Senior Narrative is arguably the most demanding and challenging project in Freestyle. There is a tremendous amount of effort put into Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production. It takes many hours and countless texts and emails about the project.
Going into this project, I was scared and excited at the same time. I knew that the project was going to require a lot of work, but I was also prepared to put in a lot of late hours to make this project a reality.
So then I pitched my story idea, picked my partner, and then set out to create my senior narrative.
My original logline, or short pitch, was “Loved ones lost, turned to ghosts.” This will make sense once you understand my story!
This is the original narrative synopsis that my partner and I wrote. There have been many changes since.
We see two brothers, the older being named Collin and the younger being named Rueben. Their relationship is strong, they are close together. We see them walking down a street, wanting to get (ice cream?). Collin looks in his wallet, which is bare. Tells Rueben to stay on the bench, he’ll be back in a second. Collin disappears around a corner, into a sketchy parking lot where he will attempt to rob somebody for (ice cream?) money. Rueben follows close behind and catches up to the robbery. Collin is shot and Rueben runs to the rescue. Rueben runs out of time but catches the guy’s face. Robber runs away before Rueben can do anything. Rueben runs home, in shock of what happened. Rueban finds his way home. When he runs inside he walks into his own room which is shared with Collin. This inspires him to live up to his brother and commit crimes of his own. He begins a life of crime and robs people on the same street that his brother died in hopes of finding the guy who killed his brother. After robbing a lot of people his brother starts to show up as a ghost in the parking lot, telling Rueben to stop. The first time that Reuben sees the ghost, Reuben brushes it off as if it was his imagination. The second time, Collin is actively telling Rueben to stop robbing people. Rueben doesn’t stop and still thinks it’s his imagination. The third time Rueben robs someone, he finds the man who killed his brother. Rueben gets mad and hits the guy with his gun knocking him to the ground. Rueben sees his brother again and finally realizes that it was actually real. Rueben now makes the choice of whether or not to take revenge for his brother or to stop his life of crime. He stops and Collin holds out his hand to Rueben. Rueben will reach out to Collin’s hand as a sign of change. Rueben and Collin have an emotional discussion of why Rueben is pursuing a life of crime. Collin realizes that he was not a good role model for
his brother, and Rueben realizes that his need for revenge is not necessary. In the very, Ruben walks away from the scene, ultimately choosing to leave everything behind and move on instead of killing him for revenge. But, before he leaves, he takes the guy’s wallet and buys ice cream.
ACTING SCENE HERE UPLOAD TO YOUTUBE
TAYLOR/ROBIN ACTING SCENE HERE
SCREENPLAY HERE
Another important part of creating our narrative project was making a solid shot list. This list would have all of the different camera angles and what we needed, how long each shot would take, what equipment we needed, etc.