Re-Write Process For Short Film

The re-write process of 'What would you do for a pair of shoes' script has taken a set of select stages to get to where I am now. Initially, before putting pen to paper, I wanted to establish the potential themes and meanings behind the script.

I first thought that perhaps the theme was obviously something extremely basic, as a short film never really has enough time to over-complicate its plot. I thought the script may have been trying to convey the idea that, when a person has what they finally want they disband the feelings to want whatever it is they have been seeking anymore. Another idea was that perhaps that the shoes themselves had a connotative meaning and the way in which the main protagonist in the story (Clare) obtained the shoes, made her into the person she did not set out to be. I even considered the idea that that the script actually had very little or no meaning and there was a sense of ambiguity to lead the readers/audience to make their own decisions and conclusions. I did also watch a short film made by a previous student on Youtube to try and extract another persons take on the script. However, none of these meanings really had any influence on my ideas to change the script, even information from the workshop suggesting the strong link with 'The Wizard of Oz' did not provide me with any further insight to the already fixed idea I had.

My own personal idea consisted of some fairly drastic changes to the story and characters involved, yet left the same meanings and ideals as the previous script. I wanted to remain dedicated to the original draft, whilst giving my own take on the story itself. My idea firstly changed the main protagonist's gender to a male. The young male in question sought after a pair of trainers (similarly to the original script) and mugs a businessman in order to obtain the required money to purchase the shoes. After some subplot, and after buying the shoes, in return, the young male finds himself at the wrong end of a mugging which ends causing him to lose the shoes. I felt that changing the script to this would have remained fairly close to what my own take on the original script was, but also added a more heightened sense of redemption. The original script in my opinion never saw the girl punished for stealing and in some ways could be argued that it represented it in a good way, whereas my take allows the audience to be satisfied in knowing the protagonist got what he deserved.

Generally, everyone in the group had their own very different takes on the script, but we established a script that would have the better parts of everyones own individual efforts.
After some discussion with my group and multiple ideas in circulation, we decided to retain the idea that the main character would be seen to be punished for their actions. Overall the script that we have re-written will again remain very close to the original script, however we agreed that the original script was not very well received by any of us and that some specific changes were needed. The idea of a female as the main protagonist, we did keep due to the fact that we felt that a sense of innocence and emotion is displayed better though a female character.