Whilst spending my last year in Spain on the Erasmus course, I pondered as to what to do for my FMP quite frequently. I knew that I wanted it to be one of the best works I could do, but not where to begin. I knew I wanted to make a short film and I had always been fascinated by crime dramas since college where we had to make the first five minutes of one for an assessment. From that point I Watched many different crime dramas such as Sherlock (2010-present), Elementary (2012-present), Luther (2010-2016) and many others. At this point I knew I wanted to make a piece which had a psychological twist to it, as I rather enjoyed them myself and I was planning on writing the script myself, so why not focus on a piece which relied heavily on a good written script? 

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At this point a friend of mine had suggested watching the film Seven (1995) as he thought I'd enjoy it. The film's antagonist isn't conventional in the sense that they don't even know his identity since he doesn't have fingerprints or such, yet he manages to do something which most villains do not; complete his plan. By this I'm referring to the ending where he manipulates the detective into killing him, thus completing his agenda. I found this fascinating as it turns the conventional genre of crime drama on its head. I loved how the film established the protagonists with time and effort, yet they are deformed because of the very person they're chasing. It shows us the journey the detective took in order to inhibit the identity the killer wanted him to do so. I wanted to use this idea of the protagonist delving into the grey area between the good and bad, but for somewhat pure reasons (Like detective Luther from Luther (2010-2016). the theme of corrupting good for the sake of good has been around for a long time and I wanted to try my hand at exploring it and seeing what I come up with. In addition, this is why I thought of the name: Between The Lines.

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Afterward I pondered for a while till a line came to me; What if you saw your own death? It made me think for a while till a plot formed in my mind. A man one day starts to dream about a certain serial killers killings before they happen, however he has no proof that the person in he's seen in his dreams is the killer. This changes one day when he dreams that he himself is the next victim. Through the dream he notices a message that he's left himself and decides to check it out. It leads him to the killers house and to a stash of images in the house of the previous murders. Knowing that the police can't attain this information without some sort of reason, the protagonist takes it upon himself to present them with one.

 

The idea of seeing the future has been around for many years and the concept of changing the future you've seen has been around for around as long. Movies such as Minority Report (2002) and the Final Destination series (2000-2011) embody this as they are based around the same principals. In minority report they attempt to stop crimes before they happen by using people who can see people's deaths in the future. This adheres  to my idea as my protagonist is trying to prevent the deaths of the people he sees in his dream (including himself). In terms of Final destination, the story is simply about people who survive death because of 1 person having a premonition and saving a group of people. However death comes back and takes them one by one. This concept plays with the thought; is it possible to avoid death? can someone actually avoid death and then stay alive changing their fate? This film takes the stance that it isn't possible to do so and avoiding death just means a more painful death in the future. For my film, I thought about both of these approaches and decided to take something from both. By this I'm referring to the fact that Minority Report uses the knowledge to attempt to change the future and how final destination ultimately says that death is an unstoppable force.   

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References

IMDB(2017) Elementary (TV Series 2012– ) [online] available from <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2191671/> [18 January 2017]

IMDB. (2017) Imdb: Final Destination Movies - A List By George108 [online] available from <http://www.imdb.com/list/ls000699250/> [19 January 2017]

IMDB. (2017) Luther (TV Series 2010–2016) [online] available from <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1474684/> [17 January 2017]

IMDB. (2017) Minority Report (2002) [online] available from <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181689/> [18 January 2017]

IMDB. (2017) Se7en (1995) [online] available from <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114369/> [18 January 2017]

IMDB. (2017) Sherlock (TV Series 2010– ) [online] available from <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1475582/> [18 January 2017]

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