Opening

Begin with Anna in the present tense running towards her 'sanctuary' her fast running and facial gestures of deep breathing and anxiety would be shown through close ups. And the suspense and tension will be shown through her determination and speed. Though we'll have a sobre piano playing and all diegetic music will be muted.
She then stops beside the train bridge (underneath) to take a moment to 'catch' her breath, this would allow time for the audience to begin contemplation on the character, yet no direct shots of her face will be shown to keep an essence of mystery. She'll then continue on her way.
Arriving at her destination this allows us to shot our trademarked 'rooftop shots'. It will show Anna in solitude, in contemplation and in deep though. The Narration may begin here, if not now then possibly whilst she's running. The emotional script and sombre piano with the silence and emptiness of the location would hopefully draw strong emotions in the audience. After these few shots we'll see a POV shot of Anna's feet as she sits upon the bridge with a large distance to fall.
A simple fade to either white or black (undecided) will be our transition from the present to past tense.
We then see a young girls feet (Anna in the past) as she's about to open a playground gate. We then see the park through the eye's of a child. This requires a variety of complex shots and camera movements which are hard to describe with out refrencing to the annotations on the story board. This scene would signify the equilibrium stage and begin portraying a false depiction of Anna's life as a child. It's a false representation as she had a brutal and tragic upbringing which would later be revealed. We've discussed idea's wether to shot the flashbacks in black and white to show a clear contrast. This will also work well with the dark railway scene previously, as too much of a contrast could be startling on an audience and 'throw' them off.
This scene would then show Anna leaving the park holding her mothers hand. This could then fade once more to enter the next scene.
We've had breif discussions about filming the movement of clouds over several hours to then fast forward them to show an artistic backdrop to display the title (Clouds). This is still under deliberation. If it was to be done, it would occur now. Then fading to white the next scene would continue.
It shows Anna arriving home from the park at her door then running up the stairs. In a POV shot in the style of the famous film Halloween. She then hides in the closet and you see her hiding. This would hopefully add a sense of mystery and be unsettling to the viewer. The narration would have stopped at the titles and piano would fade in, yet not as a sobre peice but to be more epic and intense.
The scene would then suddenly end which a sharp anticlimatic build and which a fast fade to black.


Written by Zoe Christodoulou

Treatment

With the opening we began brain storming some ideas neither group member had a definitive idea. We began thinking of character idea's and weather there would be only one antagonist, and we how we can turn a standard character in an ambiguous one.Our initial thoughts were to have both a male and female, but to include the sense of uncertainty and ambiguity we decided to show the male to be the vulnerable one in a more passive tone, and still being very 'male', in the way he acts (mannerism), characterisation and other conventions. We thought for the women to be the antagonist as this could be represented as a unavailing twist as the story progresses. Next we had to construct a relationship dynamic between the two. We decided to have them as step brother and sister.This helped us branch out to a narrative idea, we thought we could tell a brief story of their family dysfunction (as past tense). We thought this would be perfect for filling the story with enigma's and it would also help us, more easily, draw audiences in to the characters by creating a sense of sympathy. More idea's were that the male, as a young boy, could have been the 'favourite', or that the younger girl suffered abuse and neglect.We decided to no follow the conventional narrative structure by simply representing an equilibrium stage, but rather throwing the audience into the chaos. Yet from the woman's perception we'll see flashbacks of her past through the film to reveal to viewers why they have grown up to be the people they are today. We decided due to their family dysfunction they'd grown up to be outlaws to society, they'd be condemned in the eyes of others to be able to live a 'normal' life. Our film idea is now taking on a more Drama style genre as one of the main themes is turning out to be family and family dynamics.We need to begin thinking what could have happened during their childhood that began a chain of negative events and thought patterns. An idea came up that we all agreed upon that the little girl (past tense) saw her brother either being physically abusive or murdering either the mother or step father. As you see this whole film through the perception of the girl, you witness the dysfunction of the boy, as a child and in the present. Yet it's not until the ending where it reveals to the audience, she's just as messed up as him. As the viewer all along you'll be believing her narration and believing she's completely sane and grounded. Yet as the flashbacks reveal more and more they reveal her abandonment as a child and these foundations she's learnt from have caused her memory scares disabling her to behave/live appropriately in society. This brings forth huge ambiguity to her character and the film would have a huge element of mystery and suspense.As the boy was very aggressive at the young and vulnerable stages in his life, we decided for him to have this deep underlying love for his mother in which he secretly desired her (inspired by Freud as his theory that young baby boys secretly lust their mothers). This would contain that obscene more shocking element to the film. So as the step father moved in he's anger raged and he began lashing out at his mother. Till the day came where he went too far and killed her. This was done by his own physical strength and a mirror (details not necessary). He managed to escape authority causing him to live in the shadows of life.The main objective of both characters is the search/quest for their own happiness and escapism. The film would deal with many phsycological issue's dealing with addiction, denial, escapism, anger, anxiety and etc. As the boy grows older he becomes and porn addict, he channels all his rage through the violence and obscenity of the under ground porn industry. We this disturbance through the eyes of the women, who appears to be the more vulnerable one, sympathy is given to her as she has to 'look after' her older brother.The women on the other hand would begin to appear Innocent constantly living in the shadows from the start with little attention. As the back flashes reveal more we see how a little girl starved of attention begins to be neglected and emotionally scared from the scenes she's witnessed. As the film goes on, the narration changes, as she takes us the viewer through a window of her life, she finds her happiness. What she finds is not reveled to the end. Her perception completely changes and the film almost becomes distorted as it's through her perception.So the boy in this channels his anger and dives in a world of oblivion. The girl is mentally unwell due to her calm and hugely depressing outlook until she becomes a heroin addict. What's quite common with thrillers is that the begin and end scene repeat each other to emphasis a particular point. This also helps develop a tag line/famous phrase that's easily remembered in the film, that of course must have a high impact on audience's and is very emotional. So maybe it would be nice to begin the film very surreal to show a rather twisted equilibrium, yet as it revels it's actually a resolution of complete devastation.We decided to have an urban location, as living in a city can extremely isolated, with the idea of alleys, cold streets, so many strangers and generally a lonely place in your mind (constantly reinforcing the physcological element).A name that was brought up in discussion was the name Cloud or Clouds. Personally I fell this definently suits the film well as clouds instantly remind you off the sky and how clouds can be perfectly situated to present a perfect picture. By calling the film Clouds it brings an added disturbance to the nature of the film. It also represents how each character lives 'in the clouds' or how addicts have their 'heads in clouds'. It could also signify how clouds just go by without notice and change and mold by factors of their surroundings this can be symbolically applied to the women character.This is the basic treatment, yet i feel more needs to be discussed on the character dynamics between the Brother and Sister.



Written by Zoe Christodoulou