we came up with the title, The Long Run.
This is set in a big bustling city, something like Los Angles or New York, the Ghetto/ Downtown areas. We follow a young late teen’s boy called John (Johnny) Nickel; he’s your average kid, just trying to survive in a neighbourhood, full of drugs, guns, and crime. He lives with his 40 year old father, Tom Nickel, who has a drinking problem, Johnny and him aren’t on the best of terms.
The story starts of as a normal day for Johnny, slowly waking up to another day of college, his phone goes off, which stirs him and he answers. It’s his best friend telling him that the teacher says he has 5 minutes to get there otherwise he is in detention. Realizing this he comically gets dressed, steals his father’s bagel and legs it out the door. Gets on his BMX and pedals as hard as he can.
Upon arriving he knows that he is already 10 minutes late, so he takes his time in locking his bike away. He then hears voices and sees a girl who to him is of absolute beauty, a Goddess if you will. Her name is Rebecca Soar, a girl the same age as him, they both go to the same college, but swim in different shoals. She has always been a mystery to him, and now he sees her holding hands with a man, he is in the light so Johnny can’t make out who he is.
Johnny gets into class and he gets a detention, throughout the day he can’t get Rebecca out of his head, including the mystery man. It’s the end of the day, and he goes to sit in detention, several other kids are there, however what strikes him the most is that Rebecca is there. He sits down next to her, nervous as hell, and jumps when she asks him his name. They get discussing, and she says she would like to meet up again sometime, and leaves him a note saying where a party is.
It’s the night of the party. Johnny arrives and he sees drugs everywhere, people doped up, high, hallucinating, having sex anywhere, as if he had stepped in Babylon. He feels uncomfortable, until he sees Rebecca, he sits next to her and she passes him a splif. Not wanting to look like a loser, he takes a drag, and a rollercoaster of a night starts.
He wakes up the next day, to find a random girl naked in his bed. He tries to remember the previous night, and all that comes to mind is him and Rebecca kissing, people laughing, screaming, and then a hand grabs Rebecca away from him, a man, he is all blurred, Johnny can’t make him out at all. He searches the house but to no avail he can’t find Rebecca. He asks one of her friends and they say to forget about it, she was his.
Johnny doesn’t understand, who is ‘he’? Was it the same guy as before? If so what is the connection between him and Rebecca? Confused, hurt, and angry Johnny decides to find some answers, fearing that Rebecca is in trouble. He heads off for her house, knocks on her door, and Rebecca answers. He is relived and surprised, and told Rebecca what he thought and who was this guy supposed to be? She looks around nervously tells Johnny to leave her alone and slams the door into his face.
Johnny wants answers, and if Rebecca wasn’t going to give them to him then he’d just have to find out himself. He heads off to the mall and finds one of Rebecca’s friends, and asked what was going on. After a lot of following and nagging, he finally gets her to spill. She says she doesn’t know who the guy is, but he has a connection to the dude who supplied all the drugs. He is to be found at the music store on 5th.
Johnny makes his way there and demands the dealer to tell him about who the mystery man was. The dealer refuses, laughs in his face and punches him. Johnny retaliates but, is quickly overcome by the dealer’s strength. In a final attempt he says that he will go as low as possible to find out the truth, and threatens to tell the police about the party, everything. The dealer succumbs and tells him all about the man, who is only known as ‘Boss’. Also that Rebecca got to know him too well, and he thinks that they are a couple, when all she wanted was him to pay off her debts, but things don’t go so easily, and gets caught up so deep in the plan that she can’t get out.
Knowing this information Johnny makes his way back to Rebecca’s house, to comfort her, to tell her that everything was going to be alright. He gets there and at the door she bursts into tears. The house is empty, and they become so emotional that they end up having sex. The next morning Johnny wakes up, and hears the shower running. He smiles happily that all was going to be well. He gets out of the bed and looks around her room, and sees all the pictures, he moves to her desk and opens the drawers. More drugs and photos of the like, till he gets to the last one, a gun. He turns around, only to be smacked on the head by something heavy, as he losses consciousness he hears Rebecca scream his name.
When he comes to he is tied up, on the floor of a place he has never seen. He sees someone sitting in a chair, however he can’t see his face and realises that this was the Boss.(We are now at the opening of the film). After the Boss mocks him and tells him its’ the end, Johnny blacks out again. He wakes up on a roof, stands up and sees the Boss standing there with a gun, and tells him to ‘walk’. Feeling betrayed by Rebecca he turns to walk off the edge of the building. Then he stops at the edge and turns around to look at the Boss, who laughs and tells him that he planted the gun not her, and now he was going to die for nothing, he didn’t even rescue her.
Boss raises his gun and a shot is fired. Johnny stands there, all is quiet, he looks down at himself and sees that there is no wound. He looks back up and watches the Boss slump down to the ground, dead. Who shot him? It was Rebecca, overflowing with tears. Johnny rushes to her, and they embrace, knowing that the nightmare is over.
The End
Opening Sequence
On screen you will see Johnny tied up in the foetal position on the floor
the boss moves around him and threatens him, while this is happening Johnny has flashbacks of him and Rebecca kissing, Rebecca and the Boss and then of a gun in the draw. then the screen fades to black and on screen Johnny appears laying in bed and his phone rings. throughout the action Johnny is doing a voice over.
Then after we came up with out synopsis we did a treatment.
Cinematography- With the opening sequence at the end, in a dark damp place with our hero tied up and at the mercy of the Boss. I want to try and achieve that sense of tension, fear, the disorientation in the beginning since Johnny has just become conscious . With close up’s of Johnny at all times, when it comes to the Boss, I want his face to always be in shadow, so that there is an enigma. With the Boss I want to create the dark brooding power he contains, with hardly any visuals on him. So that he becomes a presence at the back of your neck, always there but not.
Mise-En-Scene- I am going to have the first scene in a dark room which is very dimly lit the majority of the light being on Johnny. Johny will be wearing very light colours and have blonde/light coloured hair this will help to emphasise he vulnerability and his innocence and how he got caught up with a bad crowd. He will be laying in the Foetal position this will help to emphasise how scared he is.
The boss character will be barely seen by the audience we will use heavily contrasting shadows to hide the boss face and he will be dressed in dark clothing and a hoodie which will emphasise his bad nature and his control over everything the hoodie will also show that he is a teenager as the connotation of hoodies to the audience will symbolise a teenage male who is not to be trusted it also signifies gang culture. the flash backs in the opening sequence will be tinted in different colours, the flashback of the first kiss will be bright and warm in colour, the flashback of Rebecca and the boss will be in a washed out bluish tone and the flashback of the gun will be in grey tones.
Sound/Editing- we will be using a voice over this a typical noir technique and will help the audience to understand what is going on. we will be using a backing track this is non diagetic sound. When we edit our piece we will edit the colours of the flashbacks as stated in the mise-en-scene section.
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