Major Project: Initial Idea- 'The Stick Up'

For the  major project I will be working with Ellie (Producer & Co-Writer) and Ellen (DOP & Co-Writer). As a group we decided that we wanted to create a short fiction film (about 10 mins). We all like the idea of doing a comedy drama, as opposed to a drama or a sci fi etc...

INITIAL IDEA- 'THE STICK UP'

At first I struggled to think of a good idea for this project. I guess you could say I had a writer's block. Everything I thought of didn't really work out, or wouldn't work for this project, until I watched Edgar Wright's 'BABY DRIVER'. It was at that point I realised I wanted to make a comedy about a heist of some sort. I've always been a fan of Edgar Wright, and I've always been a fan of heist movies like the 'Ocean's' films, 'Reservoir Dogs', 'The Town' and 'The Italian Job'. I've seen a few heist comedies as well like 'Tower Heist' and 'Logan Lucky'. It's pretty clear the market has already had it's fair share of comedy heist movies, but I had an idea I felt would be different.

I wanted to create a film with a good twist at the end, so I came up with the idea of two guys carrying out a heist, who end up stealing the wrong thing because of a misunderstanding. In this case the misunderstanding is that they accidently rob an apple (as in the fruit) warehouse instead of an Apple (as in the phone company) warehouse. I felt this would be a good payoff for a short comedy film. I pitched the idea to the rest of my group and they liked it, so I started working on a structure for the story, and an initial script draft. I decided to call it 'The Stick Up', which is another name for a heist or robbery, and it also sounds like 'stitch up' which is when you set someone up, because one character sets the other one up to fail.

My initial plan for the structure was:

Beginning-

- One character (Dave) arrives late. He runs across the car park of an unidentified warehouse, and gets into a car.
- He is greeted in the car by another character (Steve). Steve and Dave argue about why Dave is late.
- It becomes clear that Dave has bought the wrong guns and the wrong masks. Although Steve is annoyed, he continues with the heist.
- Steve also questions why it's so quiet, Dave assures him that it's because everyone is on lunch.

Middle-

- Outside the warehouse entrance it becomes clear that Steve doesn't actually know what he is doing, which makes Dave more nervous.
- Steve and Dave break into the warehouse. They search the warehouse.
- Whilst searching, somebody makes Dave jump. It turns out to be Steve playing a prank.

End-

- Steve and Dave search boxes, only to discover that they are filled with fruit.
- It becomes clear that Dave thought Steve wanted to rob an apple warehouse, not an Apple warehouse.
- Steve storms off. Dave follows.
- The two of them get back into their car, only to discover that it won't start.

I will use this initial structure to create a first draft of the script.