Researching Materials for your script

Background Material

Published Scripts:

Cass (2008, John S. Bird)

Cass is a 2008 British crime drama film. It stars Nonso Anozie as Cass Pennant and is directed by Jon S. Baird. Cass is based on the true story of the life of Cass Pennant, adapted from his book. The film tells of how he was adopted by an elderly white couple in 1958 and brought up in Slade Green, an all-white area of London. Cass is forced to endure racist bullying on a daily basis from local children. Cass doesn't find belonging until he starts going to the football with his adopted Dad watching his beloved West Ham United. Cass takes watching West Ham a step further when he starts taking part in the violent side of the game with the 'hammers' firm. Cass climbs the ranks of the ICF to become the leader in the early 1980s. He remains the leader for many years until he becomes the first football hooligan to be given a stiff sentence in prison. He is sentenced to 4 years in Wormwood Scrubs where he starts writing down his lifes events. After completing this sentence Cass becomes a leading man in the doorman industry. Unfortunatley for Cass his past catches up with him and this leads to him getting shot 3 times whilst on the door of a London club. Cass survives this attack and after overcoming his attack and the loss of his mum which left him with mental strain, this took time but after this period he continues to make something of himself for his family.

     - The patches i have highlighted yellow are the parts of Cass which either relate to mine or in fact inspired me when making The Fight.

I looked at the Hillsborough Script as it covered football crowds like I was planning to. I would also be covering the same social class as Hillsborough and the language used in the drama would be the same as what I'd want to use in The Fight. Although HillsBorough covered the tradegy that happened to Liverpool fans I could still take ideas from the way they started their drama as I would like to grab the viewers attention from the off also.

Factual Information:

Although there has been many incedents of football violence over the years the most noteable in recent years would have to be between West Ham and Millwall in 2009 when the teams met in the carling cup. With the bitter rivalery trouble was expected. This lived up to the hype and there was crowd trouble before, after and during the game. Heres an article on it: West Ham v Millwall 

 

Opinion:

For opinion I looked at what experts believes starts football violence. The article I looked at was investigating the issue because of a incident involving both Exeter and Plymouth. The expert went on to say:

Exeter University's Professor Anthony King has written two books looking at the transformation of football and fan culture in the UK and Europe.

He believes the violence at the Plymouth Argyle - Exeter City match on 9 November 2010 was "highly likely".

He explained that there are generally two kinds of people who create violence at football matches.

"There are the elite, the committed hooligans," said the professor of Sociology at the University of Exeter.

"This group are sometimes dismissed in the press as thugs but they are committed to a special kind of violence.

"More unusual are the completely 'normal' fans who have no pre-meditated desire to get involved who then do get involved - what police call Category B fans.

"They have no prior intention to cause violence but join in once it starts.

Speculation:

When it comes to football 'hooligans' there are many stereotypes, for example, on a forum i found this:

"Lower or working class, wife beating, beer swilling, smoking deviant. Not a stranger to jail time, Homophobic, sexist, racist with a narcissistic personality disorder. String vest wearing, skin head with violent tendencies.
'Enjoys a good ruck (fight)!!!'
Wants the fans of their team to be the most feared throughout the country or even better worldwide, will travel in order to beat the living **** out of them.
For more information watch the movie ID which deals with this ugly side to British culture." 
Although in very few cases this may well be true but in many cases this is far from the truth. It is well documented that some of the people choosing to fight at football were in fact in good middle class jobs but needed a buzz. This is the case in my drama as Dion has jobs throughout funding his weekend shenanigans and also his prescene at football games eliminates the 'every football fan is racist' myth. Cass also tackles this myth.

Existing material from other broadcast and written media for conversion or adaptation:

These are scripts of the opening scene of the football drama Hillsborough.

I took noticed of this script as I feel that the opening scene of Hillsborough grabs the attention of the audience whilst also being informative of whats going on. I want the same affect from my opening scene of The Fight.

Screenplay Pitch

Script Proposal

Introduction Paragraph 1

There is a variety of reasons why you would need a script proposal for example if you had a great one off film idea you would need a script proposal to advertise your idea. Also nearly every TV show need a script for example on quiz shows and sport shows the presenter still need a script which he/ she'll be able to read of the auto cue.

Introduction Paragraph 2

I intend to present my script in the form of a Prezi which is a interactive type powerpoint. I have also wrote a written report on my script proposal. In the Prezie i will gather all types of research and sources in order to justify my idea. Im also open to imending minor details of my idea if it is asked open me as long as it don't change the whole concept of the programme.

Title: The Fight

This will be a gritty British drama set throughout the 60s ending in the 80s. I will be hoping to create an atmosphere much like those created in such films as This is England and Cass. This programme will follow a young British-Caribbean boy Dion Piglet searching for happiness in the UK after emigrating from Bermuda at a young age. I feel my unique selling point for this drama would be the issues tackled. The issues I will be touching will be football violence and also broken homes. You can kind of relate my storyline to the film Cass as it follows a young man who finds his belonging in football however although I’ve taken inspiration from the film I haven’t copied the narrative fully. The Initial scenario will show a happy Dion Piglet sitting in the pub with his friends reminiscing of the good old days when they were younger. This will then spark Dion to think of his childhood and early growing up and once again realise how unhappy it really was. That’s when the actual drama will start. This will be a series which spans over three hour long episodes. I’ve chosen this method as from my experience that will leave the audience wanting more. The intention of this product is to highlight some people’s values and also I would hope that this hard hitting drama would make people review how they were going about their business and maybe change some of their negative ways because of it. Another obvious intention would be to entertain viewers of all ages and backgrounds. I would like to communicate to my target audience by the way characters talk with their slang terms and witty banter. Also how the characters will dress and the values portrayed I would like to think will appeal to the audience I am targeting. I am not going into this project with a particular message I would like everyone to get their own positive message out of it. The few main characters here are Dion, starts at 15 and progresses throughout, Dion is the main character and his antics drive the narrative forward. Dion’s Family: Mum, Dad, two Brothers, Names: Dad Patrick, Mum Drew, Brothers Tom and Asafa. The family lead as a side story at the start of the drama as the family are shown bullying Dion the middle child for being seemingly worthless which drives the narrative in the first and second episode. The other two characters of importance are his best mates Lily and Jack, both start of 15 and like Dion progress throughout, they play the role of the only two people in the school who accept Dion for who he is and respect him as a lot of the other children pick on Dion for not only being a shy geek type person but also some people were targeting him just because of the colour of his skin. Lily and Jack however stuck up for him throughout this miserable patch. Neither of the characters drive the narrative however they help the narratives depth.

Synopsis

The beginning of The Fight would show Dion’s miserable upbringing. He had it from both ends, at school he would get constantly picked on for being geeky and shy whilst also getting stick from racists for the colour of his skin. He would then get home to his family he would get pushed around by his siblings and his parents didn’t help him out at all instead constantly shouted him for not being big, strong and athletic like his older brother and also for not being as cute and helpful as his younger brother so it seemed like he had no rest bite.

The middle of The Fight will concentrate on Dion’s passion for football violence. Dion associated himself with Leyton Orient ever since his two best mates invited him down to watch a game and from then on he was addicted to the adrenaline you get from supporting your local team. After going to many a game he then discovered what went on before and after the games he enjoyed and that was fighting between the opposing fans. At first it didn’t appeal to Dion but after unintentionally being in a middle of one he then discovered the appeal of it. The feeling of belonging as everybody there that supported the same team had your back; he had never experienced this type of loyalty before except from Lily and Jack and that is the very reason he took part in this procedure week in week out.

The ending of The Fight will show Dion’s sudden change of heart. After his long time acutance Jack was seriously hurt in a fight before a derby game which left him unable fully use one of his arms. Dion decided this wasn’t the life for him and went away to concentrate on making a name for himself as a successful black cab driver. Once he had full established himself he decided to reunite himself with his old peer group. The first meeting once he reunites with his pals is the meeting which is shown at the start showing them reminiscing over the previous glories.