River - Treatment

RIVER

Genre: Dark comedy, fantasy

Duration: 5 - 10 minutes

Target audience: Anyone over 12

Outline: A man dies from alcohol poisoning, collapsing onto the side of the road. The fabled ferry man comes to 'collect' him, who takes him 'through the river' to the afterlife. It is seemingly a form of purgatory, as the ferry man takes him to different parts of his life, and to see different people who mean something to him. Yet the world also seems to have a society in itself, with the ferry man doing this as his job, and other ferry men working at the time. As his journey through memories comes to an end, the ferry man must send him up or down...

Character breakdown: 
  • Ferry Man/Ron (John Campbell): One of the ferry men. Seemingly used to be a plucky, enthusiastic man, has now been de-emotionalised by his monotonous regime and is cynical about it's repetitive nature. He sees Kevin as unknowing, which irritates him as he knows the ins and outs of the ferry man business.
  • Kevin (Caolan Plumb): The man dead from alcohol poisoning. He is confused and dazed, as he is new to his surroundings. Ron must help him to understand his surroundings. He is emotional about the people he has lost, yet at the end, he becomes accepting of the fact that he is dead and understands his fate.
  • Limbos: These are people stuck in the river, most likely for their questionable actions in the real world, scary characters, look menacing
  • Amy: Kevin's girlfriend, who doesn't know where he is, and becomes worried throughout the film.

Visual Elements: 
  • Lighting - Natural for outdoor shots, standard lighting for indoor.
  • Camera movement - Mix between tracking shots and stationary
  • Editing - Shows different emotions he feels
  • Setting - Purgatory, world is known as 'River' outdoors in Twinbrook, yet a few houses used for memory
  • Actors:
    • John Campbell
    • Caolan Plumb
    • Katie McShane
    • Stephen Forte
    • Aaron Esteban
    • Ciaran Hines
  • Costume - Overcoat for Ron, generic clothing for Kevin, Limbo's will wear black, Amy also wearing generic clothing. 
Audio Elements
  • Soundtrack and music: Recorded by Eoin, all based on the Gregorian chant 'Dies Irae'.
  • Sound effects: Generic noises recorded externally to add to the quality
Rationale: I found the idea of life after death interesting, yet all of the short films i watched seemed to portray it in a comedic way, and i think it'll make a good project as we are making it original by adding a dark twist to it.

Research: We looked at the ancient Greek God 'Charon' also known of the ferry man to portray the important things accurately, while also portraying the idea of him taking the dead person down the River Styx metaphorically with the title of the project.

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