An Englishman's Castle is his Home

Write a short script for a film to last between 5 and10 minutes. You also need to write an analysis and justification of around 1500 words, of the elements and structure used in the script, explaining why it CHALLENGES and FURTHER DEVELOPS the norms of the form. Your script should be in standard script format (using e.g. Celtx software and saved as a pdf), but can also include stills and visual material. The film should be based on ONE of the following themes: A Very Personal Tragedy; Getting Religion; An Englishman’s Home is his Castle; or A Holiday Romance.

FADE IN: INT. SHOE SHOP IN SHOPPING CENTRE. DAY Two young shoe shop staff talking quietly, one of them alert and energetic (1) and the other dopey, spotty and monotone (2) SHOP ASSISTANT 1 Thats the third time this month that i couldn’t find the shoe they wanted. SHOP ASSISTANT 2 I know mate tell me about it. SHOP ASSISTANT 1 I mean like they’re not exactly unusual shoes either. SHOP ASSISTANT 2 Yeah Nike Airmax white, we just got a delivery of them didn’t we, i don’t get how their all gone. Behind the two talking through the shop window a tramp is slowly pushing his trolley past poking his head up here and there trying to peer in. He is almost tip towing trying his best not to bring attention to himself. His trolley is filled with white Nikes and he’s wearing clean new red Brogues but with one of them missing its laces and a red hat. SHOP ASSISTANT 1 Im starting to wonder if there’s something funny going on you know. I took a stocktake of the Ted Baker red Brogues last week and there were four. Asked around and only one member of staff recalls selling a pair since then. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: 2. SHOP ASSISTANT 2 Ye. SHOP ASSISTANT 1 Did a bit of digging and went through the receipts and it was only the one that had been sold. SHOP ASSISTANT 2 Right. SHOP ASSISTANT 1 But checked today and they’re all gone, you reckon i should bring it up with the manager or the owner? SHOP ASSISTANT 2 Na wouldn’t bother mate probably wont make a difference anyway. SHOP ASSISTANT 1 Yea i suppose. Behind them the tramp has moved past the window out of sight. CUT TO: INT. SHOPPING CENTRE GROUND FLOOR. DAY An old and friendly drunken tramp is wheeling his trolley towards the exit of the shopping centre, dozens of shoes, empty bottles and a cat occupy the basket producing strange looks from passer-by’s. A shopping centre security guard comes up to him. SECURITY GUARD Sorry your going to have to leave the shopping centre i’m afraid. MACABEES Right you are good Sir on my way out as you speak. The approaching light of the eastern opening beckons me. SECURITY GUARD Right. The security guard makes a strange look before briskly leaving the tramp alone. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: 3. MACABEES He may be laughing now Uncle Ben but soon we will return sheathed under the cloak of darkness. Macabees cat who is called Uncle Ben reply’s. Uncle Ben is not a magical talking cat but Macabees thinks that this is in fact the case. UNCLE BEN Right you are Sir come seven o.clock we shall be back to our castle. CUT TO: OUT. OUTSIDE SHOPPING CENTRE ENTRANCE. NIGHT The entrance to the shopping centre is shut due to it being later than seven o.clock. MACABEES Our enemy has blockaded the entrance to our fortress, with urgency and brawn we must make our way through the secret tunnel. Carry my bags Uncle Ben. UNCLE BEN But i am a mere feline you drunken fool. MACABEES Fine i will carry them myself but i ask you not to speak so harshly to your master. Macabees and Uncle ben climb into the ventilation system Macabees carrying his bin bags as he crawls through the tunnel arguing with Uncle Ben. UNCLE BEN In Egypt it would be me whom would be master MACABEES Some days i wish i was rid of you Uncle Ben UNCLE BEN But then who’d you talk to? (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: 4. MACABEES Myself! UNCLE BEN Nothing would change then! MACABEES What? UNCLE BEN (meow) Macabees groans and has a big swig of his rum. CUT TO: INT. SHOE SHOP IN SHOPPING CENTRE. NIGHT The companions emerge from the ventilation system and drop into the shoe shop then walk to the store room MACABEES Its good to be home at last, a goblet of wine Uncle Ben? UNCLE BEN Dont mind if i do. Macabees pours some Lambreeni into two Timberland Boots before giving one to Uncle Ben. MACABEES This is what i love about my abode, the luxuries of good drink and good company. MACABEES TURNS THE RADIO ON AND JAZZ TUNE STARTS TO PLAY AS HE BREAKS INTO SONG MACABEES (M SINGING DRUNKENLY) An Englishman’s home is his castle, an Englishman’s home is his castle, pass me that wine because when in Rome, an Englishman’s castle is his home UNCLE BEN (U.B SINGING DRUNKENLY) We have all we need in this shopping mall, and we will drink it all till we fall, pass me that wine because when in Rome, an Englishman’s castle is his home (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: 5. GOES INTO MONTAGE CUT TO: INT. CINEMA. NIGHT Macabees and Uncle Ben watching snoopy in the cinema MACABEES (M SINGING DRUNKENLY) When we want to watch a film we go to vue, when we want to wash we go to the disabled loo, when we want to call a friend we use the shop phone because an Englishman’s castle is his home The radio fizzles out. Returns to shop CUT TO: INT. SHOE SHOP IN SHOPPING CENTRE. NIGHT MACABEES Oh yes and perhaps the biggest benefit of living here is that i never ever have a shortage of shoes to wear. UNCLE BEN Thats true. MACABEES And when one pair gets dirty i will simply wear another and so-on and so-on. UNCLE BEN Doesn’t really help you on the streets though does it you idiot. MACABEES How do you mean!? They make me look very respectable. UNCLE BEN My point exactly! Who in their right mind would give money to a homeless man wearing Gucci Loafers!? (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: 6. MACABEES Im not homeless! This is my home! Besides i prefer Dior, Gucci have yet to provide a shoe with pebble grain leather of a high enough standard for me to accommodate. UNCLE BEN Why don’t you sell them then you could feed me more often!? MACABEES Sell them! Never in a hundred years will i purposefully diminish my collection! UNCLE BEN You wont have a collection soon if you keep parading around in stolen shoes. Someone will find out about us living here then what? MACABEES Ahh not to worry my friend i have already been eyeing up potential residencies in the event of our relocation and have sighted a clarks up on floor 2. Ahh yes on the topic of floor 2 i need to make a visit to the shop called tie rack. UNCLE BEN Why? MACABEES I need to acquire an item of clothing. UNCLE BEN A tie? MACABEES Yes and a rack. UNCLE BEN Of course. (he says sarcastically) MACABEES The tie in question is an Alexander McQueen red bow tie. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: 7. UNCLE BEN And the rack? MACABEES A rack is a rack you silly cat now lets be off on our venture. Uncle Ben shakes his head CUT TO: INT. IN SHOPPING CENTRE. NIGHT Maccabees is holding Uncle Ben as he Rollerblades quickly through the shopping centre. He has fighter pilot goggles on. MACABEES (With a raised voice) Uncle Ben we must think of a plan to enter this fortress. UNCLE BEN Through the air vents like we usually do? MACABEES Good but our target is occupied by a very small and troublesome dwarf whom goes by the name of Lord Cravatat Steinkirk. UNCLE BEN Arn’t dwarves inherently small? MACABEES Iv’e seen many a dwarf in my day Uncle Ben and he is by far the smallest one i have set my eyes upon. CUT TO: INT. IN SHOPPING CENTRE OUTSIDE TIE RACK. NIGHT Maccabees and Uncle Ben approach Tie Rack and a very small dwarf tramp wearing cravat is standing leaning up against the window playing with a yoyo. CRAVATAT (After doing a trick with his yoyo and dropping it into his top pocket he talks sinisterly in a thick Birmingham accent) (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: 8. Eh Maccabees! Been a long time since you’ve graced Floor Two with your presence. MACABEES I have been busy working Cravatat you annoying imp! CRAVATAT Working! Haha don’t kid yourself Macabees you haven’t worked a day in your life. MACABEES (Utters quietly to Uncle Ben) No-ones said that to me since boarding school! UNCLE BEN (Utters back) In a different context i’m sure, although either way you should of taken their advice. MACABEES (To Cravatat) I hear you possess a red bow tie. CRAVATAT Ahh so this is what brings you here, it does so happen that i do. How about this, i give you the bow tie if you can pass my riddle. Macabees and Uncle Ben look at each other. MACABEES Okay i take you up on that offer! CRAVATAT You have till my watch strikes 5 past midnight. MACABEES Whats the time now? Just as he says this a big sound echo’s through the shopping centre as a far away clock strikes 12. There is an awkward silence as the clock chimes 12 times. MACABEES Ahh i see, go on then. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: 9. CRAVATAT Poor people have it. Rich people need it. If you eat it you die. Macabees thinks for a long time MACABEES (Macabees sighs and utters to Uncle Ben) I don’t know! More time passes as Macabees gets more and more frantic CRAVATAT You have one minute left. MACABEES (Continuing) i just can’t think! CRAVATAT Thirty seconds. UNCLE BEN (uttering to Macabees) Ive got nothing. MACABEES (To Uncle Ben hopelessly) No me neither. Nothing. (He says to Cravatat loudly and in an annoyed way) Nothing! CRAVATAT What? MACABEES (frustrated and upset) I said Nothing! Cravatat makes a long pause CRAVATAT (Surprised and annoyed) your right. MACABEES What? CRAVATAT (continuing) You got it. How did you get it! (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: 10. Macabees and Uncle Ben look at each other in a confused way. CRAVATAT Poor people have nothing. rich people need nothing and if you eat nothing you die. MACABEES (Trying to go along with it) Right yes nothing is the answer. Macabees and Uncle Ben look at each other trying not to laugh. CRAVATAT I am a man of my word here it is. Cravatat pulls the red bow tie out of his pocket and gives it to Macabees. MACABEES Have you got a tie rack? CRAVATAT Many have heard me, but no-one has seen me, and i will not speak until spoken to. What am.. Maccabees interupts puts on bow tie on and walks away. MACABEES (Interrupting and Leaving) Ahh fuck it i don’t need one. CRAVATAT (shouting after them) No don’t go! You haven’t answered the question! (Echoing) Don’t go! Don’t go! Don’t go! Go! Go! Go1 UNCLE BEN (Walking away looking up at Uncle Ben) Echo! MACABEES What? UNCLE BEN Many have heard me, but no-one has seen me, and i will not speak until spoken to. Echo. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: 11. CUT TO: INT. SHOE SHOP IN SHOPPING CENTRE. DAY Next day shop assistant 1 and 2 talking amongst each other. SHOP ASSISTANT 1 You look down mate. SHOP ASSISTANT 2 Na i’m alright the manager just told me off thats all. SHOP ASSISTANT 1 Thought you didn’t care what he thought? SHOP ASSISTANT 2 I don’t care what he thinks i just don’t like being accused doing stuff i didn’t do! Maccabees now wearing his red bow tie and white Nike’s is outside the shop window with a trolley full of shoes and bottles peering in. SHOP ASSISTANT 1 What did he accuse you of doing? SHOP ASSISTANT 2 Said iv’e was drinking on the job yesterday cos the store room smelled of alcohol. SHOP ASSISTANT 1 What? SHOP ASSISTANT 2 I know and if that wasn’t enough he then accused me of vandalising our boots by pouring wine into them! Maccabees parks his trolley up and enters the shop holding the red brogues and starts to approach the two shop assistants. Uncle Ben is left in the trolley but is looking in. SHOP ASSISTANT 1 Thats ridiculous, i can’t believe he... Maccabees interrupts the two’s conversation unaware that they are talking about what was actually his doing the previous night. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: 12. MACABEES (Maccabees interrupting) Excuse me gentlemen. Shop assistant 1 turns a little of his attention onto Maccabees whilst not taking any time to inspect him. SHOP ASSISTANT 1 Yes hi what can i do for you sir? MACABEES Could one please help me find some new laces for these shoes? SHOP ASSISTANT 1 Certainly sir il get some for you now. (turns to shop assistant 2) We’l speak more in a sec. Shop assistant 1 walks to the store cupboard and Macabees starts talking to shop assistant 2. MACABEES You seem rather down old chap. SHOP ASSISTANT 2 (Hesitatingly tells this stranger his problem) Trouble with the manager. MACABEES Take it higher. Take it up with the owner thats what i would do. SHOP ASSISTANT 2 Never seen him, no-one has. Shop assistant 1 comes back with the laces and all three go to the till together. MACABEES Ahh thankyou very much the both of you. Maccabees hands shop assistant 1 a pound or so in coppers before pointing at a timberland boot. MACABEES Great boot that one there. Good for drinking out of. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: 13. Maccabees walks off. The Shop Assistants carry on fiddling about at the till and then after a pause look at each other in a confused way. CUT TO: INT. SHOPPING CENTRE GROUND FLOOR. DAY Maccabees pushing the trolley with Uncle Ben inside towards the exit the same route he was at the beginning. UNCLE BEN Why did you pay them? MACABEES What do you mean? UNCLE BEN Why did you pay them for the laces? MACABEES Well i couldn’t steal them could i? UNCLE BEN (Snaps back loud voice) Maccabees you own the bloody shop. Long pause. Maccabees has a confused expression on his face which then changes into an expression of realization. MACABEES Oh yes i keep forgetting. END

Analysis and Justification

When writing my script I tried to put into practise what I had learned from screenwriting books and manuals. I’ve read about Robert Mckee’s terminology and elements of plot and narrative that he talked about in his book Story. I made sure to utilise as many changes as I could in my script but knew that it’s not the volume of changes which drives the story forward but more how the conflicts are built up into scenes, sequences and acts so that when the story climax comes usually in the last scene of the last act a absolute and irreversible change happens (1998, p.42). My story climax was in the last scene and I hoped to tie up any suspicions viewers had about the method behind Maccabees sentimentality about the shop. We are presented with an absolute and irreversible change when Uncle Ben tells Maccabees that he in fact owns the shoe shop. This change (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: 14. reverses the main story value of the script. The story value is Mckee’s way of explaining how ’the universal qualities of human experience... may shift from positive to negative’ (1998, p.34). Maccabees negative story value throughout the story is he not really owning any thing so when the story climax comes it reverses this value. It also solves the mystery of the unknown shop owner and provides the viewer with a hint of a backstory to Maccabees. However this absolute and irreversible change is not necessarily going to be remembered by Maccabees however. Therefore the ending provides revelation, a reversal of values yet also because of the nature of Maccabees these can be forgotten which keeps him in this bubble where his adventures and epiphanies can keep occurring. Now I will discuss my script in relation to Mckee’s story triangle which is made up of ’archplot, ’miniplot’ and ’antiplot’. The elements that define ’archplot’ are a causality, closed ending, linear time, external conflict, single protagonist and a consistent reality (1998 P.45). The ’antiplot’ is characterised by coincidence, non-linear time and inconsistent realities that reverses the ’archplot’s’ traits. A ’miniplot’ economises on simplicity drawing on only four elements: open ending, internal conflict, multi-protagonists and passive protagonists. I have identified my script a mainly a ’miniplot’ but with elements of ’antiplot’ coming through (1998. P.46). The multiple protagonists in my script are Maccabees, uncle ben and the shop-keepers. The passive protagonist is Macabees because of his detachment and non-participation with the workings and conflicts of the outer world, this being both the world outside his delusions, the world outside the shopping centre and finally the world outside the tramp community. He doesn’t ’take conflict with the people and the world around him’ but he is ’outwardly inactive while pursuing desire inwardly, in conflict with aspects of his... nature’(1998. P.50). Another part of Robert Mckee’s criteria for ’miniplot’ is internal conflict. My script doesn’t draw emphasis on Macabees external conflicts with the forces of the physical world neither does he have many rather he shows a grappling with his own sanity, delusions and identity. A good example of this is his confusion in his identity as a homeless man besides his identity as a shop owner. The latters presumption has an ambiguity in its authenticity due to the assertion coming from his subconscious. This being because inherently due to his subconscious residing in his subjectively existent cat it is not the most reliable of sources for information. Likewise this complexity of his personality obliviously existing in a cat is both a signifier of his unhinged identity and his phantasmagoria. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: 15. Underneath all this is his hierarchical cockiness presented in his relationship with his cat who is in his eyes is a bit like his butler. This alongside his knowledge and ownership of luxurious shoes and other accessories gives him the assumption that he is almost like a country gentlemen which is obviously another big delusion. The open ending is evident when Uncle Ben tells him that he is the shop owner of the shoe shop but we know neither if this is true or if he will forget this information again and so the ending is ambiguous as an actual realization or conclusion. The part that adheres to Mckee’s criteria for ’antiplot’ is the existence of an inconsistent reality. Mckee states that ’inconsistent realities’ are settings that mix modes of interaction so that the story’s episodes jump inconsistently from one ”reality” to another to create a sense of absurdity’ (1998. P55). In my script Uncle Ben the cat can speak words throughout the film. This provides the viewer with the assumption that he is either a magical talking cat like one found in a Children’s story or other viewers may think that considering Maccabees zaniness, homelessness and alcohol abuse that his voice is a figment of his imagination. Here the viewer has two realities depending on what they want to see or perhaps depending on how young they are. Subjective to Maccabees in the story because of his delusions is his reality that Uncle Ben is a real talking cat and not the product of an auditory hallucination. Both the viewers and Maccabees realities are broken momentarily in my script, when Uncle Ben questions whom Maccabees would have to talk to if he wasn’t there. When Maccabees says that he would have himself to talk to Uncle Ben replies with ’nothing would change then’ before meowing, at this moment the viewers reality in the story and Maccabees reality becomes temporarily fractured. Up until that point some viewers thought Uncle Ben was a magical talking cat but now they are confronted with the realization that this might just be Maccabees delusion. This allows the genre of the film to sway from children’s story to a dark piece on ’ideational structures’ (1998. P.55) of mans sanity and loneliness to both at the same time. The other viewers reality that Maccabees is too far gone down the path of delirium that he would never see Uncle Ben as a standard non-talking cat is broken because this idea comes into his head, shown by the way he can hear the meow. Maccabees reality is broken obviously because he sees what his cat really is or perhaps in his mind he momentarily hallucinates unbeknownst to the fact that he has been hallucinating all along and this is actually real. He soon puts a stop to this by having another swig of his rum and the story continues with his delusions restored and this is a perfect example of an inconsistent reality. Finally I would like to add that another way of looking at the meow is (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: 16. that Uncle Ben is just joking with him and this would mean there is ambiguity in if an inconsistent reality exists in the plot at all. I believe that I’ve challenged and further developed the norm of the ’miniplot’ by including this element of ’antiplot’ because by adding many overlapping inconsistent realities it results in an uncertainty of what is real and what is not that reverberates throughout all of the plot. This strengthens elements of the ’miniplot’ by exaggerating the ambiguity of the open ending and adding depth to Macabees internal conflicts by creating embodiments of his psyche that he riddles with, denies and resurrects. The chaotic nature of the plots inconsistent reality’s echoes Macabees sanity. I believe I have achieved in creating a world ’in which not only are events atemporal, coincidental, fragmented, and chaotic, but characters do not operate within a recognizable psychology.’ (1998. P.55) Blake Snyder’s book Save The Cat is a self-proclaimed manual that was written to explain in simple terms the structure which should be used in populist Hollywood. Snyder says how the opening image should show the tone, mood, type and scope of the film. Maccabees is shown as the mystery shoe thief who is right under the nose of the shoe shop who lives in the shopping centre after dark. This is a funny introduction to his character which sets the genre as a light hearted comedy, It also gives the viewer the idea that this film is about what Maccabees gets up to outside of conventional society, an almost fairy tale land which is distanced from normal life. Snyder says that a ’before’ snapshot should be contrasted with an ’after’ snapshot in the matching beat which is the final scene (2005, P.72). In my script in the opening scene Maccabees is wearing red brogues but without laces and in the second last scene of the script he is wearing his red tie and he has purchased some laces. In Snyder’s ideal formula he proposes six things that would need to be fixed (2005, P75) in my story none of them are. The shop assistants are still disgruntled employees, the shoes will still be kept taking, Maccabees is more obvious when he walks in the shop at the end than when he did at the beginning and although we find out that he does in fact own the shop this information is either unreliable, a joke or is information which Maccabees will soon forget. I didn’t make any resolve to these faults because I wanted the faults to be a part of our hero’s life that won’t change. Despite from him gaining the odd accessory I don’t want anything fundamental to his lifestyle to be gained or lost because I want each day for Maccabees to be like the last almost like he’s in this endless cycle with a new adventure every night. Bibliography (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: 17. Mckee, R. (1998) Story: Substance, Structure, Style and Principles of Screenwriting. Methuen. Snyder, B. (2005) Save the Cat: The last book on screenwriting you’ll ever need. Michael Wiese Production.