Treatment: Under Love And Key

Treatment 

Title: Under Love And Key

Tag Line: Love can be the enemy

Synopsis

The story is focused around a young girl’s journey to escape the life she has lived. After spending 18 years locked up in a single room Mia is ready to start her own life and have an adventure of her own. The main theme being focused on love and loss. A fathers love for his daughter threatens to divide the two after 18 years being held captive. Mia fights the struggles of leading a secluded life. The story follows the young girl’s life on her journey to escape her father’s love trap and find love and a life of her own.

Outline

The main subject of the film is Mia’s escape. After living her whole life confined within four white walls Mia is looking for something new, looking for an adventure. One like she has read about multiple times in her books. The story starts with Mia, a small 18-year-old girl, in her bedroom looking out of a small square window onto a large field. Mia spends hours painting at this one window, especially in the different seasons as the world begins to change, yet she remains the same. Mia keeps a diary, it is the only way she can express her thoughts and feelings but keep them locked away from him, her captor. As the story unfolds we see her captor, a large man with broad shoulders, bringing Mia food and water. You can see Mia is weary of the man but not exactly scared. There are similarities between the two of them as her captor is later revealed to be her father. As he leaves and locks the door behind him Mia is seen crying at the window. Something completely unexpected happens. A girl is walking in the field. Mia had never seen anyone in the field before and so is completely taken aback by this revelation. She watches the girl until she turns to leave, Mia then begins to scream and shout in order for the girl to notice her. She knows her dad will be here soon and that he will be cross but she will try anything for a chance at escape. A chance for a new chapter, an adventure. She has been waiting for this moment for so long. She will not let it pass without at least a little fight, no matter the punishment. The door bursts open and Mia is pushed away from the window and she falls to the floor. As her dad paces the room with frustration Mia stands to look out of the window, once more knowing she has lost her only chance at freedom, only to see the girl stood staring right back at her. Her knees buckle and she slumps to the floor, her father begins to tell a story, the story of how this situation came to be. He had lost his wife and son in a freak accident and his last promise to his dying wife was to protect Mia, whatever the cost. Daily life then resumed. Reading, eating and sleeping. A monotonous routine. A few days passed and Mia lost all hope of ever seeing the girl again. Suddenly the door creaked open a few inches and a short brown bob peered round the door. A quick, shhhh and a gesture to follow her and the two girls were outside the house and in the field.

The film will have a linear narrative, progressing from beginning to end and will follow some points from the three act structure. The film has one main protagonist, Mia who is 18 and being held captive by her father. The other two characters are the father who is not given a name and the other young girl who frees Mia. Throughout the story you will find out that the man holding Mia captive is in fact her father and that he is protecting her from the world out of love for his daughter. Mia tries to understand this but her love for adventure leaves her feeling hollow and in need of an escape.

Analysis of approach

The film will be shot from Mia’s point of view following her life and how she sees things. Steady shots will be used at the beginning as life seems normal and peaceful. When things become interesting and the man storms into the room a hand held shot, still from Mia’s POV will be used to portray her terror. Mia writes in her diary throughout the film as this is a way for her to voice her feelings without her dad knowing. These inserts will be read out, in Mia’s voice, using a voice over so that the audience know what she is thinking and an insight into what she is feeling. More voice overs will be used to express her thoughts as she is screaming out of the window, knowing her dad is on his way. As the film will be shot from Mia’s perspective her father is believed to be a bad guy, however a short insert of him crying and apologising to his deceased wife for failing on her dying wish, shows him to be a grieving father trying to protect his daughter. This is a turning point in the film where you start to emphasis with the father as well as Mia.

I got my inspiration for the film from the book and film adaptation Room. In this book a mother and son are held captive in a single room for over seven years. The story follows their journey for freedom and then readjusting to life after their escape. In Room the story follows the son, Jack, and his journey as he adapts to his new life as he had only ever known Room. I came up with my idea through mixing Room with grievance and loss so that the being held captive came from a fathers love for his daughter rather than from a man’s hate. Another film I took inspiration form is Shutter Island. I took the idea of not knowing that you are the patient in a psychiatric hospital and played around with it. Deciding that the father in my film would be suffering from grief due to the loss of his wife and son. This caused him to be mentally unstable and believe he is protecting his daughter and that she is still a child who he needs to shield from the world. I was originally going to have the father as the main protagonist and film it from his POV as Shutter Island does but I decided it would work better from Mia’s POV as he can be portrayed as an outsider.

The main location, Mia’s bedroom, will be a small square room. The walls and furniture will be fully white, the only colour coming from Mia’s paintings and the books on the shelf. A small square window in the centre of the room across from the door looks out onto a large green field. The bottom of the field is layered with large green trees which Mia loves to watch change throughout the seasons. A small white desk is pressed against the wall by the door. Here Mia takes online classes at her computer.

Appraisal

I am very happy with the treatment I have managed to achieve. I feel that the outline tells the action of the story in order and that there is a clear direction in the way the story is heading. I believe it is easy to follow and understand and that the analysis gives a good visual idea of how the film will be produced. However, I feel I could have included much more description as throughout my detailed planning process I had a very clear visualisation of the characters and locations.

While in the planning process I decided to write out the full plot as if it was a story. This helped me to visualise everything clearly and fully understand where I was taking the story. While doing this was extremely helpful I then found it difficult to write the outline as I didn’t know which parts of my full story to leave out as it was way too long and descriptive to include it all.

I feel like the teaching through lectures and seminars was helpful as I had a clear idea of my characters and locations but had to change my whole idea as my initial story was too complicated for a five-minute film and included more than three characters. I still struggled with including only three characters in this story but managed to find a way to make the story work around a three-character limit. I found the story/outline easy to write as it was clear in my head where I wanted it to go and the feelings I wanted to evoke from my audience. I feel like the time I spent planning the treatment was used wisely and a helpful process for when it came to writing it up. 

Original Treatment that needed adapting

Theme/core idea

The theme is focused around a fathers love for his daughter and her struggles of leading a secluded life. The story follows the young girl’s life on her journey to escape her father’s love trap and find love and a life of her own.

Outline

An ordinary day in autumn sees the leaves beginning to change. Mia sits, as still as a statue, staring out of the small square window on the far side of her bedroom. The window looks out on to a large field surrounded by tall trees. Mia sighs, and moves a few short steps across the room to her bookshelf. Once there she removes her diary and sits on the bed, she begins to write. (A voice over speaks what she is writing.) The room she lives in is small and all white, the only colour comes from Mia’s paintings of the ever changing landscape she can see from her window.

The door is unlocked. A man walks in with a plate of food in his hand. You can see the steam rising off of the plate. He locks the door behind him and places the plate on the small white desk by the door. Cautiously Mia moves towards her desk, keeping her eyes on the man at all times. She breaks eye contact once she reaches the desk to sit and eat. The man sighs and leans against the desk, watching as Mia eats the meal he has provided. You can see some similarities between them, their tanned skin, the shape of their nose and their half smile. But that’s where it ends. He is a tall man, around 6ft, whereas she is small for her age at only a mere 5ft2. She has her mother’s hair, a muddy blonde colour and dead straight. Her mother’s eyes too, big and bright blue. They have always been her favourite feature. Her nose and mouth remind her of him. Of her Captor!

As he leaves Mia retreats back to her bed, she sits there, cross legged, and watches as the door closes behind him and the lock is turned. On the other side of the door the man stands, leaning slightly back against the door to steady himself. A lone tear rolls down his cheek. He looks up at the sky “I know Clara; I don’t like to do it to her. But I’m her father, it’s my job to protect her and it was my final promise to you.” He wipes the tear from his face. “I can’t lose anyone else.”

The next day Mia is sat at her window again. She spends many hours there watching as the world passes her by. But this time something is different. There is a girl, much taller than herself, walking in the field. She runs around, wild and free before tumbling in the long grass. Mia had never seen people in the field before, only ever animals. She was ecstatic. She watched the girl for a couple of hours as she settled down, laid on her back, right in the middle of the field. Mia knew this was what normal people did, she had read about it many times in books and seen it in films, but she knew she couldn’t. Her dad would never let her. She watched and waited for the girl to leave. All the time thinking of a way to get her attention. I could shout, but then that would alert him. I could wave, but then it just looks like I’m being friendly and not in need of their help. Before she knew it the girl was almost upon her. She was moving quickly as it was starting to rain. Mia couldn’t help herself. She started shouting and screaming and waving her hands about frantically, hoping for the young girl to notice her. She knew she had a couple of minutes to her advantage before he could stop her as he had to unlock the door first, so she did everything she could.

The footsteps got louder as he approached the door. The rattling of keys difficult to hear over Mia’s screaming and his heavy breathing. The door flung open, hitting the wall behind it and bouncing back closed behind him. Mia knew he would be angry, but it’s too late now. She had been waiting for this moment for 18 years, she wasn’t going to miss the only opportunity she had. She knew that there was nothing more she could do. He had the advantage, of being a male and his height. He strode over to the window and violently span Mia around to face him. She stared at him, attempting to remain cool and collected, to show him that she was not afraid. But inside she was breaking. She didn’t understand. Why was this happening? He pushed her away from the window and onto the bed. She was crying now. Mia quickly rose to her feet and glanced out of the window once more. There she saw the young girl looking directly up at her. Still crying, Mia let her knees buckle and she slumped to the floor.

He came and sat down beside her. With his arms wrapped a little too tightly around her he rocked her, back and forth. Once the sobbing subsided he began to talk. “Mia, I am sorry about that, but you know why you can’t see people and I can’t let them see you.” 

“No Dad, I don’t” Mia replied between sobs. 

“Then I shall explain it to you once more. Your mother was a beautiful woman, you’ve got her eyes, you know that right? Anyway, we got married and had a beautiful baby girl, that’s you. And a baby boy, your brother. We loved you deeply but when you were about four, and Matthew was only two we were involved in a collision. Your brother was announced dead on sight but your mother was rushed to the hospital.” He took a deep breath, there were tears in his eyes but he wouldn’t let them spill over.  “Once there she became weaker. My last promise to her was that I would protect you, that I would never let any harm come to you. So we moved out here, to the country where I could keep you safe. You were a happy child here. We have loads of great memories. Why would you want to throw that away for some girl you don’t know?” Mia took a minute to think about all the things her father had just said.

She took a deep breath. “So… All this, my whole life in this one room of the house is because you can’t let go? Her voice rises at the end of her statement. She’s getting angry and realises this may hurt her dad’s feelings so resumes a normal level.  “I just don’t get it, you want to protect me from the world but by doing so you’ve taken away my life, your life! Think of all the places we could have gone; the places we could still go together. You can’t protect me from life, it’s something that I need to live, to find out for myself.” At that moment to door nudges open. The girl! She saw, she’s come to rescue me! She looks at Mia with eyes full of sorrow. “Come one, quickly come with me!”

Mia sits in the field, looking back at the house, the window and the life she used to live. She left with the girl that day. And now has a life. The two girls are best friends and often share stories of that day. After her escape she was taken to the hospital after a check-up and some vital vaccinations she was passed over to social services. She told them her life story, how everyday was the same but that her dad was always there for her, he cared for her and loved her. It wasn’t his fault.  As Mia is 18 there was little they could do. After assigning her with a councillor for weekly meetings she was free to go. But there was nowhere she knew where to go, so she went home. Her dad was admitted to the mental health ward for two months and given grief counselling. The two of them now live together. Free to roam the halls with no locks on the doors. He still has protection issues and struggles to let Mia leave the house but they are working through it, one step at a time. They have even booked a weekend away in Cornwall.

Sitting in the field now, Mia realises that her dad was ill and that he was only trying to protect her. Although it will take time for her to forgive him and for them to trust each other fully, she will try. 

Appraisal

I feel very happy with the treatment I have managed to achieve. I feel that the outline tells the action in order and that there is a clear direction in the way the story is heading. However; I feel that I have written more of a story that a treatment, maybe going into a little too much detail on descriptions.

I feel like the teaching through lectures and seminars was helpful as I had a clear idea of my characters and locations but had to change my whole idea as my initial story was too complicated for a five-minute film and included more than three characters. I still struggled with including only three characters in this story but found it much easier to write.