Fiction Adaptation: Proposal

AGAIN

Concept:

-Based on Life Doesn’t Frighten Me by Maya Angelou, which is written from the point of view of a little girl

-I thought, what if this little girl had grown up and had new fears she had to overcome?

-The main character of my film is this little girl grown up, still in school, but having to work to a deadline

-She fears the deadline and doubts whether she can deliver in time, fearing possible failure

-We see the process she goes through while writing the paper; from being afraid, and panicking, trapped in the space where she tends to write (symbolic of her being trapped in her own head, and wrapped up in her own fear) to her finally getting out, and realising that she can write the paper, as long as she believes in herself; the whole world is before her, and she’s worried about one little paper, which will be over in less than a week

-This is shown through montages, primarily rhythmic, but also tonal

Themes:

-The poem has a clear strong female lead, so a theme could be agency (being proactive), especially since the poem is also about conquering fears by being positive and doing things to face them

-Ideas of feminism and women who have STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) careers -- something which schools are encouraging more young girls to take an interest in -- so the main character is a physics student

-Physics -- shots and sequences can emphasise and contrast the physicality of the locations through movement, textures, light

Character:

-Rose, a physics student

-She never used to worry; she is the little girl from Maya Angelou’s poem grown up, so she understands it is possible to conquer fear

-But she is facing new challenges now she is older

-She uses her love of physics to conquer this, by thinking more positively about her place in the world

-She doesn’t have to be trapped -- she can go out and find ideas, rather than staying stuck in her head

Locations:

-Rose’s writing space/nightmare sequence -- parent’s summer house

-Opening/outside sequences -- Groombridge Place, Tunbridge Wells, Kent

Synopsis:

Heavy breathing and lions roaring over black -- comes up to see Rose running, terrified; this combines with the sound of a clock ticking and images of a clock in red.

This makes a rhythm, reaching a climax.

Pull out from the clock to see Rose laying on the floor in her writing space. She’s staring at the ceiling, watching the stars which swirl there. Her face and the stars spin around, getting faster, until the stars superimpose on her face.

She sits up abruptly and the spinning ceases. She looks at a calendar on the wall, days crossed off, reaching “deadline”, written in red capital letters. She gets up and counts the days -- not many are left until “deadline”.

Knowing she should get back to work, she heads over to her desk. We catch elements of the room as she goes -- old experiments (pendulum, volcano, potato clock), maps, drawings, graphs (all things which show/emphasise the motion and scale of the universe).

Montage of Rose trying to write but getting progressively more stressed -- writing and crossing out words /lines, pacing, scrunching up whole pages and throwing them across the room, using a yo-yo as a distraction (emphasis on the up-down movement).

She thinks about going outside (shot of her looking out the window). But she closes her eyes and we hear noises of a loud crowd, cars beeping, trains, planes. This frightens Rose.

Everything becomes disorientating (we can see it all twice as Rose rubs her eyes), and the image dissolves…

Into a nightmare sequence: Rose is sitting in a chair, but her hands are tied, she can’t write. A label across her forehead reads, “stupid”, and she’s illuminated in the dark by blinding light. As the light flashes off and on, these labels build up: “small”, “weak”, “fool”, “worthless”, “coward”.

She wakes with a jolt from where she fell asleep on her desk. And the refraction prism on her desk is making a rainbow. She has to get out. She has to do something. Her chair spins as she leaves, and we stay focused on it as the door slams shut.

Outside sequence -- being unsure of things but conquering them by using her knowledge. Example: walking amongst the tree-tops, and being scared of heights, but Rose studies it, measuring the height in her mind. Sitting on a swing, almost defying gravity; Rose studies its motion.

Graphs superimpose on screen?

Focus on the little things: bark on the trees, leaves on the ground, clouds, water, earth, sky (rain?) -- these build to make a bigger whole, the forest?

Rose back at her desk, putting the last piece of paper onto the stack of her completed paper (“The Scale & Motion of The Universe”). She leaves with it, successful.

Hold on the door.

She comes back. With the paper. Putting it on the desk, we see it has a failing grade and feedback on it, meaning Rose has to write it again.

But she’s unfazed. By writing her paper again, she can only gain.

She sticks a label on her own head (and this time it reads “powerful”?).

And gets back to work. She rips down the wall calendar and covers up the clock -- here and now is all that matters, she can’t keep worrying about possible failure in the future. 

The last shot shows a comma she writes during the first sentence -- is it ever really over? We hear a lion roar, and the clock begins ticking again.