In Depth Email To Writers

I'm just posting this email on here because I feel it has some useful points that could be used at a latter date.

Okey, I've been doing a bit of thinking last night about the way we can go about writing this script. I've just tried explaining my thoughts to Hamish and failed miserably so I hope in written form you'll be able to make more sense of it. I'm not handing you anything regarding physical content of the film, by and large that will come from the diary, I'm just trying to maybe alter our perspective, maybe change our approach to the narrative. I hope by doing this we'll begin to think about other aspects of this story. 

Okey, I'm just going to throw in some bullet points. 

• The war starting is the cataclysmic event, the hook, what ever you want to call it. 
• A turning point in Len's life is him joining the army to fight in the war. 
• The war itself is the antagonist/conflict/barrier that Len must face.
• Len's overall goal is not to win, but to survive so he can continue to serve his country. 
• Len's special talent/attribute is his ability to draw. So he uses his talent to help achieve his goal and is what makes him an interesting subject to explore.  
• So, the next dramatic event in our story would be the build up to the battle at Vimy ridge and Len's contribution to that battle. 
• The resolution would be that the battle is won by the allied forces. 
• But the war still rages on. 

Please comment and challenge those statements, but at a basic level that list, at it's core, is the back bone to our film. 

Here's an example of how I think the story can begin, before a single image has even been shown on screen. 

"In 1914 X amount of brave men signed up to fight the great war. These are the recollections of one of those brave men."

"Smithy" (Smithie sp?) 

By doing this we're telling the audience exactly what the film is about, we are establishing a time and place, we're also introducing the character immediately.  

What comes next is up in the air as far as I can see. 

One option is we can straight away introduce Len the drawer, out in no mans land taking sketches. We don't really know anything about this guy other than he draws. He's good, he begins to draw sketches for plans that are used to help the allied forces. 

Or, we could introduce Len through his regiment. It would just give us a quick glance at his back story, give the audience an understanding of how he got to where he is, North France.  I'm not thinking lines upon lines of dialogue just a short little intro. Visually we could then see him sketching at his billet while on a short break from duty, a simple, calm, human moment. Maybe he's sketching a couple of soldiers, or a building. I'm talking seconds here, the above would take about a minute of the film. This is more of a biopic approach. The film would then naturally move to his work in the battlefield, then to vimy ridge. 

Or, if we wanted a docudrama approach, we immediately begin talking about war artists in general. We then move onto Len Smith, his work, the use of his work then vimy ridge. This approach would lead us to need two narrators (?). A narration to describe the generic use of of war artists for espionage purposes. Then the second narrator being Len Smith himself to add a more personal touch to things. The film will then lead to Vimy ridge. I think we're all in agreement that Vimy ridge is going to play an important role in the film whatever decision we choose. 

I think, if we break it down into a simple 3 act structure of some kind we have this -

1 act - Introducing Len.

2 act - Out in no mans land, drawing. The build up to Vimy Ridge. 

3 act - Highlighting that his work was used during the battle, his work contributed to the victory. End credits explaining a brief history of what he did after the war etc.       

Thinking about it, now I'm just reading back what I've just wrote, I like the idea of opening the film in the billet, just chilling sketching. Its a good contrast, his sketches just for fun, for memories in a diary then suddenly out in no mans land drawing to help win the war, its a dramatic shift and it's interesting. I think if we choose this route we'll need to really hone in on exactly what parts of his diary we are going to use. We'll have to move time and space with a line or two or else we'll risk running over.