Original plans and alternative ideas

During the early stages of we came up with several ideas, these included the use of hospital corridors and office blocks which drew us to conclude that it would be unlikely that we could film the required scenes to really give the dramatic tension we were after. So we talked about simpler ideas and Hannah recorded them in a mind-map.

Here is the result:
We didn't focus solely on one idea, instead we focused on developing both of our main ideas. The result was an opening we were going to call Endurance. So I came up with a story line and drew up some rough ideas on how we could approach the narrative.

A 17 year old girl has been impersonating people online and leading people to make a fool of themselves, she has been doing this for 4 years now. Although recently she has been risking more than just pride to fool people into relationships with these fake people. To make things more 'fun' she decided to involve her closest friends.

However, the fun was cut short when her friend is due to meet her make believe boyfriend in an unfamiliar wooded area. After disappearing for two days her body is found in a nearby river. After months of investigation, the police stumble over records of previous text and instant messaging conversations with a mystery boyfriend. Later leads have the police locating the position of the fake boyfriend as the house of the dead girls best friend.

After several interviews, the 17 year old is accused of the murder of her best friend. With the evidence of their meeting arrangements against her along with her lack of explanation, she has to find a way to prove her innocence.

But there is more to her character, a dark past that could in fact provide a secret innocence to her actions, but before she has the chance to speak out, her regret and lack of dignity along with her new found lifestyle of violent abuse from both those she knew and strangers, grabs her and starts to take control.

At the lowest point of life she takes an overdose of pills, after viewing a collection of articles, as the history repeats itself in her final moments she writes a final statement suggesting she was innocent all along.

The police along with one of the girls friends later find clips of her past and realise not only was she innocent, but her family holds a much darker past explaining her twisted ways.

The opening would of shown the 17 year old girl lying on the bathroom floor with pills and newspaper articles scattered around. As the camera pans up on the body there will be voice overs and flashbacks showing violence from friends and strangers, as well as psychiatric and police opinions. As the camera pans up more, the girls lifeless face is revealed. Here are the designing sketches with some ideas written on them (Click to enlarge):