My first writing and further development of idea - ROUGH

 



I thought it would be best if I just started writing, I know my basic story line but I'm struggling how to write the beginning, the middle and the end. Therefore, If I start writing I can slowly but surely keep developing my writing.

 

Below are a few pages where I started writing the beginning. This is a very, very rough way of helping me plan and sometimes I like writing in pencil because I can freely scribble that's why the writing is in a mess. But I felt that as I wrote, my mind just gathered more ideas as I went along and I just carried on writing until I came to a stop.  

 

These pages are ideas of how I could start the beginning of my script. I had the idea of the gardener, Benjamin, leaving Jenny notes but as I wrote this very short rough draft I changed this idea and instead after they meet he starts leaving her gifts.

 

Through this writing exercise I have a had a few more ideas for my script:

• Jenny visits the garden everyday and walks her dog.
• She sits under a large oak tree where her husbands are buried under a square plaque on the ground.
• As she sits under the oak tree she stares at the beautiful, sparkling lake opposite.
• The dog is used as a sort of 'ice breaker' in the script. In some way the dog is a tool to get the two characters talking and meeting.
• After their first meeting or several meetings he starts leaving gifts for her under the oak tree
• These gifts are yet to be known.
• I need to write more about how she receives these gifts, does she appreciate them? Or does she refuse them?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Film P.S I Love You

So far I have made notes on :

• A woman (Jennifer) visits her husbands buried ashes
• The gardener/ maintenance man bumps into her one day and realises she comes everyday
• They talk to each other and see each other more often and he starts leaving notes by where she sits
• The notes ask Jennifer to meet him at different places.
• He helps her to over come her fear of being lonely and sad.
• Do they just build a friendship?

 

 

 

P.S I Love You - Film Similarity?

The last few days I have been thinking about my storyline and the film P.S I love You (2007) directed by Richard LaGravenese. I read the book written by Cecelia Ahern a few years ago before the film was released and I absolutely fell in love the story. It's a romantic story about a young widow who loses her husband to cancer and when he passes she discovers that he has left 10 messages over the course of a year to help ease her pain and help her move on. When I read the book and watched the film, the storyline had such an effect on my emotions, I cried hysterically, I was laughing and at the end of the film I was smiling. It is a lovely story that really touches the audience.

 

 

 

 

I thought of this film because it made think of how I would build the relationship of  my two characters. I thought of the gardener leaving messages by the spot where the widow goes to visit everyday and eventually this helps her to come out if the shell she is hiding in. In my mind I can imagine Benjamin the gardener is a bit more forward and talkative whereas, the widow, Jenny is shy, uninterested and lonely.

 

Target Audience

The film P.S I Love You targets an older female audience as it's heavily romantic and about AN adult woman who fights through her struggles of losing her husband. However, it's also comical therefore, I would say it's a lovely film to watch as a family.   

 

I think the target audience for my film would be older teenagers, adults and possibly older adults too as the story I am planning on writing a script about is about moving on in life after the death of a loved one, therefore,  older people can relate to this. 

 

This is also the reason for why I have chosen to make my characters older in their 50's to appeal to an older audience.

 

Questions for myself...

What I need to think about more is, does Jenny push the gardener away? Is what the gardener is doing inappropriate towards her? Is there a problem between the two characters before the ending. And how will it end?

 

 

Developing my idea - Characters

 As I feel I have a good setting for my script, I started to think about my characters as this will help me develop a narrative. My initial idea that came to me is two people meeting at this beautiful place. I had this idea of a woman going to the cemetery to visit her husband often and she meets the gardener / maintenance man of the place. I started to branch other ideas out of this idea I had, would they become friends? Do you become lovers?

These are notes I made:

Characters are Jenny (Jennifer) and Benjamin, a widow and the gardener of the burial meadow, both in their fifties.

I'm not sure how I would like to structure this story or how it will end. Part of me doesn't want the two people to fall for each other, I would like the gardener to help Jennifer  try and move on from mourning her husband as it has been a few years. Maybe throughout the script they develop a friendship that helps her overcome her fear of being a lone. As I think more about this idea, I want the outcome of the story to be a happy one, a feel-good feeling for the audience / readers.

Inspirational Photographs

These photographs below are ones I have taken myself of Clandon Natural Burial Cemetery in Surrey. The photographs inspired me to think of have a setting like this in my script.  

I have actually done research online to see if there are other natural burial gardens like the one I have visited and there are so many links to websites of the places. I looked at photographs on these websites and they are very similar meadows to the photographs I took, fields of grass, trees and flowers. I feel I can really picture the garden in my head where the two people meet and I could be quite creative when creating my two minute animation in iClone.

Another Idea - Inspiration for a setting

The last few days I have been thinking about a storyline for my script. I have actually struggled a lot more than I thought I would. However, the fact that I new I wanted to write a quite realistic story made me think of things that have happened the past few years to me. There were points that I thought of that I might want to write about such as, two people meeting and building a friendship or relationship.

 

A few days ago I was looking through old photographs on my laptop and came across these absolutely beautiful photographs of a natural burial cemetery close by to where I live in Surrey. This cemetery is a beautiful meadow that has grown naturally with a large lake sitting in the middle, a peaceful place where people bury their loved ones ashes.  

 

I go there often to visit, it's a happy, peaceful place where people can walk around, take family, friends and their dogs and feel the loving atmosphere. I took a few photographs in the summer for my family when we last visited as it's absolutely stunning in the summer, the meadow is covered in flowers and tall green grass and the lake sparkles in the sun.

 

 Looking over these photographs again made me remember how beautiful this place was and made me think of possibly having this as the setting in my script. As I new I wanted to write about two people who met, I thought I could use this as the setting in my script, as visually in my mind I could picture two people meeting in the calm, sad but also happy and loving place.