Storyboard - Dear Auntie Babs

Proof Script

INT. OFFICE – DAY (MORNING)

JEN is at her desk reading an EMAIL from a fan called LUCY.

V/O JEN

Dear Auntie Babs, I know this is my 800^th letter to you but I really don’t think you realise just how much you have changed my life. If it wasn’t for you and your incredible advice, I wouldn’t have met the man who I intend on spending the rest of my life with. I can only hope that one day my life will be as fulfilling as yours- and the huge mansion would be a bonus!

JEN

They don’t have a clue.

V/O JEN

Hope all is well with the girls… and your famous husband PAOLO, of course. All the best, LUCY.

JEN begins to REPLY to LUCY.

JEN

Dear LUCY, all is well in Babs world. I’m glad my advice

helped you. It’s nice to hear that my advice really works. The girls are doing great and mine and PAOLO’s relationship is stronger than ev-

PAOLO appears at JEN’s doorway interrupting her reading aloud.

V/O JEN

Oh my god! It’s him. I could so f-

JEN

PAOLO!

PAOLO

JEN, was wondering if you could work the weekend?

JEN gazes at PAOLO and begins to imagine an idealic flirtation to ask the hunk out. She imagines what she wants to do.

JEN

Only if you are… Baby!

In her imagination JEN acts SEDUCTIVELY towards PAOLO. She throws her GLASSES off and taking out her HAIR then walking towards PAOLO when the embrace.

PAOLO

JEN?

JEN then snaps back into reality and realises she has to try being seductive with PAOLO.

V/O JEN

Right, come on JEN. You need to do this, you are a sex goddess, come on! Just try because he is gorgeous!

JEN tries to remove her GLASSES but they get caught.

V/O JEN

1,2,3… and throw the glasses!

They fly out the WINDOW, now she can’t see where PAOLO is so begins to talk to the WALL. CATS are heard from the street below.

PAOLO reacts to her actions.

V/O JEN

Now go for the big finish! NOW!

JEN

Well… I need to attend a reprographics meeting because the company’s configuration system is becoming rather problematic.

V/O JEN

What the fuck!? Smooth JEN, reallllll smooth.

PAOLO is standing confused as JEN is now trying to locate him by scaling the wall.

JEN finds PAOLO standing near her door as she feels his body.

JEN

Yeah… the weekends fine.

PAOLO is a bit overwhelmed by JEN’s performance but decides to nod and exits.

JEN slowly turns round and slaps her forehead then melting to the ground in utter embarrassment.

V/O JEN

I am Auntie Babs! (title appears, she walks down a street) Ok, my name is Jenny Parker but in my virtual life I am Barbara and this is my world.

Final Piece Treatment

Title - Dear Auntie Babs

In our final piece, my Playhouse Productions group have decided to use this story line as we mainly aimed for the British RomCom idea:
We begin with a woman who runs a popular website called "Dear Auntie Babs". Its like an agony aunt website where people write in to get advice on love, for example how to get a partner; relationship tips; or anything about romance etc. She is a well known woman who give incredible advice to her clients that email her daily, however she cannot find love herself even though she tells her fans about a life of love and happiness with her 'husband' and huge house. Except she really lives in a flat whilst working in a cramped office. She spends all her time helping her clients find love, but has no courage or confidence to find love herself. She tries all different ways to seduce a man but always seems to fail.
Our opening piece begins with the woman called 'Jen' in her office recieving an email from one of her clients. Whilst reading then replying, her boss enters and asks about her working next week. She immediately gets into a state and imagines what she wishes she could do, for example flirt a little or even ask him out. But when back in reality she snaps out of it, panics, and gives a straight answer without no seduction. Looking back over at the advice she was going to reply to the email, she realises she needs to sort herself out, and get her love life on track as it's making her feel depressed. This will hopefully cause the audience to feel sorry for the character and make them want her to find love.
Through the film she tries various ways to get a man such as blind dates, speed dating etc but still nothing seems to work but slowly progresses when coming to the end of the film:
She starts the pack up her things from her office as her website has become very popular, so moving to her new bigger life could be a big step for Jen, even without a lover. However, before she leaves the boss from the opening scene asks her how she is feeling about going and whilst in deep conversation she picks up the courage to ask him out. This shows that she has developed throughout the film and has become a different character from the opening.

Homework - RomComs

For this part of our research we watched many openings on Romantic Comedies to experience what our coursework should be like.
We watched films such as

• Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason
• About a Boy
• Music and Lyrics
• Rumour Has It...
• 50 First Dates
• Something About Mary

Each of these films had many things in common and very few differences. This gave our group an idea of what to use in our final piece and twists we could add in to make it different.

Our main discovery was that 90% of the films we viewed had voice overs in their opeing sequence. These included commentries about characters in the films, mostly from the main characters. They involved discussing either their situation or life so far or simply discribing love. We found that this may be a good idea to use in our final piece because its a great way to tell the audience what has happened so far, whilst allowing them to view the opening scene. We believe that commentry is a very popular technique in Romcoms, especially for Bridget Jones and About a Boy.

We also discovered that some openings showed a main event that occured recently, or a timeline of past experiences. This allowed the audience to be aware of what has happened already in the story. This has given my group an idea to use photos in our final piece to show our romantic couple through their life, all symbolising good times they have shared. This will also give us a good opertunity to include our credits into our two minute opening.

Lastly we noticed that each opening included music to tell the audience which genre it is. This could be a romantic peice of music (for example in The Holiday) or a song aimed at love (for example Music and Lyrics). This has also giving my group the idea to add in music in our final piece which will allow the audience to realise we are creating a Romantic Comedy.

This Research has improved mine and my groups knowledge but we still have a lot more to do until we begin our final piece.