Treatment

Synopsis

In the summer of 2012, a 16 year old girl named Ava is sitting in her room reading the invitation to an after prom party by her popular sister, Ella, who is also her only friend.

As Ava narrates her life to the viewers, flashbacks show her general life leading up to the prom. She's victimised by two girls who are jealous of her and pick on her because she doesn't wear designer clothes or the newest phones. Seth is the most popular boy in the school who Ava has liked for years, but he shows little interest in her, giving her a "hi" every now and then, but nevertheless the only one who sticks up for her. Chez is a chav and a background character who's interested in Ava, but she hardly ever notices him or the fact that he has a crush on her and hates Seth.

Back into the present, Ava's mother comes into her room and encourages her to attend. Ava's delighted to know it's Seth's party, but the two bullies will also be there. However, Ava eventually agrees, her mother helps her look pretty and get ready to go and drops her off at Seth's house.

Ella and Seth welcome Ava and make her feel at home. Ella admits that Seth likes her and soon after, Seth approaches her and they start talking. The bullies start taunting her behind her but she defends herself for the first time ever, which Seth admires. However, Chez sees them admit their feelings for each other and becomes angry of jealousy. As Ava and Seth declare their love for each other, t'old Chez hears them and goes to attack Seth. Ava notices Chez's advance and as they scuffle, Ava shoves Chez onto the floor. As he falls, a bloody knife drops form his hands. To everyone's horror, Ava looks down to see that it's her who's been stabbed. As she falls to the floor, Seth and Ella run to her aid and the screen fades to black.

Title of the film

We have finally decided to choose "The Last Shards" as this metaphorically represents Ava's life: her life has been made up of broken shards, nothing has ever gone right or ended happily. After she attends the party and falls in  love, she is pushed down the stairs; which is the last bad thing that will ever happen in her life, which will be the "Last Shards". Additionally, shards represent broken glass, which represents how fragile Ava is to the world; but when she's at the party, knowing something has gone right in her life for once, she gains some courage. This is also why her death is the "last" shards. It's not a typical title for a fairy tale-type film but the structure is still the same (begins with "the" and ends in a noun).

Length of the film

The length of our film will approximately be between 4 and 6 depending on the length/amount of flashbacks.

Target Audience

After studying our questionnaire, the majority of people who would pay to watch it and recommend it were people aged between 17 and 19. The only candidate who would have paid to watch it was a 19 year old female at university, therefore more romantic elements could be included to extend that female audience. The only candidate who wouldn't recommend it was a 40 year old policeman. The rest of the candidates were 17 year old male students who would recommend the film and watch it for free. All of whom, had watched a short film before. Therefore we conclude to target our short film at 15 to 30 year olds. This is probably because the story line can be empathised easier with younger viewers as it's the younger generation that provides the foundation of our film. This film is especially targeted at anyone from around the South/West Yorkshire areas as this is where our film is set, therefore there's a chance a South Yorkshire audience would be more biased to like this film. In addition, everyone interviewed in our questionnaire were from South Yorkshire.

Special Effects

What makes our film unique is the effect of flashbacks, which we've not seen yet within the short films we've watched.  We also have a ver unexpected ending. The idea was to make the audience think that either the bullies would ruin everything for Ava or she would kiss Seth and live happily ever after. But the fact that the main character dies (or does she?) at the end is meant to shock the audience as it's very unexpected.