At first, we had an epiphany that the narrative could be based on bullying, however we didn't come up with a unique narrative that we would find both fascinating and challenging to explore, but just a few shots which we thought could be cool.
Then, we found a mutual interest in the theme of gender inequality; rape. Our story was then about a 25 year old girl who was raped by her stepfather when she was a teenager and became traumatized since then. The opening would show her trauma and different symbols would be used to show how she is haunted by her past. We briefly explained this to our teacher and he asked us what the rest of the film was going to be about, we thought of different versions; explaining her past but then we thought this wouldn’t be enough because the plot isn’t complex enough.
We then thought about making it more complex, by adding a boyfriend whom she really loves and she wants to marry him, she even found a ring and is thrilled by the idea of a proposal however before this occurs, she finds out that he is involved in human trafficking.
Due to her past trauma she is stuck in a dilemma---Should she marry him or not? We thought of different ways of trying to hint this in the opening but eventually we got lost and we wanted more depth for the protagonist, something more queer, a different side. We then thought that we could base this character around the idea of “look like th’innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t”. Arina thought that her being raped could just be her story, not the truth and that she tried to seduce the stepfather. I really liked the idea, and added some details to the narrative for example he would be the mother’s boyfriend rather than the stepfather because it shows how the protagonist is rather impulsive and acts fast on her ideas, and she doesn’t do it to hurt her mother because if she waited them to get married, she would have hurt her mother’s feelings as their connection would be deeper.
The idea behind this is that because she always lacked a father figure, she has a particular attraction to older middle-aged men, especially her mother’s boyfriend because it is even closer to the father figure. We decided to first present her as a very innocent figure at the very start; I decided that the narrative would start anti-clockwise, so after the seduction and killing.
She is at a new school and there is a rumor going around saying that she was raped, this tends to evoke sympathy from the audience so they feel bad. Later on she goes to her friend’s home and that is where we get an idea that she isn’t really that innocent and naive and that there is another side to her, which is communicated through a montage and a “flash”. I came up with the name “Daisy” as it is sarcastic because the nomenclature symbolizes purity because of the flower Daisy. Again this links to the idea that people shouldn’t judge a person by the facade. The truth is underneath.
Creating the shots(We stopped doing this as drawing is more practical and efficient.
Here are some extracts from our storyboard
The rest of the film will be about explaining to the audience of what actually happened before moving to this new school, how Daisy was always attracted to her mother’s boyfriends or other children’s father and how she seduced them, how for some she succeeded and wants other people to find out so she can blame it on the father to show this grotesque aspect to society and mainly, one time she killed her mother’s boyfriend because he refused and she lost her temper. After this we are drawn back to the present, she attempts to seduce Chris, her friend’s father. In the end Daisy is exposed my Richard and her mother and she sends Daisy to an asylum. Daisy shouts and screams that she didn’t do anything and that it is all her mom, she shouts horrible words at her mom on the other side of the safe room. The mother stares at Daisy with eyes welled up in tears and mouths “shut up” and she leaves. So the bottom truth is that the mother hates children and men. This is shown through out the film when the mother clearly indicates Daisy to help out the fathers of Daisy’s classmates and her having a problem with hugging or being in contact with children. She also buys grown up films and magazines for Daisy. She also tells Daisy that men are horrible creatures, children as well and she cannot wait for Daisy to grow up, however that being a teenager is good because she can revenge and punish men.
Here is a detailed breakdown of the narrative as well as the changes made to the script.
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