Directoral Debut
MARKED SCRIPT
This was an awesome exercise as it let me really focus on how I envisioned the script to look. I realised I enjoyed imagining lots of close-ups and medium shots to really accentuate how closed in panic attacks really made Tee feel.
Directors treatment
Synopsis
TEE is a young man who suffers debilitating Panic Attacks at the hands of his Social Anxiety. Like any other day, he resistantly gets up for his day and works at his brother's Cafe. Unlike most days, however, his doctors have recently reduced his medication and instead started him on NBT to try and help his mental health.
Tee struggles to leave his house, but the sight of a potential friend comes into view, in the form of ELLE, his next-door neighbour. Tee slips into a daydream, imagining a world where he can simply talk to her and chat as friends. As she walks away in the direction Tee needs to go, Tee slips back out of his daydream and decides he will do as planned and head to work after her.
As Tee walks down the road, he repeats his mantra to himself, trying to build up the courage he will need for work today. As he crosses the road to get to his bus stop, ELLE at that same stop causes him to pause on the road, panic and again slip into a daydream. In this one, Tee simply sees her on the bus and after smiling at her, sees her smile back and offer him a seat next to her. Tee is brought back out of this dream by a honking bus that Tee blocks. After moving out of the way, Tee realises the bus he was stopping from leaving was indeed his bus and sets off walking to work, now late.
After arriving at work and being greeted by his brother, Tee heads out back to begin washing dishes. It isn't until his brother begs him to come to serve sometime later that Tee's Anxiety rears its head again. As he serves at the front counter, Elle comes in. After a daydream Tee has of saving Elle for a fall, she tries to talk to him, But with another episode beginning, Tee panics and runs out back.
Later that night while having a conversation with his brother, Tee finds a phone. After some deducing, he realises that it is Elle's phone that was dropped when she slipped earlier. He runs off to give it to her, with a newfound hope that he'll be able to talk to her.
Standing at Elle's front door, Tee has another daydream in which he gives Elle her phone back. But after hearing an argument going on inside, leaves and heads home. It isn't until he sees Elle on the footpath that he musters the courage to go down to the footpath and give Elle her phone back.
Genre
Anxie-Tee is a Coming-of-Age Drama
Theme and Subtext
This story faces many themes and has much in the way of subtext. Themes such as living with Mental Illness and Believing in yourself are all wrapped around major themes such as Love, Acceptance, Growing-Up, and individuality.
Description and Character Casting
Tee is a peculiar character to cast. While outside the house, Tee cares deeply and worries about what those around him and how they perceive him. This brings him to dress in a very neat manner, with combed hair and ironed clothes. While at home, however, Tee succumbs to his depressive state brought on by his lack of self-confidence, not doing his hair, wearing old disgusting clothes and not cleaning up after himself. At the heart of it, Tee is a genuinely nice boy, who the audience should really feel for and sympathise with. The role itself demands a lot of emotional range, however, as for most of the film, Tee is quite sullen, but that is contrasted by his daydream sequences where he is bright and warm.
Elle is a very different character. A young Woman in her early 20's Elle is rather rebellious in the way she projects herself to the world. Wearing a lot of darker clothes, she doesn't care what the world thinks about her. She dresses in a way that stays true to herself. She ties her hair up in a messy bun that is convenient and comfortable. She quickly gets frustrated and becomes uncomfortable when people try to help her or give her attention. This stems from her own lack of self-confidence, something which is in contrast to how she is perceived externally. The way she views the world has made her tough and untrusting, and she will treat Tee in the same way.
Screen Ratio
I imagine the film being shot at 2:35 and opening to 16:9 for the daydream sequences. This shows Tee's feeling for construction during his day to day life and how free he feels while daydreaming.
Colour Palette
The Colours would bounce between dark cool tones, blacks and blues, to show how Tee wallows in his world, and lots of bright and warm colours like yellow, orange and green to contrast in Tee’s daydreams.
Sound Design and Soundtrack
Music would play an extremely important role in this film. Lots of low tones to show how sullen Tee feels in his day to day life, contrasted with more uplifting happier tones in his daydreams. The soundscape is also extremely important as one of the most recurring devices that pulls Tee out of his daydreams are the sounds of the real world (eg. Horn honking, Argument, Customer shouting). These invade his daydreams and ground him, although muffled at the time. Sounds also are utilised to convey to the audience when Tee is having a panic attack and show how they can warp your senses.
Editing Style
The film will be split into 3 separate editing styles to represent Tee in his everyday life, Tee during panic attacks and Tee's Daydream world.
During his everyday life, invisible cuts will be used. It will be as normal to the real life as possible, using eye level shots to show the action and dialogue.
During Panic attack scenes, the editing will be jarring, with lots of quick cuts to disorientate the viewer into feeling a similar way to how Tee would feel.
During his daydreams, some shots will be filmed at 30 frames a second and rendered at 24, holding shots longer. This will give a dreamier feel to the scenes. Unless the daydream is meant to be realistic, in which case the longer shots will still be held.