"Hope Dies Last" Treatment.

South Essex College,

Luker Road,

Southend-On-Sea,

SS1 1ND.

"Hope Dies Last."

Dear Sir/Madam,

I thank you for taking an interest in the short drama, "Hope Dies Last." I am writing to inform you of my treatment for the production, which includes a more detailed description of the film, the budget, the contingency plans and also the list of out planned cast and crew.

"On the verge of giving up and surrendering within a war, a rebel has lead the battle against an oppressive government for years with the help of his younger brother. But when his daughter is kidnapped, he must learn that the easiest option isn't always the right one before his daughter is completely lost."

The film will involve four main characters - the two brothers who are the rebel leaders, the elder brother's daughter and the head of the government who has kidnapped the daughter. I will be using a number of actors - most likely four or five - who will double up as both other rebels, and solders for the government, but will not be recognisable as they play the bad guys. It will also be filmed in a number of different looking locations - ranging from a high-tech government communications room to a derelict building, but all of these will actually be on one site, so no huge travel between locations would be needed.

The film will start with a series of shots, blurred and fast paced which will give the audience an idea of what happened before the events of the film, but it would still keep some form of mystery and confusion to these events which will be answered later in the film. This sequence will only last around twenty to thirty seconds, and will fade in with the title, and be almost like the title sequence of the film. Soon enough, when this sequence is over, the audience will realise that what they just watched was snippets from the protagonist's nightmare, and the main events of the film will begin with him waking from this nightmare, and therefore pulling the audience out of the dream world and into the reality of this film instead. Accompanying this will be a number of sounds and voices, perhaps short sentences and words to help the audience understand this otherwise confusing sequence of clips before being pulled into the present time that the film is set in.

In the beginning of the film, after the opening sequence, the main protagonist and his brother will introduce the audience to the world that the film is set. More information about the clips we saw during the opening sequence will be revealed here, as well as a few more, less-important characters. The audience will learn about the main protagonist's daughter being kidnapped - which we saw during the opening - and their plans to get her back. They'll also learn that this is not an easy task, either. The brothers are injured, and getting the girl back will involve them infiltrating the oppressive government's headquarters, and with them being high priority targets as they were the first to rebel, and lead the others to join them, all eyes will be on them; both from the government and the other exiles/rebel forces. A number of other exiles/rebels will remind them of this, but the main protagonist will not seem to listen, completely focused on getting his daughter out of there before anything happens to her. He lost his lover, and he's not planning on losing his daughter too.

The main protagonists reach the government headquarters after some debate to how they would go about rescuing the daughter, and are already approached by a number of masked government forces. They manage to fight these forces, and either kill or knock them unconscious and take their uniforms/masks, allowing them access to the headquarters without being under too much suspicion. The rest of the exiles/rebels wait in hiding outside the building, waiting in case anything goes wrong and the two brothers need help.

Whilst infiltrating the headquarters, the two brothers make a mistake by revealing their true identities to the girl when they find her. This is caught on cameras as they free her, and causes the government to raise the alarm. This sends forces out looking for them, and alerts the other exiles/rebels outside that things aren't quite going exactly to plan, with reinforcements being called in to help try and catch/kill the three of them before they have a chance to do anything. With the alarm raised, the brothers are forced to try and escape the building before they are overwhelmed by forces, which is a strong possibility at that point in time. With them being so far into the building, and the others having been waiting outside, they are currently on their own, and have to make sure to protect the girl too. This clearly turns out to be a difficult task, and the main protagonist tells the girl that if anything happens to him or his brother, she needs to keep running and not look back to meet up with the others who have promised to look after her for them.

The three almost make it to the exit of the headquarters where the others are holding the reinforcements outside at bay for them. The exit is in sight and it looks like they are going to make it, but a large group of reinforcements appear with the main villain from before, blocking their path. They manage to take cover, but with them aiming more for the main protagonist, he tells the girl to go with his brother and for them to split up, him drawing the villain's attention away from the girl, giving them more of a chance to escape. The brother completely disagrees with this, however, thinking that it is a risky decision - like he had promised he would not let him make - but the protagonist does not listen and heads the other way before his brother had a chance to stop him. 
With the main protagonist drawing the villain's attention away from the other two, he finds himself cornered by the same villain from earlier who had sent him the video transmission. He manages to hold them off for a few moments, but is soon shot down by him, finding that he was completely at their mercy at that point in time. His daughter catches sight of this and cries for him, alerting his brother to what was happening. Seeming torn by whether to help his brother like he had promised the protagonist's lover, or help get the girl to safety. He then gets the girl out of the building, shutting the door behind her and forces it to stay shut, turning back to help his brother. Although she is not completely out of danger, she is no longer inside the building where the fight is going on, and still has a chance to run before the government forces catch up to her again. 

The brother shoots at the villain, but finds himself too late. Although he hits his target, the shot making the villain stumble, he was barely seconds away from saving his brother's life. Now overtaken by rage and guilt that he could not fulfil his promise to the protagonist's lover and keep him safe by not letting him take reckless decisions, he targets the villain, almost managing to kill him before he is shot down to by another one of the government forces, leaving the girl alone outside, watching the scene unfold within the building. The injured villain turns to the girl, demanding that the others get after her as she seems to be frozen in grief and fear. A van soon pulls up just outside the building, however, containing some of the exiles/rebels who pull her into the van to take her to safety before she was killed too.

The entire film will be shot in a way that makes it look very dark and gloomy, adding to the feeling of  desperation and how the world in that time was run by the oppressive government.


Budget:
I should hopefully be able to complete the film with £159.14.

Breaking this down, it will cost me £149 in total to hire out the location for three hours, plus pay for the entrance of all the cast and crew members. This is the main bulk of the budget, and because this is so much, I've tried to keep other costs as low as possible.

As for props and costumes, it should hopefully only cost me £14.09 in total. I'm planning to borrow costumes and some props from the bunker itself, and so the only things I will need to buy are items that they do not have there - such as masks and a pair of handcuffs. These I have found cheaply on ebay, however.

Because I hope to keep the filming within three hours, I will not be providing food, drink and accommodation for the cast and crew members. I will advise them to bring a bottle of water and a snack each, and inform them that there is a cafe on site, but I will not be able to pay for their food and drink because of the amount I have already spent on hiring out the location, and how short I'm planning to spent filming there.

When it comes to transport, I am able to get help with friends who have a large car that's big enough to accommodate eight people. That, plus my car, will mean we can take thirteen people to the location and back as well as all the equipment we will need to bring. My friend is willing to provide this transport for free, so we will not need to pay out costs for this.

I own a Canon 700D camera at home, so the only equipment I will really need to hire will be microphones, a dolly and tracks, a tripod and lights. All this I can hire for free from the college, so it will not add to my budget at all.


Talent:
Luke Jonathan Haines - Nathan Barry.
Jason Haines - Jack Turner.
Atlanta Haines - Stephanie Evans.
Sara Haines - Becky Canham.
Christian Penfold - Luke Taylor.

Extras:
Kieran Hole.
Isabella Atkins.
Lauren O'Hara.


Crew Members:
Director/Producer - Nicola Sinclair.
Camera Operator - Nicola Sinclair.
Lighting/Sound - Tony Winkworth and Nicola Sinclair.
Transport - Tony Winkworth and Jacqueline Sinclair.
Location Recce - Jacqueline Sinclair.
Runner - Tony Winkworth.
Behind-The-Scenes Filming: Jacqueline Sinclair.
Editing - Nicola Sinclair.


Contingency:
I am going to bring with me an extra £80 on the day in case we exceed the three hours filming and need to pay for another three hours on site. The money will also cover food and drink incase someone is unable to buy their own, and desperately needs something.

I am also leaving Sunday the 1st, and Monday the 2nd open incase I need to re-do anything with the main actors, such as sound recordings, or re-recordings of a certain scene. However, I will film each scene at least two or three times on the day, so that hopefully I won't have any issues with the outcome of the shots when I go to edit the film.

I will also make sure that I bring spare equipment on the day - such as batteries, SD cards and chargers in case something happens with the equipment that I bring with me, and this way it won't interrupt filming.

I also plan to film later in the day when the bunker is closing to the public, so that this way we will have less interruptions from people walking by - but I will make sure to have crew members on standby just incase I need something done quickly - like asking people to stay back whilst I shoot a scene.

I will also confirm with more actors/extras about being available on the days in case my main talent is unable to make it for whatever reason, such as sickness or injury.


Yours sincerely,
Nicola Sinclair.