Portfolio work Day 1: Narrative

With all the research done it was time to put it on paper and use it to make a film. Working on the portfolio was difficult as it meant a lot of planning and strategy with the tight schedule I had. The portfolio work was divided into 3 days, in which I separated the different parts of making a film.

Day 1 was mainly for the narrative aspects. Out of all the tasks, Figruing out a story took the longest and it needed my full attention, so I reserved a whole day to work on it. I had the theme of the narrative and genre selected before starting the script, which gave me guidelines to follow through the brainstorming process. These restrictions helped me focus my train of thought, it stops me from fraying too far into ideas that couldn't come to fruition. Yet it still left a lot of options that the film’s narrative could go

Regency Era

One narrative idea was about a lady that’s hosting a tea party in the regency era. The ladies are gossiping about current events, but the lady hosting her isn’t speaking. Her mind is somewhere else, and She keeps hearing things causing her to react wrongly to the situation. The scene would end with the ladies looking at the host confused because she responses wrongly. This was inspired by the strict rules, women had to abide during the regency era. I thought of how jane Austen often depicted the fact that being unmannered and perceive as lower standing was almost a death sentence and what would happen if one of her heroines didn't deal with embarrassment with grace but instead a decline of her mental health. I thought this would be an interesting idea. Though it would be quite difficult to do when its Mise en scene of the costumer, setting and getting enough actors. So rationally this idea could only ever be an idea.

A Morbid Painter

Another idea was about a painter who paints the different murders they accomplish at night. In this idea the first 2 minutes would be of the character painting a scenery, while in the background a radio can be heard mentioning the latest murder. The artist starts putting red to the canvas to finish the final touches of a morbid scene, until they themselves are covered in red paint and the radio broadcast ends. This was inspired by Walter Sickert, an artist who was known for being eccentric and did multiple works that brought attention to him because they were connected to famous murders of his era, most famously Jack the Ripper’s Bedroom. His obsession with Jack the Ripper has caused people to believe that he could be the Murderer but people around him said that he just wanted to confront taboo subjects with his art.

This idea didn’t get as much development as I realized I didn’t want a story line that deals with murder. In psychological thrillers often the main characters have mental health problems, which leads them to become violent. Which if not done correctly, it could add into the stereotype of mentally ill people as dangerous. As a still amateur film maker, I didn’t believe I could depict this subject well, if kept with the idea of having mental illness as a theme.

Jack the Ripper Bedroom,1907 the famed painting that has cause decades of speculation

Summer afternoon or what shall we do for the rent,1907-9 inspired by the Camden town murder in which a part time prostitute got murdered in her sleep. Sickert did a series of paintings based on this murder

A Mix

The first general draft of my script. In this I went deeper into the concept, yet it was not a full script. It gave a guide to the beginning, middle and end and I just had to fill in the in-betweens.


The final story ended up being a combination of these two. A painter who intrusive thoughts become tangible to them, and they get away of their desires. Painting can be powerful for symbolism and emotional states as paintings are inherently done with passion and emotion behind it. And as an artist myself I felt like I could write a script around someone who struggles to make art, taking from my prior experience.

Perfect Brainstorming

There were a lot more story ideas that I came up with. Brainstorming included writing everything down that came to mind. Something would be developed but others would just end up as scratched words. While brainstorming it was important to explore all the possibilities of an idea before deciding to go with it or scrap it. But it was also important to have some self-imposed guidelines that channeled creativity into one place. The balance between these two allows for a good creative brainstorming session.