Treatment No.1

Treatment: Full Film

Title: Rising Waves

Duration: 89 minutes

Audience: Young adults and teenagers of both genders

Distributor: Warp Films - Sheffield

Synopsis: The film "Rising Waves" follows the life of Chris Mullen who is a 17 year old college student who develops paranoid schizophrenia and a fear of water. Chris is a perturbed young man who has had an unstable upbringing: he was regularly bullied and beaten by his dad and subsequently he moved in with his grandma at 14 but she died due to suspicious circumstances. The film begins with Chris emerging from a freezing lake and he is trying to escape something he believes is in the water. He runs from the lake which is in deep woods and manages to find his way to a dimly lit street where he gets his phone out and rings the police for help. While he is ringing the police the screen cuts to blank and the non-diegetic white noise becomes louder and then cuts abruptly to hear a loud scream. The next scene is about 2 weeks before all of this happens to Chris and shows him waking up in his care home, wondering why he is there. The audience should be able to realise that he has been put into a care home for abandoned teenagers who aren't able to look after themselves, and Chris still believes he lives at his Grandma's house. The next 10 minutes follow Chris' morning routine with a lot of fast paced shots to show how hectic his mornings are before going to college. Chris is bullied at college and is ostracised by his peers and this is shown when Chris is involuntarily involved in a water fight which results in him getting soaked and humiliated by a group of 10 boys. Chris ends up trying to fight with one of the boys who is particularly cruel but this leads to the gang of boys teaming up and punching him to the point where he is bleeding from the nose and mouth. At this point Chris experiences vivid flashbacks of being drowned by his dad and his grandma's funeral in which he is the only person there. The next scenes turn into a sort of dream where his grandma emerges from the grave and starts bullying him and taunting him in the voice of the group of boys. On his way back to his grandma's home he passes a neighbour who tries to have a conversation with him but he tells her to "f**k off". He is back at his home and there are similar shots to in the morning but this time there is very contrasting atmosphere and darker scenes which connote the changing mood of Chris. Outside of his bedroom it begins to rain heavily and at this point Chris begins to cry. He then goes downstairs for a glass of water but when he is just about to take a drink but when he puts the glass to his lips the water turns into blood and he smashes the glass on the floor he then sees somebody pass a window in his kitchen but it is all in Chris' mind. He escapes his house thinking somebody is following him where he then ends up to the scene at the beginning of the film. At this point there are two different camera angles, one which is a long shot of Chris on his own at the side of the lake (to represent reality) and another shot which is a medium shot showing Chris and the person he can see in his head (this represents Chris' fantasy). Chris falls into the lake and the next scenes are similar to the start but from Chris' point of view where this time the audience can actually see the scary monster that has been taunting Chris. The final scene is at dusk time and Chris is standing at the top of a bridge overlooking a busy motorway and he looks extremely depressed and scary. There is a long shot of Chris standing upon the edge of the bridge and then a point of view shot. The next shot is used to represent Chris jumping off and the camera is lowered into the traffic.

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