and tries to fight the process and the screen cuts to black.

The film then fades into the final shot of the film; a repeat of the opening scene. He bumps into the same person from the opening scene looking grief stricken again and the film ends, implying a never ending circularity.

I personally really like the films narrative and the themes it deals with, as well as the attention to detail that is already forming in this first synopsis. The way we tell the story in this film is key to the audiences engagement and understanding of the narrative, and we will have to really bare in mind if what we want to show and connote is actually comprehendable for the audience as well. After discussing this synopsis, we all decided to go our separate ways and think of a way we could use this synopsis to morph it to fit the 2 minute brief we were given. I think the strongest aspect we could use to fit this smaller brief would be around the flashback/dream sequence as it would allow us to bypass any sync sound and implement a creative use of voice over.