Treatment for “Run Away” – Benjamin Lincoln
Target Audience:
The short film will be rated “M” due to the themes in the film that relate to domestic abuse and
death. The target audience is mostly people under 18 who are still growing up its not specified to
any specific gender or group, but some lower-class people may face some of these issues more than
others. Most of the scenes in the film will be at night to bring out the darker and more unfortunate
side of the themes and ideas that are present in this film. This films style is a darker but firmer
approach to domestic abuse against children.
Character development:
The character development in this film changes rapidly going from a kid relaxing at home to being in
the middle of a family feud and running away. He tragically gets hit by the car which is the end of the
film which attempts to display how domestic violence effects family’s and teens. The mood moving
darker can be seen with lighting, sounds, body language and voice lines.
Visual Style:
The lighting my film is much darker to convey a more negative style of film and with darker films this
sort of helps to convey ideas much clearer and more concisely show the negative impacts that the
events shown in the scenes are having. Using this style of visual styling helps to introduce themes
through the film in the order that would be preferable as it makes the story telling element much
clearer and more concise. Using more Shakey filming during parts where it wouldn’t make it more
difficult to edit which would mean that in a scene where a car is involved it wouldn’t be possible to
safely film that scene with the Shakey element still included in the short film.
Mood:
The elements in this film are displayed though colour, body language and dialog. Dialog from the
parents yelling at each other can show how the mood of the main protagonist shifts you move
through the film and get to the end result of all of the effects and emotions displayed. The music is
very slow and ambient which shifts the mood to a sadder quieter end which is the goal if the film
aims to impact the audiences’ feelings and emotions in relation to domestic violence and the effect
on the people around them. The body language of characters is important as in when the
protagonist is looking sad and stressed as they are about to run away.
Representations:
The inspiration for this film came from the contumely growing amount of domestic abuse in families
across the world. I felt that this needed to be addressed some how and a short film like this could
Impact and help people in tough situations. The motives were represented through the moods and
body language of the film including the tone of speech that was used by the actors in the short film.
Synopsis:
The Opening scene consists of the main protagonist siting in their room scrolling on there phone
with no issues arising at that point. The lighting is much more neutral as nothing is really going on at
this point. The content on the phone is irrelevant as the messages of the short film are given through
codes and conventions and body language. The start of the first clip will be a slow fade from black to
slowly introduce what is happening in the scene. The second scene quickly happens when the
protagonist walks out of there room and is immediately yelled at being told that they are useless
while the voice is being slightly filtered out to make it seem like the main chapter in the scene is
losing focus and trying to ignore it but they begin to comeback into focus and a tear falls down there
Treatment for “Run Away” – Benjamin Lincoln
cheek to display the mental pains that this caused and how it changed the mood rapidly to sad down
tempo type film. The camera angles are used to disempower the protagonist in this scene. The next
scene is the protagonist running through the front door in tears and running away from home. This
is recorded in the night as it sets the mood and feeling up for something bad and unfortunate to
happen. In the next scene the main character is alone and slowly walks across the street and as they
are they get hit by a car leaving them on the road Infront of the car where ambient slow/ sad music
plays. The scene fades out to a black screen with white text that reads “Any kind of abuse is never
ok” it then fades to the last screen where the domestic violence hotline number is displayed which is
when the film ends. This sends a deep message to the viewer and helps to encourage them to seek
help if they are facing issues.
