Preliminary Task - Script and Backstory

Backstory: Two members of a highly successful but treacherous drug trafficking organisation have been involved in a drugs trade that went hideously wrong. The first man we come to focus on in the clip (Bates) is sat working at his desk when a very distressed and angered second character enters the room (Johnson). He flings some photos of what appears to be murdered women onto Bates' desk and we learn that they were the hostages taken during the trade. Seemingly not according to plan, the hostages were brutally killed by Bates and other fellow members of the organisation and Johnson has come to demand why. This is because he is in charge of keeping the illegal organisation's activities as far away from the public eye and authorities as possible; but the murder of these hostages will undoubtedly have put the organisation directly underneath the public spotlight.

(Not much of this is given away in the short clip we plan to film as the 4 lines of dialogue we include are quite cryptic and not very revealing. However this is how we want it because we want to withold information to hook the audience's interest.)

In the final few seconds of the clip, Bates completely unexpectedly pulls a gun from underneath his desk and shoots Johnson. This is because unknown to Johnson (and the audience) the organisation's leader has ordered Johnson's murder because he is becoming a burden and threat to the organisation's progress.


SCRIPT:

Johnson - (Quietly but with authority) This wasn't supposed to happen...

Bates - (Calmly) I had no choice.

Johnson - (Angered and slamming fist on the table) There is always a choice! (Pause) You were supposed to stick to the plan.

Bates - (Menacingly) This was the plan ... (Brings out a gun and shoots Johnson dead.)


Over the next few days we will provide a storyboard of the way in which we intend to film our clip, and then hopefully we will have fully completed the filming and editing of our preliminary task by the end of this week.

- Kim Rayner