Mini-play

I want the action in the fish bowl to be a sort of mini-play that acts out symbolic correspondence to the characters actions. The different characters are represented as different fish within their colouring. In Christopher Nolan's prestige the action of the whole film and it's twist is given away at the start in the form of simple magic trick with a dove. I like how some of these small miniplay's can inform and reveal the plot of the story but still the viewer wont realise.

Inspirations

I took inspiration from the works of William Shakespeare and more specifically Romeo and Juliet. I feel that the mother and Romeo and Juliet bears resemblance in power control to the mother in Princess. The ball scenes and specifically the meeting of Prince Daniel scene takes direct inspiration from the 1996 Romeo and Juliet. However i wanted this scene to have more of a comedic undertone so i am going to write it where Prince Daniel is just nervously fidgeting about when he see's Bella through the fish tank and stumbles around knocking things over by accident.

Im also taking inspiration from The Mighty Boosh and its special effects. The humour that comes from these types of special effect come from its tackiness. If the fish and magical spells were of this tackiness then the audience would laugh about how bad it is.

Im also taking the innocence of Disney films such as frozen for the way that Bella is represented as an innocent princess. In fact i see it as a possible route for the final film to go down - as an animation. Finally i took inspiration from the comedy film 'Your Highness'. 

Synopsis

•Set in fantasy/medieval world

•Young innocent girl Bella dressed is getting ready for a ball later hosted at her parents castle

•The purpose of it is to find her someone to marry

•Later at the ball, the prospective princes arrive two of them have a very impressive entrance

•Prince Christopher is a very rich alcoholic party goer

•Prince Kakhan is very good looking, smooth talking ladies man who can do magic, he also very very evil which is evident in his appearance

•The maid wants Bella to marry Prince Christopher so that she can get some expensive gifts from her employers

•The mother wants Bella to marry Prince Kakhan because he is powerful in magic and in his family name

•The third Prince is Prince Daniel who is a very nerdy and shy little man but very kind nonetheless

•Bella dances with Prince Daniel and questions him, she finds out that he is a very moral and kind person

•She tells him that he needs to give his money up but he gets upset, he likes her because she made him confess his problems and they end up having sex

•Next she dances with Prince Kakhan who charms her, they also go to her room and have sex

•After this though Kakhan explains how he never wanted to marry her he just wanted to have sex with a virgin and he casts a spell on her that would prevent her from ever having sex again

•She blocks this attack and transforms into Belladonna her witch form

•It conspires that she is a witch in disguise belonging to a circle of witches who punish bad men by giving them STD’s

•She casts a spell/gives Prince Kakhan and Prince Christoper STD’s for their crimes

•Prince Kakhan is left bedridden with impotence and genital warts, Prince Christopher has to spend his fortune on Medication which leads to him becoming happier and a better person in the end

Examples of Character traits in the script

The maid's cheekiness and lust

MAID

'What a choice of fine specimens you have to pick from Bella, i must say i am very jealous'

Maid snatches a glass of wine off of a nearby waiters serving tray and takes a large gulp before fanning her red face with her hands

Prince Kakhan's magical entrance

The room suddenly goes a little darker and everyone goes quite. A phalanx of topless women wearing various pointy masks enter half of them are carrying torches bearing flames which flicker with red in the centre of them, the other half are beating drums, in the centre of them is a black pyramid. As they enter they start swirling into a circular formation surrounding the triangular object in the middle. Suddenly they stop where they are and the drumming ceases. A dark reddish mist engulfs the pyramid as its sides peel of exposing a dark cloaked figure. As the smoke settles the women scatter off leaving the dark figure on his own in the centre of the room. He takes of his cloak showing a very tall and strong man with a darker complexion and looming presence. He would be horrific to look at if it was not for his devilishly good looks which make the majority of females in the room blush. He speaks in a foreign sexy accent.

Prince Kakhan's smooth flirtation

P KAKHAN

Hello there little princess may i say you look more rare and exotic than the Silene Tomentosa

BELLA

What is that?

P KAKHAN

It is an extremely rare lily flower found only on the high cliffs of Gibraltair, you are an extremely rare flower, very rarely do i come across a specimen of such beauty

Mothers controlling ways

MOTHER

Yes dear we all do but we wouldn't want your second name to be that of a mere sheep herder would we

Mother moves back over to the window and looks out at approaching line carriages each with a different sigils denoting different princes, she makes out the dark grandious carriage of Prince Lucas and smiles in a sinister wanting way

Bella's questioning of the princes actions and morals 

BELLA

It is plain to see that you are the life and soul of the party Prince Christopher but surely your on going activities are just running you into a pit of despair, do you not get sick and tired of the same fake delights? What is the reasoning for your lifestyle?

Prince Christopher gets defensive and starts to look angry and upset by what Bella has just said, he takes a swig of wine 

P CHRISTOPHER

Don't you dare speak to me like that you stupid little girl! You know nothing! 

Prince Christophers kind heart coming to the surface

P CHRISTOPHER

It was my father, i wasn't always like this you know, i was once a kind, caring man, the last thing you would catch me doing was drinking myself silly with whores,

flashback of Prince Christopher ruling his people... going to his father for money... his father shouting at him... Christopher becoming a drunk and his people sad

P CHRISTOPHER

i was once a fine ruler who was fair and just to my people and i was happy. But my kingdom wasn't big and it certainly wasn't rich in fact i had to borrow money off my father many times to keep it afloat. But my father he was a hard man and he always mocked me for my failures. This longing to make him proud bent me into a man who's only goal was money... 

Prince Daniels Nerdiness/clumsiness

Bella's gaze falls on the remaining blue fish and then onto a boy sitting in the room behind the fish tank dressed in blue, he is thin, very nerdy looking with glasses and curly hair and he is reading a book. He puts the book down and approaches the other side of the fish tank not realising Bella is there. There is another fish the other end of the tank that is caught on an ornament and is struggling to get loose. He free's it, takes the sharp ornament out of the tank and feeds it. He see's Bella shortly after this and is surprised. He runs away out the back door of the reading room because he is so shy.

Themes 2

–      The Maid wants Bella to marry Prince Christopher because he is rich, she is greedy because her choice is based solely on her desire to have more money for the family so that she can in turn have a better quality of life.

–      The Mother wants Bella to marry Prince Kakhan purely for his name, status and power; his power is represented by his ability to do magic.

–      Both the Maid and Mother are greedy and only want what is best for them they have no respect for what Bella would actually want, the Mother is even angry at Bella when she finds out that Prince Kakhan doesn’t want to marry her.

–      I wanted there to be a big twist in the story that would coincide with its elevation into adult humour and themes.

–      The viewer is so blinded by the apparent innocence of Bella and the plot that they are completely shocked when she transforms.

–      The narrative pays homage to Shakespear’s Romeo and Juliet and even more so to the 1996 film Romeo and Juliet.

–      I took direct inspiration from the fish bowl scene with the meeting of the two lovers but wanted it to mock it slightly.

Themes 1

–      My main themes in the script is colours and flowers , Bella is a pure white flower symbolised by her white dress

–      White flowers symbolise purity, innocence and virginity

–      She is likened to a rare white flower called a Silene by the evil prince who wants to deflower her

–      Her room is pink which also symbolises innocence

–      When Bella transforms into belladonna she changes into purple and black and as do the flowers in her room, more specifically she goes from a white lily to black lily.

–      The colours of purple and black have an ethereal, other worldly feel to them which represents her magic and mysticism as a witch

–      Black flowers symbolise rebirth in the form of her transformation into her alter ego

–      All of the colour changes are shown in the costume changes and in the changes of colour by the fish

–      The fish tank is a simple visual interpretation of the action within the form of a mini play, it’s very much like a story within a story that has symbolic correspondence to the characters in the outer story

–      This is much like how in Christopher Nolan’s The prestige the twist of the film is given to us in the form of a magic trick right at the beginning.

–      Prince Christopher changes from the indulgent and cocky colour of gold representing his wealth to green and so does his fish counterpart.

–      Green represents balance, health, wellness and promise of good fortune that Prince Christopher has after his decline from gross wealth.

–      The themes of the plot are change, redemption, greed, desire, deceit and enslavement.

Project aims

•       To create a short film that captures elements of children’s fairy-tale and Disney films and combine it with adult themes of sex and adult humour in a way that the adult nature of the piece is only exposed halfway through so that until that point the viewer believes that the story is overtly childish and innocent.

•       I want the story to be grounded in a fantasy time and setting so that the inclusion of magic and mysticism is feasible.

•       I also wanted to make hints to our current times, such as Prince Christopher bearing resemblance to Donald Trump

•       I want the story to have a medieval aesthetic representation to activities and places in modern times.

•       Testament to this is the STD clinic styled aesthetically as a ramshackle wizards tent.

•       Finally I wanted to parallel the witches spells to STD’s in the form of an analogy, originally I wanted to do this very subtlety but then I thought that the references to STD’s within the witches names and spells such as the name of the witch ‘Nymphitis’ and her witch group the ‘witches of syphlos’ would achieve a comic effect.

•       Ultimately I wanted the story to serve as an analogy of the dangers of STD’s, evil men and even more evil women