Wolf Stories

By January 8th, I need to have written, produced, and edited to completion a short two minute film based on a traditional fairytale. The film needs to be shot on a phone, and given a modern twist. Right. I should probably start work on that.

Everyone loves dogs. You’re considered an outsider if you don’t like dogs. Wolves have many similarities to dogs, and yet they’re routinely cast as villains and scary creatures in literature. I always found that weird as a child, and noticed that multiple fairytales use wolves as their primary source of terror. The Three Pigs, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood. Wouldn’t it be interested to see the fairytale genre reversed, and paint Mister Wolf as the protagonist, with one, or even all of his ‘victims’ as antagonist. That was my initial idea for this fairytale film adaption.

After thinking about this idea for a while, I came up with a plot:

The film would begin with Mister Wolf walking down a tight corridor surrounded by journalists. The press would be consistently photographing him, and he would be flanked by two men in suits. The Wolf is being hounded by these journalists, “do you regret what you did Mister Wolf?”,  “Are you going to plead guilty Mister Wolf”? The wolf would reach a door, and turn to face the press. He would deny the allegations against him, and walk through the door and into a courtroom. The audience would then see Red Riding Hood, the Three Pigs, and a man, who we understand is the boy from ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’. Each would accuse him of the events from their respective fairytale, and the wolf would shake his head and deny each. As they spoke, the screen would flash with brief images depicting the stories they told. The wolf would then make a speech, and discuss how wolf-kind had always been victimised and impugned by society, and how he was really a good man. We’d hear the bang of a gavel, and the wolf would be found not guilty. After a slow fade through white, we’d see Mister Wolf walking through a park. A group of young teenagers would shout abuse at him, accusing him of being a violent criminal. The wolf would try to walk away, but the kids would surround him. After some provocation, the Wolf would argue that he was nothing like the portrayals of him in the media, before losing his temper, and slashing his claws at the ringleader of the group. Cut to black.

I like this idea, and feel it has merit as a story. The issue, as discussed in my first blog post, is that the story felt too big for the three minute running time. The dialogue in the court would take up valuable time, and in trying to write the screenplay I was unable to get the film below the three minute running time. It simply would not fit. I really like the idea, and will maybe consider revisiting the concept in the future.

The next iteration of my story came from a desire to focus in on a single fairytale. I really wanted to keep the character of the Wolf as key, and tell a sequel to the classic tale. I wanted to hear the Wolf’s perception of the story, and still do so in a way that made him the protagonist, without straying too far from the original story. I settled on the somewhat surreal idea of placing the Big Bad Wolf into therapy. This would allow us to hear his narration whilst also facilitating flashbacks that would allow me to justify changes to the original; the Wolf is likely to be an unreliable narrator. #gallery-91-2 { margin: auto; } #gallery-91-2 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-91-2 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-91-2 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

I really like this idea, and think it definitely has legs. I think the script can fit into the time limit, and the additional narrative of the Wolf’s relationship with the therapist is interesting for me to explore. Marking him as the true villain after all stays true to the original story, but the film works as a character study that explores his motivations. I’ll work on the story further, and it’s exciting to have something that I can put into production within a few weeks time.

#Reflection