Lillian and Ray: The Pitch (25 words)

The Pitch (25 words)

The toxicity of a once blissful relationship is explored in this contemporary drama after two teens get together without fully knowing themselves or each other.


Idea in brief 
This idea is all about contrast. A teenage boy and girl are getting ready to meet each other for the first time. The differences in routine highlight subtle traits in their personality, Ray is more laid back, Lillian is more precise. Ray's scars are shown, indicating a troubled past. There is awkwardness at first when they meet at the park for a picnic, but as their date develops, their will be flash forwards of their deteriorating relationship, Lillian becomes controlling and manipulative, contrasting the present and the past. In the flash forward,We then see Lillian having a psychotic episode after Ray leaves her, she results to harming herself in order to frame him. We then end it with both of them bursting with happiness on their date as he asks her, " so, shall we meet up again?" , She responds with "sure, I don't see why not" and then it ends there. 

The main location will be at the park but there will be shots of in the house, mainly in a kitchen.

Themes i'd like to explore

The idea in depth
After brainstorming and filtering through my ideas, I've finally decided on the idea I want to take forward. A teenage boy(Ray Murdoch) and girl (Lillian Ivy James) are getting ready to meet each other for the first time. I aim to give hints of their different personalities through the contrasting shots of their routine. We can see that Ray is slowly getting ready, almost as if he's daydreaming whilst getting dressed. He is not making as much effort in comparison to Lillian who has a precise routine, slicked back hair and neatness is shown. Ray has scars on his back, indicating a possible abusive past.  They meet at the park for a picnic, the awkwardness is then shown with close ups of their face. As they begin to talk and introduce themselves, there will be a flash forward of a happy relationship, they are laughing and gazing into each others eyes with love and happiness in comparison to their first awkward looks. The conversation continues between them on the date, but she seems more interested than him when they meet, he is a little distant. flash forwards of their relationship developing, their true colours begin to show. he is more submissive whilst she becomes controlling. Back to their date, the conversation is starting to take off, Ray begins to smile at Lillian. A sudden flash forward to them screaming at each other, faces in the same position as their date, heightening the contrast between then and now. Back to the date, their conversation is really flowing now, they're both laughing  and having a good time , more flash forwards as their relationship turns even uglier, more shouting and screaming, Lillian says some very hurtful things, then it goes back to their date where she is now complimenting him, again showing a direct contrast to the change in the relationship. We are now back to the abusive relationship scene where Ray is threatening to leave Lillian, he slams something down in front of her before walking away, this is then followed by a contrast shot of Ray walking closer to Lillian on their date, he wants to kiss her but instead he gives her a hug, they share some more nice lighthearted words. After this, we are then shown Lillian almost having a psychotic episode after Ray leaves, she starts throwing things around. she decides that, "if I cant have him, no one else can" looks for something to harm herself with in order to frame him. finds a plate and just as she's about to smash it onto her face, it cuts to her calling the police, indicating that she's going to frame him for domestic abuse. We then go right back to Ray and Lillian on their date. He's bursting with happiness and asks her, " so, shall we meet up again?" , She responds with "sure, I don't see why not" and then it ends there. 

My aim is to show that sometimes the signs are there and we choose to ignore them because we want to give people the benefit of the doubt since we really want to like the person. However, that's not always the best route as it can lead to dangerous situations. This is something I have experienced a few times and its definitely a message I would want to put out there. Another thing is emotional abuse, many people don't take emotional abuse seriously and there are a lot of men out there who choose not to speak out. Although my story can be considered as an exaggerated version of a relationship, it is still a good idea to show people the possibilities. There are so many people in the world and we meet new people everyday. You never know what could happen and I wanted this to be illustrated in my screenplay.


Below are images of the type of themes that I'm going for and the types of locations I had in mind. 

After class feedback on my pitch, I decided to get rid of the "contemporary drama" part of my pitch as they said I didn't need it. below is my updated pitch.

The toxicity of a once blissful relationship is explored after two teens get together without fully knowing themselves or each other. Will things change for better or for worse?