FILM TV 1 – Idea / Plot / Synopsis

IDEA –  Scarlett leads a repetitive lifestyle (wakes up early, eats breakfast, waits for the bus, goes on the bus, goes to work and comes home) and is never late but always early. One day the bus never comes and she finds herself confused as to what she is meant with the time that is usually filled by her daily tasks. She discovers spontaneity and this changes the way she perceives the world.

PLOT / SYNOPSIS – Scarlett is an ordinary girl that lives by time and zones in her life. There is the waking up zone, eating zone, drinking tea, waiting for the bus, work, home, coming home, eating, watching tv, sleep and then it repeats. She is never late, always early. The film starts off with this repeated lifestyle. The silence of what she does – the only sounds are diegetic, ie pouring of the tea. She stands by the bus 5 minutes early every day and the bus gets to her stop on time every day. One day it doesn’t come and she finds herself confused and disorientated. She has never had a complex thought on what would happen if the bus never came. She looks around and sees things anew. Ordinary people start to look extraordinary and she starts wanting to know about people. She starts coming up with stories of their lives in their head just by looking at them. One girl walks to school – V/O of her voice starts and she creates a story for the people she sees. Girl walking to school – “has a crush on a boy that doesn’t even know her name. Incredibly intelligent but dumbs herself down so that she fits in with her other peers. Although she will realize this isn’t the way and she will become a heart surgeon saving people’s lives – and go home to a husband that appreciates her intelligence”. This continues with a few more people and then she find herself back at her house and a V/O (her voice) says her future and life. “Scarlett, who once liked being called Scar, will find happiness beyond routine. She will want go to bed at 9:30 tonight, but maybe 12. She won’t eat toast and peanut butter for breakfast, maybe cereal, she will skip her tea drinking and go straight outside. She won’t go to the bus stop but instead walk to work. And it’s there she will find the person she is meant to be with that will fit into her plans of change”. Throughout this V/O, the story will play out what the voice is saying. It will end with bus driving past and her not on it.

WEEK 3: ‘The Lens of Fear’ (Communications Debates and Approaches)

How, according to Altheide, does the mass media construct a discourse of fear?

Mass media constructs the discourse of fear through continuous news, talk shows, dramatic TV – this highlighting violence  and what should be “feared” within the world. The mass media presents stories in a way that directs to the audience in an emotive way – this enabling the audience to feel somewhat of a connection with the situation or event. The embedding of fear of the emotional side can perhaps convert the audience to feel that they themselves can be the victim. The media embellishes and capitalises on these stories and events and therefore it constructs a discourse of fear throughout society.

– Altheide, D 2002, ‘The Lens of Fear’, in Creating Fear: News and the Construction of Crisis’, Aldine De Gruyter, New York, pp. 175-198.-