Initial Ideas - Keira

• 1st Idea: 'Cat Burglar' About a girl who has to go and feed her neighbour's cats while she is away on holiday. We see her going there every day, checking the post, feeding the cats and opening/closing the curtains etc., falling into a routine. One day she goes and notices a fat envelope that clearly contains money on the welcome mat with the woman's name on the front. Because it is unsealed she opens it and takes out a note reading: 'I know this doesn't make up for me not being there, but it's all I've got.' (Or something along those lines). Thinking that no one will notice if she takes a little bit of the money, she does so and returns it to the mat. The next day she returns and we see that she's wearing one new item of jewellery/clothing (with a close up to highlight it, suggesting she bought it with the stolen money). She does her routine as normal, walks past the money and quickly decides just to take a bit more, thinking she deserves it for all the work she's doing. The same routine happens over and over again, speeding up with quick close ups on the actions (walking to the house, showing a new item she's bought, feeding the cats, opening the curtains, walking past the money, taking some etc.) When the woman returns and asks her if there'd been any post while she's away, the girl points to the pile and she sorts through, eventually coming to the envelope with the money. Upon looking inside and noticing the money, she looks shocked and the girl thinks she's in trouble, but the woman merely says: 'Aw, isn't that nice, ____? (whoever)'s sent me £20!...Why don't you have it as a thank you for feeding the cats?' The girl smiles, takes the money and leaves.
• Idea 2: We are introduced to a character who is on the verge of commiting suicide (or is possibly passed out). The story explains how she/he's come to this state and what's happened in the day to make them come to the conclusion that they should end their life, and what small differences could have been made to make an entirely different conclusion.

The problem with the first idea is that it may be too repetitive and become boring for the audience, and we want to keep them as entertained as possible (obviously). There was also a problem with props as we didn't know how to get that much money, or successfully make copies that could look real enough.

The problem with the second idea is that it would be highly complicated and require potentially alot of dialogue and requirement for quality acting (which isn't readily available). It is a very serious theme to tackle in 5 minutes, and we felt that another could more effectively demonstrate our skills without the complicated plot.

The next post will contain the inspiration for and plot of our final idea.

Keira Smalley