First Draft of Repression

The story and opening of Repression, as stated in the previous entry, came to me nearly a year ago. The original story was about a kid, who recently went through a traumatic experience and his struggles dealing with regular life as those experiences come back to haunt him.

Small details have changed, but the basic premise stayed the same. The opening has also stayed the same, as I thought it was a great way to introduce the mystery of this kid and his family dynamic.

I also felt that storyboarding was a better way to plan this opening, as there is but two line of dialogue.  I've yet to storyboard, so I feel as if I need a place to write the opening. It's basically ingrained in my head at this point but here we go:

The film opens with a black screen.

From here is a tracking shot. A light slowly comes up to the camera, eventually engulfing the entire screen. The light turns off and the camera tilts up. The light came from a headlight of a car, in which the main character was driving. The main character, 17, is wearing a suit, tie, and slacks. There is still lights coming from the front of the house.

The kid gets out of the car, eyes red from crying, and walks by the camera. His hands had dried blood on them. The camera follows him on his way through his front door, still well lit from lights on the house.

He opens the door and walks through the house, which is overwhelming well lit. As he starts to walk up the stairs, his mom walks up to him "Honey it's-" she cuts herself off when she sees his hands and just stands there.

As he walks up the stairs he takes off his tie and kicks off his shoes. When he reaches the top of the stairs, his father is in his office, watching television. Without looking at him, the father says "How was the game?" Clearly he wasn't at a game.

By now the light has dimmed down and is very dark, as walks down the hallway towards his room, the kid takes off his jacket and leaves it on the ground.  He walks into his room and leaves the door open. He collapses on the bed and starts to sob.


This is the basic plan and I'm really excited to share it with the other kids in the class. I think it creates a mystery, very much akin to what Andrew Stanton said in his TED talk.

Until next time.