Treatment

Format: Film Title: The Arrangement Running Time: 2 minutes

Beginning

It begins with a girl reading a horror story based on a teacher who murders her students. Through her stereotypical blonde image we establish she lacks intelligence and therefore believes that the book is the story of her life. Because she has spent so much time reading the book, she is late handing in her homework, and when giving into the teacher late and the teacher re-acts badly, her suspicions become stronger. She then gets a group of characters (who are stereotypically found in a comedy based in a school) to work together to sabotage the teacher’s “plan”.

MiddleAfter planning for months the gang decides that their efforts to sabotage the teacher is affecting their studies. They gradually all drop out when realizing that Sophie was just being selfish by getting them involved. Sophie is left alone with her paranoia and begins to doubt herself. At this point the audience sees a change in her character, as she is no longer getting her way. The characters fall back into their normal school lives, as if they had never been a part of the team in the first place.

ResolutionAfter all being put into detention for failing their classes, they admit to each other that they have all still been individually trying to find out information about the teacher. They decide to all become a team again and discover a way to hack into the teacher’s emails, where they find an email between the teacher and Sophie’s dad. They all realize that the teacher’s hatred towards Sophie was due to jealousy because Sophie was closer to her dad than she ever was.

EndingMiss Graham privately tutors Sophie to help her catch up on her work. Sophie is now able to form a real friendship with the others, is passing her exams, and spending time with her half-sister Miss Graham. This new arrangement also benefits Miss Graham as it allows her to spend time with her father.

Main Character Profile

Sophie

Physical image: Blonde hair connotes unintelligence, naivety and innocence.Personality traits and background : Bratty and ditsy. She lives in a perfect world and is loved by everyone, which explains her paranoia when MS Graham is harsh on her. Her parents are divorced so both spoil her therefore she is used to getting her

way.

Lola

Physical image: She wears glasses, stereotypically suggesting that she is studious and cares more about her grades than she does her social life. She always wears her hair tied back to illustrate that she doesn't like to break the rules of the science lab, where she spends most of her time.

Personality traits and background: Lola and Sophie have been in the same class since reception but Sophie had never paid any attention to her. She has never been bullied but has never had any real friends, except for her imaginary friend Ella who she occasionally talks to and sits next to in every class. Her parents and teachersCarla don't pay her much attention because they know what a good student she is, but really underestimate just how much she can do with chemicals.

Physical Traits: Carla always looks angry. She has a scary image and her fists are always clenched, representing that she is the school bully. When she walks she moves side to side, knocking everyone out of her way.

Personality traits and background: She often snarls are people when she doesn't want to talk to them, mainly because she doesn't know how to hold a proper conversation. Carla has grown up with three brothers so has learnt to be tough and unemotional when hurt. She used to have a best friend in year 5 but ended up accidentally putting her in hospital when she landed on her on the trampoline in her back garden. Since then Carla has kept her distance from girls and the only people she speaks to are the boys on the rugby team. She bully's younger years to hide the fact that she is lonely and desperately wants friends.

Joe

Physical Traits: He has brown hair and is very big headed, however lacks intelligence. All the girls fancy him and all the boys suck up to him. He always wears a football top to represent that he is sporty... and a winner

Personality traits and background:He looks down on everyone as he comes from a very wealthy family and like Sophie always receives what he wishes for. He has been dating Sophie for a few months, however is known for being a bit of a player and changes his girlfriend’s frequently.

Certification

We are going to use 15 certification as there is mention of murder therefore it could be upsetting to children, meaning they should have a parent or guardian in their

presence. Also there will be minor sexual references but will not be inappropriate for children aged 15 and over. Our certification is a 15 because we will have mild language in it, this will be when the group are together and are failing to find out

information about Ms Graham.

Audience

We are targeting our film at teenagers of both genders, but mostly females due to the primary character being female as they will be able to relate to the character. As our certification is 12, the age group we are aiming our film at are twelve to twenty-

five year olds. Teenagers will be able to relate to the main characters as they are also teenagers and the twenty-five year olds and below may be able to relate to the

teachers as they are of similar ages.

Target audience

Our teenage target audience will be attracted to watch our film because they will be able to identify with the characters (uses and gratification theory). For example, our teenage target audience of females will be attracted to watch our film as they will want to identify with Sophie, the protagonist, because of the clothes she wears. Our teenage target audience will be able to socially interact with their other teenage friends about our film (uses and gratification theory), this will result in our film having a mass target audience of teenagers. Our teenage target audience will be attracted to watch our film as the female audience will enjoy the chick flick genre of it, due to it being stereotypically popular amongst girls. The comedy genre of our film will appeal to the male target audience because it will offer them entertainment (uses and gratification theory). A male target audience is known to stereotypically enjoy watching films from the comedy genre therefore, they will be attracted to watch our film. A teenage target audience will stereotypically enjoy listening to pop music as it has connotations of youth, because of this, we will be including pop music in our opening titles.

Key scene breakdown

Scene 1: Sophie's RoomThis scene is set in Sophie's bedroom. It has no dialogue but introduces the girly nature of the character (as the room is covered in pink, girly items). There is an extreme close-up shot of the clock which reads 19:00. Another close-up shot of a page titled “English Homework”; from this blank page the audience understands that Sophie hasn't done her homework. A wide shot then shows Sophie is sitting up in bed reading a book called “Troublesome Teacher”. Then a close up of the book; this is the book about a teacher who kills his students and as Sophie continues to

read she becomes more and more scared. There is then another extreme close up of the clock which reads 21:30. There is then a wide shot of the bedroom as Sophie turns the page. Cut back to the clock which now reads 00:00 and as it pans out into an establishing shot of the room the audience see that it has become much darker and Sophie is now quivering under her duvet. As the reads the last page there is an extreme close up of her worried face and a disturbing sound effect of screams.

Scene 2: The school gatesIt cuts to a p.o.v shot of someone coming through the school gates. There are clear groups all standing outside school (and as the camera pans across each of them, the shot pauses on one character of which will be a part of the team); the “geeks” (pauses on Lola), the “jocks” (pauses on Joe) the Goths, the bully (pauses on Carla, who is scaring away some year 7's) and then the “popular girls” (Sophie comes running into shot looking stressed compared to her giggling friends. Sophie is holding the book in one hand and her English homework in the other. One friend says “Soph that was meant to be in like a whole 10 minutes and 6 seconds ago”. Sophie replies saying “I know! I just got so carried away reading this book I had to finish it this morning!” and then runs off in a panic to find her teacher.

Scene 3: The staffroomEstablishing shot of the staffroom in which there are four teachers sitting around, one being MS Graham. They are discussing students when Sophie's name comes up. MS Graham says that her grades are falling and she is keeping up with the work. Another teacher suggests that MS Graham should be more harsh on Sophie and to stop cutting her slack and allowing her excuses... when Sophie comes bursting in (shown in a mid-shot). She hands her homework to MS Graham and says “sorry it's late I had stuff to do? “And then continues towards the door. MS Graham stops Sophie in her tracks saying “it better not be late next time!” In a p.o.v shot (from MS Graham) Sophie slowly turns around. Cut to Sophie's p.o.v as MS Graham says “if there is a next time”. At this point the lighting turns dark. Sophie's p.o.v is a low angle shot making MS Graham look intimidating. Sophie runs out screaming.

Scene 4: The Cafeteria Establishing shot of the empty cafeteria. As the camera pans round there is one table full of people. On the table sits Lola, Joe, Carla (who all look un amused) and Sophie. In a mid-shot, tight frame, Sophie explains that her teacher is trying to kill her and after much persuasion gets them to agree to help her. This scene ends on a close up shot of Sophie saying the lines “ok, so here's what we've got to do...”