Concept Narrative
In one sentence, my film is about an old camera breaking and showing the old footage that was on it. In the first scene, a dad asks his son, Danny, to go get the family camera from the office to shoot the family Easter Egg Hunt. The opening shot will be a close up of the camera sitting on a shelf in the office. Maybe one or two other objects will be sitting next to the camera. All of the dialogue between the father and the son can be heard in the distance. Eventually, the son will make his way to the camera and pick it up off the shelf. Unfortunately, it slips out of his hands and crashes to the floor shattering. With any luck I will be able to shoot this at 60fps and slow it down slightly in Final Cut Pro 7. The father, hearing the crash, comes into the office to see what happened. He is devastated to see what happened. The son apologizes, but it takes the father a second to come to grips with what happened. He accepts his son’s apology as he picks up the camera to give it a look over. It is truly broken beyond repair. Although sad, the father tells his son to go get ready with his sister while he cleans up the mess. Danny leaves and the father continues scrutinize the camera. He opens the viewfinder and slowly brings it to his eye. A point of view shot will bring us into the world of the camera through the viewfinder. The old footage that the camera captured from years past is now on screen. For a few seconds, we can see what look like cracks on the screen from the broken viewfinder but they quickly fade as the old footage takes over the film.
The footage is of old family home videos. Events like weddings, childhood memories, and school performances are all shown. Eventually, within the old footage, a small boy takes over the camera on Easter morning 2003. He starts to make short movies with his friends and brother. Eventually it is revealed that the dad in real life is the boy from the old footage and that the broken camera is his original movie camera that got him into filmmaking.
Now for the logistics. I am going to my grandparents house for Thanksgiving break along with most of my extending family. There I will film the short opening scene using one of my younger cousins and one of my uncle’s for the actors. I will also have my parents bring fly up all our old home movie footage that has been transferred to DVDs. The way I will get all the old footage for the film is by using some of my family’s old movie footage. Also, I actually took over my family’s old video camera when I was a child so I can also use all my old movies from way back when to use as the ones in he film.
For editing, I will edit together the footage I shot with the old home video footage (most of which I would have shot from a decade ago) for the film in Final Cut Pro 7. I will color grade in Apple’s Color 1.5 and I will add glitchy/old footage affects to some of the old footage in Final Cut. I will find an instrumental song to use to when the old footage is playing.
I am guessing this film will be between 3-4 minutes.
Script
INT. OFFICE
A CU of a camera on a shelf fades in along with dialogue of a father asking his son to retrieve that camera. The shot holds as the child runs up to the camera and picks it up off the shelf.
DAD
Ok so do you want to film the Easter
Egg hunt again this year.
DANNY
Yeah yeah
DAD
Ok how about you go get it while I set up.
DANNY
Is it in the office.
DAD
Yup.
DANNY
Where is… Oh I…
Danny picks up the camera and pulls it out of frame. However, it slips out of his hands and crashes on the floor. He gasps and the dad walks in wondering what all the noise was.
DAD
Danny what has th…
He exhales in disbelief and slowly walks up to it. Danny stands shocked in horror.
DANNY
I’m so sorry dad.
There is a short silence as the dad picks up the broken camera and stares at it.
DAD
No its ok Danny. How about you go
get ready with your sister.
DANNY
Ok. Sorry dad.
Danny walks out of the room. The dad stays and looks over his old camera. He dusts it off and opens the viewfinder. He looks through it as we are transported back into his old footage. The old camera’s footage plays in full screen. It consists of old home videos: weddings, family reunions, school performances, and other footage of young families starting. Eventually, a young boy picks up the camera and walks around his house with it. Next, he starts to make home made short movies with his friends and bother. Eventually it is found out that the boy making the videos in the camera footage is the dad, and the film ends.
Storyboards
Nathan Carolan 