Synopsis: A short film about a shy, awkward, often anxious kid, finding his way in the world. It’s not always easy being the youngest in the family, but there are some benefits...
Stylistically this would be shot similarly to a Wes Anderson film.
SCENE 1: Grade 4 classroom
Camera pans across a grade 4 classroom. We see the back of the children’s heads as they look attentively to the front. The classroom is silent apart from the shuffle of feet as each student makes their way to the front to pick something out of a hat. “Italy! You’ll have fun with that one Zoe,” says the friendly female teacher.
“Thomas! Russia! Wow…that’s um…a big job.” She gives Thomas an uncertain, almost pitiful smile (not one of the most academic kids).
We change shots now to the perspective of the teacher. “OSCAR!!” She yells out. Oscar is a shy, awkward child. A bit of a dreamer, vague and a little weird compared to the other kids. He’s not the dumbest in the class, but not the brightest either. He prefers to fade into the background, so when it comes to presentations in geography class, well, let’s just say he’d rather be in detention.
Oscar makes his way slowly to the front, the camera looks down from the perspective of the teacher. He is small and quietly afraid. “Well, go on.” Says the teacher a little impatiently. He reaches in to the hat and closes his eyes, we now see a shot from within the hat and see his hand dipping into a bunch of scrap paper, and drawing out one. The camera is now from Oscar’s point of view and looks down at the scrunched up piece of paper as he opens it. In neat teacher handwriting it says “New Zealand.” Oscar looks up at the teacher for reassurance. He has no idea about this country. And now he must make a project on it. “You’ll be fine.” Says the teacher and she gives him a little tap on the back, nudging him to return to his seat.
SCENE 2: We see Oscar at home sitting at the kitchen table, head on one hand, staring off into middle distance as the other hand fiddles with a scrap bit of paper. His mum is busy preparing the evening meal. His mum walks passed behind him and ruffles his hair.
SCENE 3: Shot of Oscar in the schoolyard, by himself, playing with an action figure. Everything happens around him, without him. Another kid runs up, snatches his toy snaps it in two and throws it down on the ground. Oscar looks stunned.
SCENE 4: At home we see Oscar’s teenage older brother busy in his room. Typical boys room – band posters, clothes strewn everywhere, old plates of food. Oscar is standing in the doorway. Oscar’s brother’s head is bent over his desk concentrating on his homework.
Older Brother: “What is it O? I know you’re standing there. I can hear your heavy breathing.”
Oscar: “I..I..need help. Everyone has to do a project on a country. I got New Zealand and - ”
His older brother cuts him off -“Look, I’m kinda busy right now. Can’t help you. Haven’t you heard of Google!”
Oscar: “But…ok.”
Dejected Oscar disappears to his room. He Googles New Zealand just like his brother told him. Many things appear – pictures of mountains, rivers, wilderness, weird birds, sheep…place names too – Taupo, Dunedin, Wanganui. It’s all too much information to take in. He has been putting off doing the project there’s only a week before he has to present it in front of the whole class. The images and words flash in a fast montage on the screen. Oscar is hyperventilating. He imagines the class in front of him staring, waiting. It’s too much!!!
SCENE 5: We are looking down on Oscar lying on his bedroom floor. The camera is zoomed in on his shoulders and head, it slowly pulls out to reveal a mess of paper, cardboard, string, paint, pencils. He is lying on his back, sprawled out like a starfish amongst the detritus of his half-baked geography project. He looks like he has had a nervous breakdown…Images and words are appearing before his face, animated, swirling about. Then suddenly his eyes light up! One word he remembered from Google was “Aotearoa” meaning the ‘Land of the Long White Cloud’. The words float in front of his face for a while (animated and drawn like a child). We see Oscar start cleaning up the mess around him, smiling to himself.
SCENE 6: Oscar’s family – brother, sister, Mum and Dad – are all seated in the living room. It is the night before the Geography presentation and Oscar is showing his family first. Mum and Dad look happy and excited, the siblings look a bit bored as though they would rather be elsewhere…
Oscar enters the room but the camera is focused on the family sitting squashed up on the couch. The camera is from Oscar’s point of view so we cannot see him yet. “Well, what do you think?” he asks his family. His family is speechless. There is a painful awkward silence. They sit there staring at little Oscar with blank faces. His brother shuffles uncomfortably, looks at his parents who force a polite smile.
Mum: “Oscar…it’s …wonderful.” She says humouring her son.
The shot changes to the point of view from the couch. We now see Oscar resplendent in cotton wool. He has a head-dress made up of cotton buds. He is wearing a cardboard cut-out of a misshapen New Zealand with cotton buds pasted all over. There is glue and sticky tape everywhere. He is smiling.
Older Brother: “WHAT is this?!”
Oscar: “THE LAND OF THE LONG WHITE CLOUD” (he announces this with a proud voice)
Older Brother: “You can’t…You have to do more than that!!” Turning to his parents “We can’t let him present that! He’ll fail! And get teased…even more than usual!”
Camera switches to Oscar’s face. He has gone red, and tears are welling up.
Older Brother: “Oscar. Come with me.”
The shot cuts to the pair in his brother’s room. They are on Google again, looking at images and pages about New Zealand together. Oscar looks up at his brother admiringly.
Older Brother: “Ok buddy, let’s do this properly.”
SCENE 7: PRESENTATON DAY
A shot of the class. Same as the opening shot. Camera pans across the back and we can see Thomas finishing his presentation on Russia.
Thomas: “And that’s how you make VODKA!”
Teacher: “Er…yes. Well done, Thomas. Yep. Leave that bottle with me.” The teacher snatches the bottle of vodka from Thomas. “Sit down now.” (Polite claps from the class)
“OSCAR!” yells the teacher.
The class is get restless and noisy. “QUIET!” snaps the teacher, whose patience is also wearing thin.
Oscar shuffles to the front of the class with uncertainty. He stands at the front with his head down. So nervous he can’t look at the class. Someone throws a scrunched up bit of paper at him. Some sniggers can be heard.
Teacher: “Come on Oscar you’ve had weeks. What do you have to show us?”
Oscar hands the teacher a USB stick.
The shot cuts to a now dark classroom. A projection appears on the front white board. Oscar’s presentation on New Zealand begins. A song by New Zealand band, The Clean, starts up… the title appears “Oscar’s Adventure in New Zealand.” We see an amazing, colourful film clip of different New Zealand attractions, all enhanced by crazy animations of Oscar’s drawings. We see a stick figure version of him traipsing through the mountains of the Fiordland National Park, bunjee jumping, waterskiing, fishing, pretending to be a pirate on a boat in the Southern Lakes District, hearding some sheep, making friends with hobbits…
This will be in a fun cut-and-paste style, incorporating found footage, old super8 style footage, all the typical New Zealand tourist shots but with childlike animation over the top. It will have a youthful, raw energy to it.
The film stops. The classroom is silent. Everyone is in awe. One kid says “Can we watch it again?”
The final shot is Oscar’s proud, beaming face lit up by the projector.
[I work as an Art Director in a small advertising agency in Melbourne, Australia. I love unique, experimental styles of film-making, and dream of one day having a career in film. My idea for this competition is really low-budget, and utilises animation, found footage, as well as new freshly recorded scenes. ...I also like pina coladas, getting caught in the rain and long walks on the beach.]