BRAINSTORM. 27th August 2019
Personal experience. Starting again, leaving my children behind, being torn emotionally between the need to escape my situation and feeling guilty that they were still there. What should I have done? What other options were available to me? Was I in a frame of mind that was capable of making the best decisions? Could I look back and see a better plan? Would this lead to regret? What could I do to make it up to them afterwards? What were the consequences for them?
1.6: link to individual vs the state: The changing nature of relationships, especially with social media. Link to tolerance vs intolerance: can one person tolerate what they should not? What when one party tolerates too much and the other tolerates too little? There is an imbalance of power in the relationship. This is something to which many people will relate. Link to technology: how can a person be publicly harmed through the use of social media? (this isn’t personal experience but a potential plot device) – the intolerant could use social media for revenge. This could be used in comedy or drama. Link to what society means: the changing face of family units in society, how families don’t stay together anymore, why this might be either good or bad in individual circumstances, but still a change in societal norms.
Fictionalise it: A hostage situation in a school, where the protagonist, a teacher, finds he/she can escape, but will have to leave the pupils in the school with the antagonists. They convince themselves that they can help more by getting out and giving what information they know to the police, but they are worried as they will no longer be there to check what’s going on or give comfort to the children, one of whom is begging them not to go.
1.6: Individual vs. state: this is more prevalent in the USA than in the UK, this has something to do with the gun culture, but maybe also with the national identity, the nature of America – what is different and how are people becoming so disaffected? Tolerance: are people more inclined to act with aggression because they have the means? Technology: news spills out in real time – this could affect how a drama plays out. Society: what are people’s expectations of what is the right or wrong thing to do? And, linked with technology, judgement could come as the story plays out. How will this affect the actions of those involved?
Imagination: A story set in a caravan park.
Charlie goes on holiday with his friends, Hannah and Chris, to a caravan park. They don’t have room for him in their small caravan but say he can sleep in the awning on a camp bed. On the first day they meet some of Hannah’s and Chris’ friends, including a newly married couple, Anna and Greg, and Natalie, a very attractive, single woman. Being in the awning, Charlie can hear everything around him as he tries to sleep on the first night. He can hear sounds coming from the caravan opposite. This is Natalie’s caravan.
Whilst not wanting to snoop, he can’t help himself from taking a look. Greg and Natalie are having passionate sex and are even filming themselves on their phones as they do it. Charlie wonders if he should say anything to Anna, but when the morning comes, he can’t bring himself to do so, but he watches Greg and Natalie closely. That night, he hears noises again. But this time the two are talking with each other. Charlie gets closer to Natalie’s caravan to hear better. Greg tells Natalie that once Anna has had her accident, he’ll have plenty of money for them to live the high life. What appeared at first to be marital infidelity now becomes a murder plot. What should Charlie do? He starts to make his way back to his awning but makes a noise, tripping on a guy rope. The curtains of Natalie’s caravan twitch open. Has he been seen?
The following day, Charlie tries to tell Anna about what he’s heard. He asks her how things are between her and Greg. She says she is blissfully happy. This just makes things worse for Charlie. She seems to suspect nothing. He tries to intimate that Greg might not be all he seems, but Anna dismisses his concerns, saying that she’s never trusted anyone as much as she trusts Greg. So he speaks to Greg and tells him that he knows about Greg’s plot. He mustn’t go through with it.
Charlie tries to tell Chris and Hannah about what he’s overheard. They say they are sure he’s misheard, they know their friends and Greg would never do such a thing.
Down at the river near their camp, Charlie sees Greg kiss Anna, as Natalie comes up behind Anna and push her into the water. Charlie already knows that Anna can’t swim, she had discussed this in the group. Anna floats down the river, coming up for air and gasping, before going under again. The river carries her away. Charlie runs back to the camp. The rest of their friends are around the camp fire and Charlie can take no more. He tries to ‘out’ Greg and Natalie to the group, before they get back. Everyone laughs at Charlie. Then Greg and Natalie arrive. Charlie confronts Greg and says he’s going to call the police. He makes to go but everyone restrains him. Then Anna arrives, dripping wet and smiling. Charlie is confused. He saw her murdered. But Anna explains that she’s a very good swimmer and swims rivers all the time. ‘Did you get it?’ She asks Greg and Natalie. They confirm that they did and produce an iPad, onto which they’ve put their phone footage. They announce that their film is finished and, once they’ve edited the footage, they’ll release it onto their website, which is generating an increasingly great number of followers. The advertising they’re getting is becoming a serious income. Natalie is actually Greg’s girlfriend and Anna is his sister. Everyone else knew except Charlie. He demands to know why he’s been kept out of this. Everyone produces their own phones – they have all been secretly filming Charlie’s dilemma and his reactions to the apparent plot. He is, therefore, an unwilling (or at least unaware) internet star. His permission was not sought. He has been stuck in a kind of Truman Show situation. This liberty makes Charlie very angry, but it is pointed out to him that he has become an interesting person, something he bemoaned lacking at the beginning of the story. He has also accumulated money through this, which will project him into having some stability, something else he wanted. So now he is conflicted. What price his success? This has been done to him. What can he do to be in control of his future?
1.6: Individual vs. state: in a way, Charlie represents the State, inasmuch as he automatically wants to uphold the law and avert a crime. But it’s more than that, the apparent plot affronts his own moral compass. tolerance vs intolerance: this is Charlie’s dilemma. How far does he tolerate the apparent infidelity of Greg’s actions with Natalie? How can others in the group tolerate his behaviour when Charlie asks for their support? What kind of a society are we if we will turn a blind eye to transgressions against our societal norms? Technology: this story has some real resonance regarding technology, as this is the means by which the whole ruse is constructed. Tech is the instrument of the whole plot, as it turns out. The question of a tech-obsessed world is an early one to explore if Charlie eschews it. The fact that he doesn’t use a Smartphone means that the game is possible – it wouldn’t work if he went onto the internet and found out what they were doing. Society: the game creates a society of watchers, commenters, lobbyists and voters amongst the online community that is viewing the story as it unfolds. What does this say about our online society? This is something new – people were not instantly connected to each others’ lives before the internet. Now we have some questions to ask ourselves about what kind of society we want, what is acceptable behaviour, what we will tolerate and embrace.
Simon Elvin Creative Arts Today 