Our Script for The Price of Beauty

Here is the script we have written and adapted from the original Katherine Mansfield 'A Cup of Tea'

int. master bedroom. day

An incredibly large bedroom. Chippendale furniture rests on axminster carpet. On the walls hangs contemporary art. Beautiful pieces that suggest an element of fantasy. In the middle of this room is a large bed like a flowering iris as ruffled white sheets fall across the edges. In the middle of this rose of sheets is Daphne a young woman in her twenties. She wakes up.

Feet glide into luxurious slippers. Next to them lies a book (Philip Roth)

TITLE: THE PRICE OT BEAUTY

INT.MASTER BEDROOM. DAY

Daphne sitting at the dressing table with maid combing her hair, Daphne playing with her face trying to make herself look prettier.

A long pause as Daphne reflects. The maid continues to comb.


Daphne:

How are the plans coming along for the party tomorrow night? Has Martin confirmed for 6 o'clock? We need something exquisitely different, it's my trademark.

Pause.


Pygmies! Yes, Pygmies serving supper, how wonderful! We can have them serving supper! Gerald can fly them over.

Maid says nothing.

int. fLOWEr shop. day.

Daphne standing in front of a sea of flowers. She is pointing in all directions.

DAPHNE:

Give me four bunches of those. And that jar or roses. Yes, I'll have all the roses in the jar. No, no lilac. I hate lilac. It's got no shape. (Under her breath) Lilac is so dreadfully shapeless. (Louder again) Give me those stumpy little tulips. Those red and white ones.

INT. CAR. DAY.

INT. JEWELERY SHOP. DAY.

Daphne sitting alone in a room, at a desk. She is drinking champagne, the bottle in a ice bucket by the desk. She is smoking a cigarette? The sound of footsteps can be heard. They carry on, getting louder and closer for around six seconds.

Shop Assistant:

(Opening a small box, handing it to her.)

Here you are Madam. This is brand new, just flown over from Dubai. The clarity is perfection.

DAPHNE:

Oh Ivan, this is the most beautiful, precious thing I have ever seen. I must have it!

Daphne is admiring it, noting every detail.

But what is the price?

SHOP Assistant:

This, Madam, comes to a total of fifteen thousand pounds.

DAPHNE:

Fifteen thousand pounds. Well, could you keep it for me?

SHOP Assistant:

Of course Madam.

Bows. Takes the box and leaves the room. Daphne puts her coat back on and leaves the shop.

EXT. STREET. Day.

Daphne steps out of shop. She is gazing at the world around her curiously, showing that she is realizing there is a world outside of her own. Suddenly, she feels a tap on her shoulder.

Naomi:

Excuse me Madam, may I speak to you a moment?

Daphne stops and stares at the girl.

Daphne:

Speak to me?

The girl pulls her coat around her.

NAOMI:

M-madam, please could I have some money for a cup of tea?

DAPHNE:

You have no money at all?

NAOMI:

None, Madam.

DAPHNE:

How extraordinary!

Daphne is still staring at the girl. Her eyes begin to move with ideas, she starts taking in the girl from top to bottom. She smiles.

DAPHNE:

Why don't you come home to tea with me?

Naomi's mouth drops open in shock. She looks confused.

DAPHNE:

(Smiling.)

Why won't you? Do. come home with me now in my car and have tea.

NAOMI:

You - you don't mean it, Madam.

She begins to stutter.

You must be mistaken.

DAPHNE:

Her voice gets quick and excited, yet still reassuring.

But I do! I want you to. Please, please come along.

Naomi puts her fingers to her lips. She looks at Daphne longingly.

NAOMI:

You're - you're not taking me to the police station? Please don't...I'll leave you alone.

Begins to turn to walk away. Rosemary touches her arm, getting her to turn back around.

DAPHNE:

The police station!

She laughs.

Why should I be so cruel? No, I only want to get you into a warm house and give you something to ear and hear...anything you wish to tell me.

Naomi smiles and nervously nods. They begin to walk to the car and the chauffeur, dressed in a suit and hat, opens the door. Daphne offers for Naomi to get in first, Daphne follows. Daphne turns to Naomi as they set off.

DAPHNE:

Don't be frightened. After all, why shouldn't you come back with me? I'll look after you...I will.

int. day. sitting room.

Daphne is walking around the room as Naomi stands in the doorway, gazing at the room.

DAPHNE:

Come and sit down in this big, comfy chair. It's delightful here by the fire, come and get warm.

Naomi doesn't move.

Oh please, you mustn't be frightened.

Naomi makes her way, very slowly, over to the chair and cautiously sits down.

DAPHNE:

Oh how thoughtless of me! We must have tea...tea at once!

She goes over to the side where a pot of tea is waiting and fills two teacups. She then goes over to the door.

Mary! Bring the brandy at once!

NAOMI:

No...no! Please, I don't want brandy, I never drink brandy. All I want is a cup of tea please Madam.

Her voice is shaking and she begins to cry. Daphne rushes over and puts her arm around Naomi's shoulders. Naomi forgets herself for a moment and sobs.

I can't go on no longer like this. I can't bear it...I cannot bear it! I shall do away with myself. I can't bear this any longer.

DAPHNE:

You shan't have to and you won't! I will look after you, please don't cry anymore. Don't you see what a good thing it was that you met me? We'll have tea and you'll tell me everything. And I shall arrange something. I promise...I promise I will! Do stop crying...please.

Naomi stops crying, wiping her eyes. Mary comes in with a tray filled with sandwiches and a bottle of brandy. She sets it down on the table and Daphne goes over to the window as the tea is brought over. Naomi begins to eat and Daphne starts to smoke a cigarette.

Mary comes back a little while later and removes the tray of food. Just the teacups, an ashtray and coffee table book remain on the table. Daphne goes over and sits down as Naomi leans back in her chair. Daphne lights another cigarette.

DAPHNE:

(Speaking softly)

When did you have your last meal?

At that moment there is a knock at the door. Philip puts his head round the door.

Philip:

May I come in Daphne?

DAPHNE:

Of course darling.

Philip comes in.

PHILIP:

Oh, I'm so sorry.

He stops and stares at Naomi in the chair.

DAPHNE:

It's quite alright.

She smiles.

This is my friend...

She stops and turns to Naomi.

I haven't even asked your name?

NAOMI:

Naomi, Madam.

DAPHNE:

This is Naomi.

Daphne turns back to Philip.

We are going to have a little talk, darling.

PHILIP:

Oh yes, dear...we most certainly are.

Philip looks down and sees Naomi's coat on the floor. He goes over to the fire and turns his back to it.

It's a beastly afternoon.

He looks down at Naomi's boots and then looks at Daphne.

DAPHNE:

Yes, isn't it? Absolutely vile.

Philip smiles, a very charming smile.

PHILIP:

As a matter of fact, could you come into my study with me for a moment? Naomi, will you excuse us?

DAPHNE:

Of course she will.

Daphne and Philip leave the room. Naomi picks up the book and flicks through it.

int. day. philip's study.

Philip is sitting behind his desk with Daphne in the chair opposite.

PHILIP:

I say, Daphne. Please explain to me who this girl is? What does it all mean.

Begins to chuckle.

I'm a little confused darling.

DAPHNE:

(Laughing lightly)

I picked her up in Curzon Street. Really. She's a real pick-up. She asked me if I had any money for a cup of tea and I felt so sorry for her, So I told her to come home with me.

PHILIP:

(His voice is raised)

But what on earth are you going to do with her?

DAPHNE:

(Answers quickly)

Be nice to her...be so very nice to her. I'm going to look after her. I don't know how, we haven't talked yet. But I want to show her - treat her - make her feel...

PHILIP:

My darling girl, you're quite mad, you know that? I really don't think this is the best idea, although she is lovely.

DAPHNE:

I knew you'd say that. Why not? I want to! Isn't that a good enough reason? Besides, I am always reading about these things. I decided-

PHILIP:

She is just so astonishingly pretty.

DAPHNE:

(Begins to stutter)

Her face drops a little.

Pretty? Do you think so? I-I hadn't even noticed.

(Her voice trails off)


PHILIP:

Good Lord! She's absolutely lovely.

He lights a cigarette.

Just look at her. I was blown away when I came into your room just now.

Daphne looks away from him.

However...I think you're making a ghastly mistake. Sorry, darling, if I'm crude and all that. Just let me know if Naomi is going to dine with us tonight?

Daphne doesn't say anything, gets up and walks out the door. Philip picks up the newspaper on his desk and starts to read, smoking his cigarette.

int. day. Daphne's study.

Daphne goes over to her desk and sits down. She takes out an envelope and writes 'Naomi' on it. She then takes out two twenty pound notes and one ten pound note. She puts in the envelope and goes out the room.

int. day. philip's study.

Daphne enters Philips study, he is sitting reading the newspaper like before. Daphne goes over to him and sits on the arm of his chair. He turns to her and strokes her head.

DAPHNE:

Darling, I found the most beautiful ring today, but it costs fifteen thousand pounds. May I have it?

PHILIP:

Of course you may, you little wasteful thing. Anything you like.

DAPHNE:

(Speaks softly)

Darling, can I ask you something? Do you like me?

PHILIP:

I like you very much, you know how much I adore you.

DAPHNE:

Do you think I'm pretty?

The camera pans back to show Daphne still sitting on the arm of Philips chair and Philip with his arm around her waist and stroking her head. The screen fades to black.

(Scenes 8, 9 and 10 are going to be shown using cross cutting.)

Casting and Location

The film i am producing is a film that requires older actors so we went onto a casting website called .................... and we wrote a description of the characters we are looking for which is

Daphne: Tall, skinny, brown hair and a smoker

Naomi: Medium height, blonde long hair, skinny and able to cry on cue

Philip: Tall, Handsome man mid twenties,brown hair and a smoker

we have got back quite a few emails back from possible people wanting to play the parts but have only got women through so far not men, but we are still looking.

For our locations we have looked at a few possible places to film, one is a house in Hadley Wood that would be perfect to film the bedroom and sitting room scene, another option is also a house in Stormont Road which would also be a good option to film those scenes in

We also need a study and we thought of filming in a friends of mines house that has a study set up like it would of been in 1920's

Lastly we need a flower and jewellery shop but we can adapt and cheat these scenes to make it look like they are in a flower shop or jewellery shop

Location and Casting

We decided to choose our location to be in a huge mansion house to convey that the woman is extremely rich and can get and have whatever she likes. We thought of houses such as these..

For Daphne's character we chose to dress her smart and chique because we are dressing her in contemporary wealthy clothes and we got our inspiration from Gossip Girl characters Blair and Serena who are also wealthy and dress the way we would like Daphne to dress.

Film Style

In this film The Single Man we liked the way Tom Ford composed all his shots like it was a piece of art, this is something we want to do in our film and the type of filming we would like to try to create. We want to film our film quite modern and make it contemporary because in the book it is set in 1920's. Although The Single Man is set in the same sort of time ours is it looks more modern and thats the impression we want to make on our audience.



This was another film we looked at by Peter Greenaway called The Cook,The Theif, His Wife and Her Lover, which again all the shots are very composed and said to be like a portrait. This is also set in the same time as ours but again made to look contemporary which is something we are really going to try to create.

Scene list and cast for our short film

A Cup of Tea by Katherine Mansfield.

Scene List:

Scene 1, ext, day.
Show she’s a rich yet ugly bitch. She can afford everything but not looks. Her features are nice but not pretty put together. Walking down the road.

Scene 2, int, day.
Flower shop.

Scene 3, int, day.
Boutique.

Scene 4, ext, day.
Meets miss smith. Street scene, outside the shop.

Scene 5, int, day.
Arrive at he house and set out tea, conversation between the two.

Scene 6, int, afternoon.
Husband comes in “bowled over”, dialogue.

Scene 7, int, afternoon.
Rosemary and Phillip. Rosemary goes to her writing room, money.

Scene 8, int, afternoon/early evening.
Dismissing Miss Smith.

Scene 9, int, early evening.
Rosemary and Phillip – end scene – her insecurities come out.

Cast:
Miss Smith/Naomi – Claudia R.
Rosemary/ Daphne -
Phillip/ Andreas – Andreas H.

Style:
-Modern.
-21st century.
-Contemporary.

-Daphne has pretty features but when put all together is not beautiful.
-Naomi is “a light, frail creature with tangled hair, dark lips, deep, lighted eyes.”
-Andreas has a “charming smile.”

'Signs'

today in media we watched the film 'Signs' which was a film about a man who leads a really boring life, he's lonely and nothing interesting is going on in his life. He then sees this girl from the office opposite, who catches his eye. Then from here his life gets increasingly more interesting and he starts communicating with this girl through notes on pieces of paper and they play games such as norts and crosses. Then one day this girl disappears and he is back at square one, with his life being boring again. That all changes when she shines a mirror on his face from above and she tell him she got promoted and he asks her out to celebrate and he finally meets the girl.

We spoke about how the shot angles and facial expressions convey to the audience that his life is boring and dull and when he's at the photocopying machine you see the machine having paper flowing out endlessly and then a shot of him which portrays that his life is endless and on going. Then the music gets more upbeat when the man meets the girl which tells the audience finally he has a point in life, and you see him rushing to work wanted to speak to her as much as he can.
I really liked this film because I feel like everyone can relate to this story we all know someone or are that person who has been through this problem and that's what makes it viewer friendly and because we like this man and want him to find someone which keeps the audience hooked to watch more.

Research and Planning

In my group we have researched into a short story by Katherine
Mansfield called 'A Cup of Tea' this is about a rich woman who comes upon a working class girl who asked her for money, the woman takes pity on this girl and invites her home with her. Later the husband arrives home and the woman tells him that she has brought a homeless girl home and the husband says she cant stay, then later changes his mind when he meets her and see how beautiful she is. Beauty is the only thing this girl has over the woman, this woman realises that her husband takes a liking to her and tell her she cant stay any more. The woman is clearly jealous of her beauty. This story is set in the 1920's so we can either stick with this time or make it modern and challenge the genre of this story we are at very early stages of planning but these are the ideas we have come up with.

Here is the story we have read and analysed

Research into the Media Language

The Auteur Theory- n the 1950s, the French magazine Cahiers du Cinema instigated a new way of 'reading' movies, which then became know as the Auteur Theory. It basically stated that the film was a work of art; just like a novel or painting, it was essentially the product of an individual's imagination.

Cinema Verite- a style of documentary filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of editing and camera work, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects. It is also known for taking a provocative stance toward its topics.

Avant-Garde Film- "Avant-garde" is a word from the French, meaning "ahead of the crowd." In contemporary English, we'd say it's on the "cutting edge." Avant-garde film makers want to experiment with new ideas, forms, techniques, and expressions--and are often said to be "ahead of their times." Avant-garde films are characterized by a high degree of experimentation--whether it be in manipulation in narrative materials, in highly stylized visual representation, or in radical departures from the norms or conventions current at the time, avant-garde film is always a vehicle for the filmmaker’s expression.

Film Noir- a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s.

The French New Wave- The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French film makers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema.

My Three Favourite Directors

I like a certain type of film which is why I have chosen these directors, I like girlie films and comedy’s and romances, I’m not that into action films or anything like that just because I find it boring. I also love thrillers and horrors but they wouldn't be my first choice to see.

My first director I have chosen is Nick Cassavetes; he's done films such as The Notebook and My Sisters Keeper, which are two of my all time favorite films. These films I loved because they both were about tragic events and the way he chose to tell the story was so clever, I like how he jumps in time from past to present, because it gives you a great insight into the story and doesn't tell the story from start to finish, but starts in the middle and jumps back to the beginning. When I see he has directed a film it makes me straight away want to go see it because I just love how he creates his films.

My second director I like is Mark Rosman; he directed the films A Cinderella Story, The Perfect Man, Life Size and many more girlie films. I like his style or movie because he is really good at making really fun romantic girlie films, in all three of these films he always has the one perfect boy who always is every girls dream- good-looking, charming and always knows how to do the right thing. When I was younger I always dreamed of finding that boy and his movies always kept these fantasy's real for me because he knew how to portray them in his films.

My last and final director that I have chosen is James Wan, he directed all the Saw movies which I loved. Even though they scared the hell out of me and left my heart beating so fast and my mouth wide open, he is a great director in how he tells the story and puts it all together and uses the enigmatic code to create a mystery and a horror film. James Wan made me fall in love with horror films, before I saw any of the Saw movies I wouldn't want to watch a horror film and now I love to go see them.

Research into Short Films

This short film is very clever although its very short but you get a lot of information from just the first shot. The narrative is told backwards which i think is really clever and i like a lot, this is also another convention i could use in my short story. At the end of the film it rewinds itself which i thought was really clever and showed you what happened. Even though this was only a minute and a half long from the shots the audience are shown you can gather a lot of information from it

In this film 'Occupied' the narrative is very simple about a girl smoking on a plane, but the camera angles and editing make the story a lot more interesting and keeps the audience interesting by making it unknown to the audience what she is doing. This is something i intend to do with my film, take a very simple story and make it into a short film and have a twist of the unknown in it and make my work very clever. The mise en scene in this film is really clever how she has hidden bits of the lighter and cigarette under her clothes and how she puts it all together for her to have a cigarette.

This short film was quite odd and strange and I couldn't see myself using anything from this but gave me an insight into what is required to make a short film, which is a simple story that has a beginning middle and end. In this short film the beginning was the guy sticking a wire into the fruit, the middle was all the odd objects coming out the speakers and the end was when he electrocuted himself with the wire.

The moral of the short film is maybe don't stick electrical in places they shouldn't go, or don't play with wires possibly. This short film was just the first film I watched to get a feel for what I was making.

This short film helped me more with showing me how a simple story line can make an excellent short film. This film is set in a dull office and its the stereotypical image of a man photocopying who hates his job and extremely bored. Then this black hole enables him to go through things such as vending machines etc. The moral of the story is about greed, because the man got too greedy with the money in the safe and ended up getting locked in it. The mise en scence in this film is very grey lighting making it look like a dull boring office, the guy is dressed in a suit showing he is a working man but his facial expressions convey that he is bored and doesn't want to be there.