SCRIPT TO SCREEN - LONDON TO BRIGHTON - OBSERVATION AND REVIEW

Watched 28/09/18

Written and Directed By Andrew Williams in 2006

ABOUT THE WRITER/DIRECTOR -PAUL ANDREW WILLIAMS

Paul Andrew Williams, in his own admission said that this film was one of the most pleasurable films that h
e had made and directed, because all of the young actors who stared in this film had no money and did it for no money so there was no pressure for him to fail.

It took Williams 5 years to find the funding for his film but he believed in it so much and meeting after meeting he finally found the investors to take this project serious.

Although I see this as a valued point for anyone wanting to make a film on a low budget, the story was still very complex in the way of the sensitive subject of underage prostitution and grooming.

Paul also discovered help give these young actors a platform in there careers.
Johnny Harris (who play Derick) went on to be an English acting legend, his recent major part was playing' Bob Cratchet' in Disney's animated version of the Christmas Carol and Georgia Groome who plays the young 11 year old Joanne in the film, went one to be the lead character in another British film 'Angus, Thongs and perfect snogging'.


OPENING SCENE

Right from the start the drama starts, with Kelly (who is played by Lorraine Stanley) and young Joanne (who is played by Georgia Groome) are in a grubby toilet, it is clear by the Mise-en-scene that the location is not nice where they are in as the cracks on the mirror, the graffiti on the walls, the simple lock on the toilet door.

As an audience I could see that the duo was in trouble, Kelly had a beaten face and Joanne was shivering and frightened.

Kelly was not the enemy in this from the outset because although her dialogue was strong and may have come across aggressive toward Joanne, she still tried to comfort her in the best way she could by telling her to lock herself in the toilet so she could go 'work' to earn money to get her food and both of them a train ticket.

I thought at first that Kelly may have been Joanne's mother as she did come across to be a mother figure, this was not the case, as when they got on the train, Joanne had explained what had happened to her parents, in a way I think some of the dialogue may not have been necessary, it could have been shown or more subtle dialogue could have been used at the open, Joanne could have said ' your not my Mum' then she could have told the sob storey about her family at the end to the villain Stuart (who is played by Sam Spruell).



A MOMENT.














Kelly and Joanne escape to Brighton because Joanne had stabbed her attacker.
Her attacker was not only a paedophile but was a well connected and a millionaire.
Joanne was a homeless helpless child who was manipulated into having sex with this dirty rich man, but bottled in when she was tied up and was threatened with a knife.

The image above depicts Joanne just being a kid, she even say's this on the bus when they get off at Brighton, Kelly say's "It's to early to go to my friends now, what do you want to do?"  Joanne show her child like side when she says that she want to go to the beach and play.

This for me was a lovely moment, it gave me as an audience a sympathetic view on her character and realising that after her ordeal and her strong exterior she is still only a child.


TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF VILLIAN















Derick - Pimp - Gangster

Derick lives in a small contained flat that is not well decorated and has the appearance of being cluttered.

Derick's use of dialogue is aggressive as he swears in nearly every conversation that he has.

Derick has no respect for women or anyone in general, he thinks about himself and only himself.

COSTUME, 
Derick's appearance says a lot about his character, he wears a black leather jacket, and jogging bottoms.

Stuart - millionaire top gangster

Stuart is the son of a very wealthy man but he is also a gangster.
He has minimal dialogue but his performance tells the audience that he is an important man, even his Hench men are well dressed and he only has to give them a gesture to get there attention.

COSTUME

Stuart is very well dressed, always in a suit and nice shoes, showing a totally different contrast to Derick, his rival.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This film was very hard to watch because I have children but as a creative artist i thought that it was executed well by the performance of the actors and although I did not see exactly what was going on in the beginning I knew what was happening by the performance and great camera work.

How does this relate to my project?

The main reason why this relates to my project is because it is shot in a realist way, I don't know the terminology for  the style yet but this is the type of feel that I wanted for my project, it felt real and i felt involved with the characters, it felt like I was in the footsteps and on the same journey of which the characters where taking, I felt all the emotions that they where feeling because of the extreme close up's and set, especially in the opening scene in the bathroom, I could see the cuts and bruises and I heard the pain, I saw that she was in a dilapidated bathroom because the lights flickered and the walls had graffiti on them.
A realistic setting is what I intend to show in my project.