Synopsis
Hooked is an allegorical short story about the horrors of fishing. It takes the experience of a fish caught on a fisherman’s line and anthropomorphises it. The story plays this out in the form of Antoinette who is ‘hooked’ by a fishing line from the sea and forcefully dragged from her natural habitat, above water, down to the depths of the ocean.
Narrative Outline
The opening image is of a fisherman bating his line in preparation to cast it out to sea. Jack and Antoinette are walking nearby along the beautiful waterfront when Jack proposes. Antoinette accepts. An ice cream vendor who witnesses this offers the newly engaged couple free ice creams to celebrate. They gratefully accept.
But when Antoinette begins to eat her ice cream, something goes immediately wrong. She begins bleeding from her mouth before being dragged along the ground violently. She grabs hold of the safety barrier along the walkway. Jack comes to her aid but there is nothing he can do. Antoinette is pulled into the ocean and down deep beneath the surface until she hits the ocean floor. As she drowns, a large rock moves over and crushes her. The first hit doesn’t quite kill her so the rock tries again, and this time it succeeds.
Jack looks out over the ocean, devasted.
The story bookends with the fisherman from the opening image. He’s now ready to cast his line out and he does so. The sinker carries his line far out to sea.
Read the Script
Director’s Treatment
Genre - Speculative Supernatural Fiction
Hooked takes one normal feature of our contemporary world and flips it; that being that humans ‘fish’ for fish and gives fish the ability to ‘fish’ for humans and then plays out the scenario in short form. This is ‘Speculative Supernatural Fiction’ and the story heads in a slight thriller/horror direction at the end as a sub-genre.
The genre wasn’t considered until after the script was written. It was simply the best and fastest way to portray the deeper point behind the story. That being how horrific it must be for a fish caught on a fishing line and to present that horror to the audience in a simple yet emotionally effective way.
Location
Plan A - Wellington Waterfront
Style and Look
The short will have two similar but distinct styles. The first half will be optimistic and beautiful but with a subtle sense of impending danger. This is while the characters are happily in their ‘natural’ or normal habitat, on dry land. It’s a beautiful summer day. This will be filmed to feel like the happy part of a romantic comedy; vibrant, warm, deliberate smooth camera movement, backlit by the setting sun.
When the story takes a dark turn the style will shift to a more thriller/horror look and feel. The sun moves behind some clouds making everything darker and desaturated and the camera movement becomes frantic. Underwater will be murky and distorted to create a sense of uncertainty and worry.
Costumes
Jack is dressed a little nicer than you would expect for a beach walk because he wants to look extra nice today but not too nice to arouse suspicions.
Antoinette is a happy-go-lucky type and is wearing a bright dress.
The fisherman is dressed in classic fisherman attire. Imagine a 70-year-old, white-bearded, fisherman with lots of fishing tackle hanging off him and that’s the costume.
The ice cream vendor is wearing a multi-coloured outfit. Something designed to catch attention as people walk by. His shirt looks like ‘tie dye’ from afar, however, closer inspection reveals the colours are different styled fish hooks - a subtle detail that shouldn’t raise any suspicion upon first viewing.
Budget Proposals
The equipment and expertise are well in order for this short film shoot. The only remaining requirement is a budget. We have planned for two budget scenarios:
Plan A - 13k
Plan B - 7k
The Team
Harry Chrisp - Writer/Director
Harry has directed a handful of low to no-budget short films since graduating from The NZ Film and Television School. He now works at Weta Digital as a compositor and has worked on a wide range of Feature films and T.V. shows; including Avatar, The Rings of Power, and the Kenobi Star Wars series. He has been vegan for over 7 years now and is excited to make a short story about animal welfare.
Iñaki Lambrechts - Director of Photography
Iñaki is a talented cinematographer from Argentina with extensive experience in directing and shooting low-budget short films. He possesses a deep passion for sci-fi and drama and is also a skilled photographer and writer. He moved to New Zealand with the sole purpose of establishing himself in the film industry. He’s now become a frequent collaborator with Harry Chrisp.
Casting
Antoinette - this role is stunt heavy so ideally we find a professionally trained stunt woman who is happy to do the short part of character acting as well. This would avoid the need for the stunt double to look similar to the character actress.
If finding a suitable female stunt performer and actress proves too difficult, the character’s sexes could be reversed, making Jack the one who gets hooked and has the stunt-heavy part. No significant story point rests on the character’s sex.
Jack - this role is emotionally demanding as the character goes through a wide range of big emotions in a short amount of time.
The first round of auditions will be via a request for audition tapes or reels. If there is a stand-out pick for either role they could be cast this way, otherwise, a shortlist will be called for an in-person audition.
Methodology
Over the last 10 years, I, (Harry), have been cultivating a team, building a kit, and practising Filmmaking. I now have a crew network with varying specializations that I can call on, a cinema camera kit, and a Van full of lighting equipment.
The benefit of owning the gear myself is that I am intimately familiar with it, as it doesn’t change much from shoot to shoot, eliminating the learning curve and uncertainty of figuring out new equipment. It also frees up much of the budget for other things.
As this pitch demonstrates, most of the planning for this short story has already been figured out. Once we have the budget locked in we will organise the final logistical details.
Professional stunt performers will be required to manage and perform all of the stunts to ensure they are done safely.
