The Big Game

1st Draft

The first draft was meant to be a 40 minute film. This was before the idea got broken into 4 10 minute episodes. The gangsters drive down a country road, make their way to the flat and look around. Chip knocks on a neighbours door then they hit up a launderette, sett drugs, buy guns and then walk through a casino. They steal the money of the manager and find thugs waiting for them at their flat. They get taken to Big Al's "bookies" which turns sour when loan sharks crash the meeting. The gangsters get away, Kid has been shot. They dump him outside a hospital just before Boss walks in to see him. He meets Marlowe and leaves confused. He meets Phyllis outside who agrees to work for them. After a montage they celebrate their plan being complete in a pub. On leaving, Phyllis is gunned down, Boss meets with Marlowe before storming Big Al's office to settle things cone and for all. 

Final Draft - Ver 1

The annotations to the script for version 1 were very cosmetic. Dialogue and action trimming to take out non-essential words and sentences. It was a trimming down more than anything. I also added in description and dialogue where it seemed ambiguous or when you wasn't sure as a reader what exactly was happening and how. 

After having a table reading I asked each actor "where do you think your character has just been from?". Lloyd playing boss said, "I think he's just been in jail." That line opened up a huge array of possibilities in my head. Boss fresh out of prison fits with why they didn't do much research before moving. For that reason, the flat interior first scene includes a part where Boss is captivated by the light entering the window, implying he''s been without a window without bars for a while. 

I had a separate reading with Michael (Doc) and Marco (Kid). Michael posed a troubling question "If Doc is the brains, I would have thought he would have done his research before leaving." This trumped me until I remembered what Lloyd said. This is how the part of the story emerged that Boss got out of prison and put a last minute team together and went without notice. 

In the first reading, Mark (Fence) said that he thought Fence had been doing mercenary work, I envisioned Fence as a calm collected man but seeing how Mark gave him a sort of sassy, more hardened portrayal, I thought that suited better and thus the character changed for the better. That was the basis for all of Fence's lines from there on: Attitude. 

Then I began rewriting the dialogue and some actions based on the table reading. The actors in my film to be gave me a lot to think about. They all brought something unique to the table and an insight that added to what was already there. 

Ver 2

In version 2, the script went through some radical changes. Locations were changed to better suit what we had. The launderette became a cafe, the basketball court for the drug deal became an underpass more for atmosphere than anything.

One of the most major changes was the decision to split the story into 4 10 minute episodes. This was to save time on shooting, save money, help with funding and distribution and to make filming easier. If we have episodes to go by, we could be more focused on each one as individuals that create a whole. 

The changes to the script from then were very cosmetic. Cleaning up dialogue and actions in places, but for episode 1 only. We are filming episode 1 first so that's getting the entirety of our attention. 

Ver 3

This version was a drastic rewrite. We have our fair share of budget concerns as well as location problems. From this version: The country road is now a sub-urban road, the neighbour scene is outside instead of through a doorway and the casino walkthrough scene has been entirely cut and replaced with a scene where they walk to the entrance and it cuts to them kicking in the office door. The script is better now for having it taken out as it was raised to out attention by a veteran production designer that the scene didn't reflect our style very well. Some dialogue has been replaced, removed or added and some actions were tidied up. 

This version is more in-keeping with the environment of Thamesmead where we will film so it has a more defined style which I think is better. It makes more sense than before where it was a little hit and miss with locations, looking back.