Saturday, 12 October 2013
To help develop my
story further, I’ve been doing some research into what films/stories and video
clips are out there that has a similar theme to the story that I’m creating.
The main video that
has influenced my story is of course the Casey Heynes Story.
What I like about this
Story is that in the video you can clearly see that Casey is backed against the
wall and does not want no trouble at all, but the protagonist, Richard, is
bullying Casey aggravating him to the point where Casey snaps picking Richard
up and slamming him on the ground in an act of self defence; but the story
doesn’t end there. What happens afterwards is Casey, a kid whom had no friends
at all, went from being a lonely kid to an internet sensation gaining thousands
of followers on different social media platforms, mainly multiple Facebook fan pages (click link)
and a fan made website (click link) and having also having a game, remixed video
clips and internet MEMES made
about him.
This is a game created as a result of the incidentThis is a remixed video clip
This is an animated remake of the incident
What really caught my
attention about this story is the major turning point that no one could expect,
not only did Casey stop the bullying, he also gained a lot of friends and
support in the process. As described
in his interview (2.24-2.34) nobody would hang around with him because of the
bullying, and where he was a loner he was an easy target to be bullied. So in a
way the plot to this story is a funny one where by, a kid whom has no friends
and is being bullied, by overcoming the hurdle of being bullied, in the end,
gains more friends and support than he could of ever imagined.
This story and the
character Casey is going to be the template on what I build my story off of,
where the protagonist in my story Phillip, is also being bullied and as a
result of it has no friends because they’re too scared to be around him in case
they too get caught up in the cross fire.
Another clip that I
came across that has a similar theme to my story is this one titled “Yob Chav
Thug Bully Gets His Come-Uppance”
unfortunately the Sun comic book (newspaper) does not allow
you to view online pages (articles) no more so i couldnt include the full story
What I like about this clip is that
the theme again, relates to the story that I’m creating, a protagonist
overcoming the antagonist, the victim beating his bully, a victory theme where
by the protagonist has accomplished their goal and is no longer going to be
bothered by their antagonist.
From watching this clip, we can
clearly see that the protagonist; Jason Smith, 35, does not want no trouble and
is standing his ground against the “local hard nut” protagonist, Les Andrews,
23. When we look at the set location design, we notice that Jason must’ve had
some trouble before, because, the windowpane on his door is covered by a wooden
board (0:53 on footage). As the
footage reaches its climax at 1.15 we see that Jason Smith is left with no
other choice but to defend himself and his home. Unaware of the type of
character that he is because of how calm he’s kept himself, we are unsure if
Jason will be able to beat the antagonist Les Andrews, until, the major turning
point happens when he lands a punch on Les dropping him to the ground.
It’s pretty much a clear narrative,
in the sense that the way how Les is behaving, he did not know that Jason Smith
was actually an ex soldier and an expert in two forms of martial arts, hence
Les having so much confidence because he thought he was dealing with a nobody.
Once Jason stood up for himself you can clearly see that Les’s whole attitude/behaviour
had changed, he was shocked as he crawled out of Jason’s front yard and his
friend closes the gate.
The key thing that I kept my eye on
in this clip is the way that the bully is behaving, its classic bullying
symptoms. The ‘strong’ trying to pick on the ‘weak’ a power-hunger fiend whom
thrives on the fear of the weaker victim, a good explanation I found on a
website that pretty much fits Les Andrews description “self-opinionated and
displays arrogance, audacity, a superior sense of entitlement and sense of
invulnerability and untouchability” we can clearly see this whilst watching the
footage, and its something that I’m going to try and model my bully/antagonist
off of.
The last footage that I’m going to
show you is from an old film called “A Christmas Story”.
I especially love this film because
of the way in which the bully Scut Farkus and his crony Grover Dill, and also
the victims Ralphie Parker and his friends are portrayed; it’s perfect.
In the first footage it establishes
whom the main bully is Scut Farkus, we see that he is predominantly a bigger
lad then the other kids which would indicate that he’s older than all of them,
we’re also introduced to his crony Grover dill whom is Scut’s side kick, always
looking to get some sort of acknowledgment off of Scut and most likely takes
orders from him especially where he’s smaller than Scut. The victims, Ralphie
and his friends are smaller than Scut, which indicates to us that they’re
younger and also inferior to him. With bullying this is a common trait, to pick
on those they assume are ‘weaker’ than them.
On the second footage we clearly see
and understand why the turning point Is happening having watched the first
clip, when Ralphie snaps and stands up for himself, the bullies, Scut and his
crony Grover are shocked, where they’re used to being the aggressor they’re not
accustomed to being challenged as we can see when Grover tried to pull Ralphie
off of Scut and gets shoved away, resulting in him running away threatening to
tell his dad on Ralphie. Ralphie, standing up to the bullying, resulted in Scut
and Grover no longer troubling him and his friends.
The main reason I’ve look at this
clip is because, with bullies, they tend to have a side kick, or a group of
friends with them to help feed their ego and carry out the bullying. Which Is
what I also want to include in my short film, the main protagonist Shaun and
his group of friends/crony’s/side kicks to help him carry out the bullying,
with Shaun being the boss, the main man the rest of his minions take orders off
of, the alpha male of his wolf pack.
Another reason that I’ve took a
liking to this clip is because of something that the narrator Ralphie being
voiced over by Jean Shepherd said at 1.18
"Randy lay there like a slug! It was his only defence!”
I particularly like this specific
sentence because, it’s true to most victims of bullying; they feel as though if
they don’t do anything, it will make the situation eventually go away.
Conclusion
So yea, doing this research has
definitely helped me to build upon my idea and strengthen it in regards to the
characteristics of the characters involved in my story, hopefully from it I’ll
be able to write a decent story.
