Directions Unit: JTL Research

After reading the script again i knew i wanted to try and put a different spin on the theme of love. I thought about the final scene where the character opens the package and 'we hold for a moment taking in the sight'. To me this seemed funny. When i hear the word sight it makes me think of something you wouldn't normally see, something amusing. This got me thinking about something to do with the ideas of love on my mind map and in particular the word intimacy. I thought about this characters bedroom and him being in bed and then as a joke i mentioned to my brother what if he was in bed with a blow up doll. I knew i thought this was really funny but my brother loved it and really encouraged me to go with that idea. It's a bit more off the wall than i would normally go for but i really felt it was a strong ending. It would also take into account the awkward dialogue about the weather - small talk. These characters are wanting to get away from this meeting as soon as possible as I'm sure no one would want to be caught with that in their possession. This then got me thinking about characters. I thought that this would be a man who was going through a divorce from his wife, A business man - Paul. Contrasting with this Young Del boy trotter - esque, Street wise guy - Craig - who delivers the package. I then had to think how they would know each other. I had recently re-watched American Beauty and the friendship of Lester (Kevin Spacey) and Ricky (Wes Bentley) is interesting. There is an age gap between the two and Ricky is Lester's drug dealer. This made me think of my own 2 characters and how maybe Craig is the son of one of Paul's Friends and Paul knows Craig to be this 'Fixer'. Anything anybody wants, Craig can acquire, for a fee.
As Paul is going through a divorce, the reason he is getting the doll from Craig is because he doesn't want anything to show up on his credit cards that would give his wife ammunition and not that many people would be brave enough to walk into a shop and buy one. The reason he is getting the doll at all is because he misses the companionship and the closeness of being married and the intimacy of a relationship. He wants a companion, someone he can wake up too. He has come out of one loving relationship and is moving into something else.

I went on a few websites to learn more about divorce:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divorce

https://www.gov.uk/divorce

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/divorce/

In order to show the divorce, or marriage problems i felt a good way of doing this would be to have Paul wake up and reach out over the bed, still half asleep, as if looking for someone. he also could fiddle with his wedding ring throughout the film to hopefully get across something about his marriage.

More Research needed.

Stay safe,

Helen