Planning - Early Ideas for Main Task

I have had an idea for a while about making a film about a salesman. This is because the general thought about door to door salesmen is that they are annoying and want to trick you out of your money. But there is little/no thought about the individual that has the job. So I would like to show the contrast between how people treat a salesman when he is working and when he isn't.

This will have a voiceover being played through most of the film. I will open by showing lots of people angrily closing the door on him, while he explains in the voiceover that he is a salesman and not many people like him, etc. I will then move onto an evening when he has finished his job - he is sitting in a room with a few friends and they are all drinking and talking and having a good time, telling a story or two. Then they will start talking about how the salesman can't flirt effectively, yet he can talk to people on a daily basis doing what he does. This then opens the story up for a romantic comedy, feature length film.

There will be many similar films like this on the market, due to it being a hopeless man trying to get a girlfriend and this is the basis of many rom-coms. This means that there will be many films I can study and help me film the task.

This is the idea that I have finally settled on and started developing the idea for.



However, I had many other ideas such as:

• A teenage boy with super powers trying to get through a normal day. I decided to have everything sped up apart from the main character (when filming, the main character will be moving very slowly, when everything else is normal speed) this will highlight the difference between him and everyone else. there will also be a voiceover that explains to the viewer what the character is thinking.
• I thought about having a film about a character with a mental disorder, such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) or Schizophrenia. This will show an average day in life for them. For example, if I were to look at OCD, the main character could do the washing up, then reach for a towel that isn't there... Leading to him trying to come to terms with the fact that he will have to dry his hands on his shirt, or drip water through the house to get a towel (showing it through voiceover and video clips of what he is thinking about).
• I also thought about having the opening to a film about a man who commits suicide in the end... However, it will be a circular narrative and so will start with the suicide.
• A similar storyline to The Vow (2012). A person wakes up after being knocked unconscious and can't remember who they are, their husband/wife then tries to help them remember.
• A father is trying to get home to see his children, but things keep getting in his way - he is in a different country and the children are with his wife (they are going through a divorce).

I have decided against these for many different reasons such as: the possible complications in actors/actresses; or the possibility of offending someone; or even it just being an idea I like, but think I will lose interest quickly and not have the motivation to complete it to the best of my ability.