From Script to Screen - Character, Prop, Setting & Initial Ideas

On Tuesday, we all randomly got our character, prop and setting for this project. Before I picked out the character, I was hoping to get one that is either quite funny or horrific, as in the past I have preferred to create horror stories or stories that may make you laugh, I was therefore pleased when I got a Serial Killer as my character. As that was the first that got selected I was happy with how it was going, so it was strange when the prop that I have to include is a wheelbarrow. From what I've seen in films or TV murder mystery programmes, a wheelbarrow has never been used as a weapon. My initial thoughts about how a wheelbarrow could be used, in association with a serial killer, is to carry bodies or put bodies under. Serial Killers, although crazy, tend to have small weapons to make it easy to kill their target. I can't imagine them hiding a wheel barrow in their pocket. Then we got our setting. I got a photo booth. Obviously, the inside of a photo booth is very small and compact, but when you're in one and the curtain is pulled, you have no idea who is creeping up on you. That could be an interesting idea. The outside of a photo booth could also be used as a crime scene, perhaps.

However my very first idea was someone inside a photo booth, having their picture taken, while the killer is behind the glass and then the flash stuns the person, and the killer smashes through the glass with the wheel barrow and smashes the person to death. Then the final shot is of the photos coming out of the machine showing the glass being smashed into the person's face. What a lovely scene that would be.

Another initial idea, was to have a family (A Mother and Father with their son) having their photos taken, they come out of the booth and look at the photos, and start laughing. They then turn around and see a silhouetted figure holding a gun to them. The figure then shoots the mother, then the father and leaves the son alive, who stands over his parents bodies *Nothing like Batman*. A later scene is of the son, about 20 years later, being interviewed by a detective about the murders, and he tells the son that they found the photos, and he tells him that his story of him having the pictures taken with his parents is wrong because he isn't in the photos. He continues to interview him. Telling him he's lying and asking him what happened. The camera than focuses on him looking at the floor, it goes silent and then you can hear him begin to laugh and then he raises his head to the detective, who sees a slight tear in his eye whilst his laughter continues to elevate....Then that's all I thought of. Getting the wheelbarrow into the story will be the biggest challenge I think, but hopefully I get an idea that will make it easy to include.