The Black Pill : the limits on satire in contemporary screenwriting
Browne, Nigel (2023)
2023
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023051811609
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023051811609
Tiivistelmä
Objectives
Artistically, my aims were to deepen my understanding of narrative structure in feature film screenwriting and to produce a work entertaining and meaningful enough to merit consideration for production in light of current industry standards. The concomitant research aims of this thesis are to scrutinize what constitutes satire in film and to examine what structural, commercial and social tensions may impinge on the writer’s voice in current satirical screenwriting practice.
Logline
When a lovelorn school-leaver, literally branded as a potential rapist, crosses paths with a foreign transsexual prostitute seeking escape from her captors, he finds he must avoid being sucked into his only friend’s suicidal revenge attack on women so that he can prevent another one on men.
Synopsis
Dover, UK, 2018. TREV, a shy school-leaver just wants to be “a man”. When he is attacked by a gang of girls, branded and forced to admit on tape that he wants to rape his crush, he is clueless as to why. He asks his only friend ANTO, an incel, to help him get revenge. Meanwhile transsexual prostitute LYSE is trafficked into the UK for sex work, drugged and held against her will in a London brothel. Trev and Lyse’s paths cross after he visits his ailing grandfather BOGDAN in a nearby care home. Seeing her in a fight, he becomes obsessed with her.
Later, when Trev out metal detecting finds an old weapons cache, Anto’s incel fantasies go into overdrive. With a gun they can now start a beta-male “Trevolution” by shooting up the premiere of a feminist play. Trev demurs when Anto tries to kiss him. Plus, when Bogdan forces him into taking him to the brothel, where he meets Lyse, he begins to have divided loyalties. He helps Lyse escape but is stunned to learn of Bogdan’s death by Viagra overdose. The question now stands: Is Trev “man” enough to stop Anto’s incel attack on the play and help Lyse avoid getting killed in her own drive for vengeance on her traffickers?
Artistically, my aims were to deepen my understanding of narrative structure in feature film screenwriting and to produce a work entertaining and meaningful enough to merit consideration for production in light of current industry standards. The concomitant research aims of this thesis are to scrutinize what constitutes satire in film and to examine what structural, commercial and social tensions may impinge on the writer’s voice in current satirical screenwriting practice.
Logline
When a lovelorn school-leaver, literally branded as a potential rapist, crosses paths with a foreign transsexual prostitute seeking escape from her captors, he finds he must avoid being sucked into his only friend’s suicidal revenge attack on women so that he can prevent another one on men.
Synopsis
Dover, UK, 2018. TREV, a shy school-leaver just wants to be “a man”. When he is attacked by a gang of girls, branded and forced to admit on tape that he wants to rape his crush, he is clueless as to why. He asks his only friend ANTO, an incel, to help him get revenge. Meanwhile transsexual prostitute LYSE is trafficked into the UK for sex work, drugged and held against her will in a London brothel. Trev and Lyse’s paths cross after he visits his ailing grandfather BOGDAN in a nearby care home. Seeing her in a fight, he becomes obsessed with her.
Later, when Trev out metal detecting finds an old weapons cache, Anto’s incel fantasies go into overdrive. With a gun they can now start a beta-male “Trevolution” by shooting up the premiere of a feminist play. Trev demurs when Anto tries to kiss him. Plus, when Bogdan forces him into taking him to the brothel, where he meets Lyse, he begins to have divided loyalties. He helps Lyse escape but is stunned to learn of Bogdan’s death by Viagra overdose. The question now stands: Is Trev “man” enough to stop Anto’s incel attack on the play and help Lyse avoid getting killed in her own drive for vengeance on her traffickers?