Idea 5 - Theo Piper-Griffiths

Treatment – Money Journeys

My idea is the journey of money and the different situations and scenarios it leads to and connects with. Each time money is passed on it will lead to a new ‘mini’ sequence. I think it will be interesting to see the different effects that an object like this causes.

The basic narrative of this piece is structured like a cycle, showing how money goes around and back to where it started. My intention for this piece is that it has several ‘mini’ sequences that in some way involve money. I intend to show the light and the dark sides of money and what role it plays in different situations with different people. Please note the structure I have given is only the basic narrative and could include more cut-aways to other situations as the project planning goes into more detail.

The first sequence would be a group of teenage boys or girls wanting to buy some drugs, there will be a shot of one of them withdrawing money from an ATM (every time the money changes hands it will be important to show a close up) When the teenagers buy the drugs off a dealer, the focus will be switched to him/her and therefore a new ‘mini’ sequence will take place. The new sequence will involve the drug dealers sorting out their money and weighing up the drugs etc, the money will then be passed to another dealer who will have a call to drop off some drugs to another set of teens. The teenagers who buy the drugs from the dealer will then be involved in the last sequence showing them getting high etc and using money to buy food etc.

I think the use of colour in this piece will play an important role, in particular what the characters are wearing and certain props that are involved. For example, the dealers will all be wearing black to represent the darker side to money. Whereas the teenagers will be wearing light colours, perhaps the lead member of that group wearing an obviously different colour to the rest.

The colour temperature in the different ‘mini’ sequences will play a vital role to what mood is being portrayed to the viewer, the shot of a group of teenagers could show vivid colour and high saturation to show their innocence and to keep it light hearted. Whereas the shots of the drug dealers could involve a much colder colour temperature like blue and also low key lighting to show that it is a more serious matter.

My perceived audience for this piece would be for anyone of any age, money is a universal subject, but the fact that there are teenagers and drug dealers involved may make it appeal more towards a younger audience of 18-30, but I would like to say it is universal. I could envisage this piece of work being used for a number of things, an example would be on television as a Channel 4 type ‘3 minute wonder’. It could also be seen at a short film festival or even be used as an advert.