Screenplay

BLACKSCREEN – MUSIC FADES IN – INT – NIGHT: OUR PROTAGONIST SITS AT HIS DESK, DRINKING HIS SORROWS AWAY. HE STARES AT AN ENVELOPE THAT SAYS “LATE ALIMONY, MUST PAY”. HE IS MID 30’S AND IS WEARING A CRUMPLED SHIRT AND TIE WITH A LARGE BROWN MOLE ON HIS NECK. HIS HAIR IS SCRUFFY AND HE LOOKS LIKE HELL. IT IS CLEAR THAT HE HASN’T WASHED. HE SIPS AT HIS WHISKEY. THE PHONE RINGS. HE ANSWERS IT: 

                                                                              

HARVEY:

HELLO, THIS IS GORDON HARVEY, WORLD'S WORST PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR.

A MAN WITH A DEEP VOICE RESPONDS, HE’S VOICE SOUNDS LIKE OLD MONEY;

                                                                           

MOB BOSS

HELLO MR HARVEY, I HAVE A PROPOSITION FOR YOU.

HARVEY PAUSES AND THINKS TO HIMSELF. HE LOOKS DOWN ON HIS DESK AND SEES THE DREADED ALIMONY ENVELOPE. OVERCOME WITH DESPERATION, HE ANSWERS BACK.

                                                                            

HARVEY:

I’M IN. WHAT YOU GOT?

                                                                                                                  

FADE TO ACTORS NAMES:

MUSIC PLAYS QUIETLY – INT – NIGHT: HARVEY WALKS INTO THE MOB BOSSES’ CRIB. HE TAKES A SEAT AT HIS DESK, BUT FALLS OFF OF THE CHAIR. HE GETS UP AND SITS BACK AT THE DESK. MEANWHILE, THE MOB BOSS IS SMOKING A CIGAR WITH HIS HENCHMEN STANDING MENACINGLY BEHIND HIM. HE PUTS IT DOWN AND STARTS TO SPEAK:

                                                                         

MOB BOSS:

MR HARVEY, IS IT? ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF; MY NAME IS ANTONIO BRACCO BUT YOU MAY CALL ME BIG TONY INSTEAD. THESE ARE MY LOYAL ENFORCERS; ROBERTO AND MARCO. CAN I INTEREST YOU IN A CIGAR? A DRINK PERHAPS?

                                                                           

HARVEY:

A DRINK WOULD BE NICE THANK YOU. I’LL HAVE A GRASSHOPPER.

ANTONIO LOOKS BEHIND AT HIS TWO HENCHMEN. ONE OF THEM BENDS DOWN AND WHISPERS INTO HIS EAR.

MARCO:

YOU WANT ME TO CLAMP ‘IM BOSS?

                                                                         

ANTONIO:

DON’T WORRY MARCO, YOU’LL GET YOUR CHANCE.

ANTONIO TURNS BACK TO FACE HARVEY. THEIR EYES MEET.

                                                                   

ANTONIO (V.O.):

LISTEN HARVEY, I’LL MAKE YOU AN OFFER YOU CAN’T REFUSE. ONE OF MY GUYS IS MAKING THE MISTAKE OF STEALING FROM ME. I WANT YOU TO FOLLOW HIM AND GET ME SOME DIRT ON THIS SON OF A BITCH.

                                                                                                                                                                 
FADE TO:

MONTAGE OF HARVEY TAILING THE PERSON IN QUESTION, WHO IS UNAWARE THAT HE IS BEING FOLLOWED. HARVEY, MEANWHILE, IS DUCKING BEHIND BUSHES, HIDING BEHIND NEWSPAPERS AND DOING COMMANDO ROLLS. HE IS CLEARLY INEPT.

                                                                                                                                                                    FADE TO:

BACK TO THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN HARVEY AND ANTONIO.

                                                                       

ANTONIO:

I’LL GIVE YOU HALF THE CASH NOW AND THE OTHER HALF ONCE YOU BRING ME

THE EVIDENCE. HOWEVER, HE IS NOT TO BE HARMED IN ANY WAY. I SHALL HANDLE THAT MYSELF. DO WE HAVE A DEAL?

CAMERA CUTS TO HARVEY AS HE THINKS ABOUT ANTONIO’S PROPOSAL. HE REPLIES;

HARVEY:

YEAH, WE GOT A DEAL.

HARVEY AND ANTONIO GET UP AND ANTONIO OFFERS HIS HAND. HARVEY, BEING AS INEPT AS HE IS, TAKES ANTONIO’S HAND AND TRIES TO KISS IT. ANTONIO PULLS IT AWAY.

ANTONIO:

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

                                                                       

HARVEY:

OH – I – I THOUGHT…

                                                                     

ANTONIO:

WELL YOU THOUGHT WRONG. THIS ISN’T THE GODFATHER.

HARVEY WALKS TOWARDS THE DOOR AND ROBERTO LETS HIM OUT. AS HE SHUTS THE DOOR, MARCO TURNS TO ANTONIO AND SAYS;

                                                                   

MARCO:

YOU KNOW YOU’VE GOT TO KILL ‘IM RIGHT?

                                                                    

ANTONIO:

YOU DON’T THINK I KNOW THAT YOU FOOL. DON’T FORGET WHO YOU WORK FOR.

                                                                       

MARCO:

OH – I – I WON’T SIR.

                                                                                                                                   

FADE TO TITLES:

Web Research for Costumes, Props and Locations

Costumes:
We plan to use classic detective conventions to design our main character's outfits- we chose to use this design because the people we asked to do our survey showed a positive response to them, for an example take a look at the man in the image below:


Our second character, who is in the mob will wear a classic gangster outfit, like the one seen below:


This will be the fedora we will buy and use, from the models photo I can tell it is very good:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smiffys-Brothers-Mens-Fedora-Hat/dp/B00319E46I/ref=sr_1_2?s=kids&ie=UTF8&qid=1511535627&sr=1-2&keywords=fedora

The cast will likely bring in most of these costumes from home, but we will look into purchasing anything we don't have. E.g; a fedora.

Props:
This is the kind of gun that commonly appeared in classic detective films:

But because we're making a parody movie we will try and make a comedic version of this gun (or another from this era), e.g; a water pistol, as seen below:


This is another fake gun that could fit in with the parody aspect of our film:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smiffys-Inflatable-Tommy-Gun-75/dp/B002PHOFPM/ref=pd_sim_193_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=T9P7N8GRX6BV1FWH5D2Y

Because our detective has a smoking habit, we will use fake cigarettes:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Theatrical-Smoking-Fake-Cigarettes-Adults/dp/B001MKJS28/ref=sr_1_1?s=kids&ie=UTF8&qid=1511535983&sr=1-1&keywords=fake+cigarette

Locations:

Like a lot of the classic detective films we will shoot our film, in darkly lit rooms, alley ways and deserted areas- these locations fit the aesthetic of those films well and they can easily be parodied in a comedy movie.

Questionnaire Responses

After we created our survey, we distributed it among social media such as Twitter and Facebook. We also placed a link to our survey in the comments of various parody film trailers and asked if people would be willing to take it. From our responses we determined that 80% of the people who took the survey prefer over the top parodies, rather than the 20% who prefer them to be subtle. We also found out that 80% of the people would like our movie to include comical weapons and 20% would like to see classic weapons. Finally, the majority of people who took the survey prefer the element of humor within parody movies, which came up as 60% with romance being only 40%.

When designing our survey, we also asked people what clothing they would like the protagonist of our film to wear. Most of the responses that came back told us that the public would like him to wear the typical detective outfit, e.g. a trench coat and a detective’s hat. However there were some responses that would like to see modern clothing within the film instead.

Here are some screenshots of some of the data from our survey. We hope to use this information to create/improve on our movie so that the audience will go and see it.

Questionnaire Questions

1. What is your favorite parody film?

2. Why do you like the film above and how would you improve it?

3. Do you prefer over the top parody's or films that take a more subtle approach?

4. What did you mean by that?

5. What is your least favorite parody film and why?

6. Describe the outfit you would like the protagonist to wear.

7. What weapons would you like to see in this film?

8. How many parody films have you seen in the past five years?

9. What elements do you enjoy most in this genre of films?

10. What platform do you typically watch films on?

Target Audience

The ideal target audience for our film will be people aged from 15 and up and will be for both genders. This is because we are making a movie with an age rating of 15+, which has all the typical thriller aspects you would find in the genre, but is however also comical and humorous. Our film is appropriate for the following audience as it is will not contain any violent aspects or strong language at all, however we are aiming to make a movie that is great for teenagers, as well as being entertaining for adults to. This is why we will include occasional references and themes that the older population will find fun, and will therefore watch the movie. We have also looked into the age ratings of similar films to that of what we are hoping to produce ourselves. These movies include Silence of the Hams (15) and High Anxiety (15). We also discovered that there are some PG thriller parodies out there like Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid and The Cheap Detective, which helps us as we want to examine a range of different movies of the same genre. This also proves the fact that a parody film can be produced without bad language etc. Since our film will have a small budget, it will be more than likely shown in art house/independent theaters rather than mainstream theaters. This means that we will need our film to target and capture the attention of fans of these types of theaters, the nearest ones being the ArtHouse Crouch End in London and the Ritzy in Brixton. The most popular however is the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square, which tends to attract the largest population of cinema goers in the west end. We were also thinking about placing our movie in various film festivals, such as the Film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House, as it is a great way to establish your film and create an audience for it. It also helps the directors/screenwriters of a film etc to become recognized. Examples of festival movies include Patti Cake$ and Moonlight.

Comprehensive Analysis Of Genre

We have chosen to create a parody of the mystery/ detective genre. So the following will be an analysis of the parody genre as a whole. A parody is 'an imitation of a style of a particular writer, artist or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comedic effect. Parody films and their components are often defined by their sub genre- meaning that if it's a parody of a horror film (E.g Scary Movie) it will utilize the conventions of a straight horror film such as dark lighting and themes, sudden shocks and other common conventions or cliches of the genre and tip them on their head in order to create a comedic situation.

Parodies will often parody famous or iconic scenes from the film or genre they are parodying: an example of this would be "High Anxiety" which parodies famous scenes from Hitchcock movies without resorting to directly copying them.

The characters in parody films will often be based on common archetypes or popular characters from their respective sub-genres.

The props in parody movies will usually subvert the cliches of the movies they are parodying by turning serious props like a gun into something absurd like a banana.

Initial Ideas

The movie starts out with the audience being introduced to the main character of the film Gordon Harvey. He is a down on his luck P.I. and not a good one at that. Desperate to pay his alimony cheques, he accepts a job from a local mob boss following a man suspected of stealing money from him. During this process, he makes a number of mistakes and almost has his cover blown twice. However, as the film progresses, the investigator finds nothing and is forced to resort to planting some evidence of his own.

The type of trailer we are attempting to create is a parody of the noir detective genre and we will most probably use the same codes and conventions as the other films in this genre.

Detective Parody Film Survey

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/HS2T5BS

Above is the link to our detective parody survey. I have begun collecting responses by sending the link to my friends and family as well as posting the link on various social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well as various online forums with an interest in media.

The questions I have asked should help us to understand more about what the audience appreciates when it comes to parody films and other important information about the consumption of films in our genre.

Once I have collected a wide range of answers I will analyse them and use them to determine certain features of my film and the methods of it's release.

Poster Analysis

One of the posters I have chosen to analyse is the Baby Driver poster which was released in early 2017:

This poster uses pink, which connotes love, as its main color- this could suggest that 'love' is a main theme of the film and perhaps some of the plot revolves around the main character being in love. Another color used on the poster is red, which connotes anger and violence- as seen on  Jamie Foxx's jacket- there is also tattoo of a gun on his hand which suggests that he is a violent and dangerous character and this helps solidify violence as a main theme of the film.   A Muscle Car is also seen racing away from the police across the highway into the distance:  this could suggest that another theme of the film is 'escape'- perhaps from criminal life or from regular life as shown by the contrast between the casually dressed Angel Elgort and Lily James who is dressed as a waitress when compared to John Hamm's character who is shown next to them aiming a assault rifle. These two used in contrast suggests that conflict is another main theme of the film- perhaps between the characters criminal lives and their regular lives.

The road is in the centre of the poster, attracting the audience's attention to the police chase taking place on it: this frames the importance of the car chases in the film and tells the audience that this is a film about a getaway driver.  This also tells us that us that crime is one of the main themes of the film.  The cast shown in a montage shows the audience who is in the film and gives the audience an idea about the characters - this montage also hints at major plot points in the film, such as the the ear buds that the most prominently displayed character 'Baby' (Ansel Elgort) has an interest in music. Kevin Spacy's character is shown wearing a suit which, in comparison to the more casual or tactical military outfits the other characters are shown wearing, could imply that he is in a position of power above the group.

The film prominently displays the names of the cast and the director. Edgar Wright is a very well known director who has made hit comedies in the past, his name will attract fans of his previous films such as Hot Fuzz and Shaun Of The Dead to see his new film. Kevin Spacy, Jamie Foxx and John Hamm are also very well known actors whose name recognition should help attract fans of their films to this new movie. The font that 'Baby Driver' is written in is very similar to the writings on American road signs which further suggests the importance of the driving aspect of the film.