Response to curse words within the script

In my script, there is a fair amount of potentially offensive language within the dialogue. My teacher has commented on one of my scripts with the following: "The exam specifically states that students should not be allowed to present material that is too offensive/unsuitable for their age - if you include the language in full we will not be able to watch and present it in a school environment"

I have had discussions with various people about this issue, as I believe it is an important issue to raise. Whilst I understand that regular use of foul or offensive language will restrict my audience of the film, but I wish to keep the regular use of it for several reasons. First off, I plan to film some quite graphic scenes which will obviously restrict my audience without the foul language, so I believe it is the lesser of two evils in this situation. Also, my film is supposed to be regular people reacting to a terrifying situation, all of which are above the age of 18, so I believe they would use foul language in the conditions they face.  The BBFC classify a 15 certificate as a film that can: "Can contain adult themes, hard drugs, regular use of foul language and limited use of very strong language, strong violence and strong sex references, and nudity without graphic detail. Sexual activity may be portrayed but without any strong detail. Sexual violence may be shown if discreet and justified by context." 

There is no sexual content, drug use or strong sex references.  There will be restrictions on my film to a 15 because of the violence as a minimum, potentially more depending on the level of gore shown and therefore, I believe I am justified in the use of regular foul language, as none of it is sexist, racist etc nor is it with reference to sexual acts. An article about censorship from 12 to 15 is linked below.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/sep/30/bbfc-profanity-made-in-dagenham




I realise that this restricts my target audience to 18+, but that is who I plan to aim the film at anyway, and as an 18 year old myself, I am completely and legally able to produce and watch the film I am making.

The Legend: Dates

Today, Joe and I met to talk over details and changes to the film. I had some issues with the current story in that the killer was never found and is therefore presumed dead. We added a fourth body, that was unrecognisable and presumed to be the killer. This gets rid of my worries that the killer would be presumed alive and so it would be logical to assume he is dead.

I then told him we needed to sort out exact dates for the key points of the legend so we don't contradict ourselves in the props I made (scrapbook, newspaper articles etc.) The dates are as follows:

Moved to England July 8th, 1981
Alleged witchery August 21st 1984
Calls exorcist September 2nd 1984
Wife murdered December 15th
Man disappears December 15th
Autopsy December 17th
Vicar and two others murdered 30th March
Dismembered body of man found 30th March
First ghost sighting 1989
Last credible ghost sighting 1994
Last possible ghost sighting 1995
Five amateur filmmakers found in the woods October 3rd 2014

Scriptwriting: Day Two

I met again with Joe mainly to categorize the scenes in terms of importance. All text in red is considered important to the story, text in blue are scenes we do not necessarily need and we can cut if the film is too long. The scenes in pink are scenes we can tell the actors to improvise if they know he basic outline of the scenes and the parts in black are additions and ideas we have had since last time. A lot of these are ideas of whose camera this will be filmed from. I have told Joe I will be story-boarding the film before we get together again as I think the storyboard will highlight any problems with the story from a technical perspective. As the film will be found footage, every shot we see will have to be scripted.

This video is a quick recap of some other things we did on the day:
Scriptwriting Day 2 from Sam SheepDawg-OEight on Vimeo.

Title: The King's Corpse

During our day of scriptwriting, we decided what the title of the film will be called. As is convention with films based on legends, (such as The Blair Witch Project), I have decided that mine will also be named after the legend. The Title is based on a real wood in Britain, known as the King's Copse, in which this is set. The crown of thorns mentioned in the legend that the victims were found wearing acts as iconography and a reason the legend will be called the King's corpse.

The King's corpse suggests death and something supernatural which is the audience's first impression of the film. I am very happy with this as the title.

The Legend

The initial sketch Joe drew up for me as his idea for the killer.

Today, I met with my friend and writer on the project, and settled many things, including characters and dialogue, which are explained on this post. Another thing we discussed is the legend. We have to create a story for the characters to discuss and reference throughout. Joe had some ideas as to how the killer in the legend could still be alive and why he would kill. I tweaked his version of the story as there were some aspects that I thought were left too open. The story so far is as follows:

In 1981, a Norwegian couple moved to the UK and got married at a local church. They kept to themselves, keeping a small circle of friends and stayed away from community events. In 1984, rumours started to spread about his wife, people believing she practiced witchcraft. After being denied an exorcism by the local vicar, he tried to cure the witchery himself. After a series of calls to the police of suspected domestic abuse, she was found crucified in their home, and the husband was nowhere to be seen. In 1985, three bodies were found crucified in the woods, forming a triangle in the way they faced each other. Two bodies were friends of the man, and the third was the vicar.

So far, our combined efforts have given us a good basis to work finer details into. I have already discussed with Joe prior to the meeting a concern that I have in that the killer could still be alive and is therefore likely to be thought alive. We will discuss this the next time we meet.

Joe's inspiration for the killer, the painting 'The Murderer' by Edvard Munch

Scriptwriting: Day One

Today, I met with Joe Keeley, who is an A level drama student so I thought he would know a few things about scriptwriting he could teach me. We've been talking for about a week now about the project and he has become very enthusiastic about the project. I have decided to bring him on as a writer for the project as his experience with scripts will be invaluable to the film. He has been tasked with co-writing several scripts in the past and is an avid horror film viewer.

We got together today to talk in more detail about the film and the ideas that I had. I showed him an online storyboard I created and he grasped what I was going for very quickly. Joe was very focused on characters so we discussed their names and personalities (a part of writing I have no idea about) and came up with the names Trevor, Ray, Tracy, Alice and Ali. The names weren't something I was worried about but now we have them, we can reference specific entry and death scenes.

Then Joe began working on the dialogue and subsequent personalities, and I made sure the script was keeping to it's original idea. Joe was able to write dialogue almost effortlessly and build characters and by the end of the writing process, I had some very strong feelings about the characters, which is very assuring that the writing is solid. I'm extremely pleased with the decision to work with Joe as he was not afraid to come up with his own ideas and pitch them to me, but not too confident to not run them past me. We've been able to bounce off of each others ideas to come up with some twists that I'm extremely happy with (such as the change in main protagonist towards the end).

This is the first draft of the script, I am happy with the scenes but feel the film may be too long, but I have no way of timing how long the footage will last, so it could be too short or just right. We intend on meeting again soon to refine it.

First draft of script from sheepdawg08

Dialogue

Now that I have an outline for the plot, I have to start thinking about writing dialogue and a script. There are two ways I can go about this;

• Script all pieces of dialogue. This is the most conventional method as used by most film writers as then all dialogue is considered and rehearsed so there is little chance of breaking character.
• Outline the rough meaning to the scenes and what I want to happen in terms of dialogue and let them improvise. This is more unconventional but films like "The Blair Witch Project" are examples of the format working within the horror genre as it provokes more genuine reaction. This would also put less stress on me as I have little experience at scriptwriting.

I will try to write a script as I believe that it'll be much better for auditioning and for the story as a whole, but if I am not pleased with my attempts to write, I shall use the outline of the story and rely on the actor's improvisational skills.