Film Idea Development

Our team underwent some collaborative brainstorming to create the plot of our film. We understood that we had to create a short film and follow certain conventions. We had all done research into short films by looking at existing short films and the short film industry. So we all d a strong idea of what the conventions of a short film were and how we could play with them.

It was agreed straight away that a character exploration storyline was the basis of the short film. We wanted to have one main character which was explored and as the audience watches they learn more about them leading to some sort of twist. However, what type of main character was uncertain. It was suggested to have the main character being a teacher. After more discussion this led to the suggestion of exploring a school janitor. The concept of learning more about someone who hides behind the scenes like a janitor stood out. An investigation into other jobs similar to janitors was carried out.

Thanks to the man on the left, Mr Geoff Shephard, who walked into the class interested in the project a conclusion was met. Mr Geoff Shephard suggested a crime scene cleaner. This had already been suggested before but Mr Shephard brought it back to the front. After more discussion an exploration of a crime scene cleaner as the plot to the short film was agreed.



We carried out research on crime scene cleaners using the internet and found this article:
http://www.thewavemag.com/pagegen.php?pagename=article&articleid=22263

Some parts of this article stood out. We used the answers of the crime scene cleaner to help write the script.
“The Wave: How did you get into the biz?


Neal Smithers: ...One night I was sitting on the couch watching Pulp Fiction when I saw that scene where John Travolta shoots that guy’s face off in the car. Then they brought in “The Wolf” (played by Harvey Keitel) to clean it up. And I thought: This is it. I did some research and it kind of all blew up...”

How he saw the job of a crime scene cleaner in a film and was inspired was loosely reflected in our short film. When Paul Bison says “... At the time it reminded me of being in a film or something... Bit less glamorous though...” this is where we got the inspiration from.

“TW: What’s the turnover rate for your employees?


NS: It’s high. We lose them every month.”

This point is reflected in our script when Paul Bison says “...Not many people stay in it for too long. Lots of ‘em can’t take it. They can’t hack it...” This line informs the audience of the high turnover rate found in this job.
“TW: What is a not-so-desirable quality you’ve seen in someone who wants to work for you?


NS: ...On the other hand, we just let a guy go who had sleeves of tattoos and sharpened teeth. He was a gothic freak...”

We borrowed this description of one of his work colleges in our script when Paul Bison says “...One bloke I worked with – covered in tattoos and piercings… even had sharpened teeth. Hard as nails he looked...”

“TW: Do you ever eat just after a cleanup?


NS: I can. I can eat at the job. I don’t have a problem with it. I’ve seen it all, so nothing really bothers me anymore.”

In scene 4, Paul Bison was originally meant to eat a sandwich to reflect his immunity to his job due to how long he has worked there. However, due to prop issues with getting a sandwich we instead used a bottle of water to hopefully reflect the same message.



The one, the only, Paul Bison
For the name of Paul Bison we did some research on different names. We found the meaning for the name “Apollo” on this website: http://www.behindthename.com/name/apollo

“From Greek Απολλων (Apollon), which is of unknown meaning, though perhaps related to Indo-European *apelo "strength". Another theory states that Apollo can be equated with Appaliunas, an Anatolian god whose name possibly means "father lion" or "father light".”

We felt that Apollo wasn’t a common enough name and used Paul instead. His last name being Bison is referring the animal known for its strength which we wanted to reflect about Paul’s character. We also felt that there was only one person who could bring the right type of character that we wanted and that was Mr Geoff Shephard himself; the muse of our short film.

Development of the film title

There was the suggestion of the title of the film to be “The life of...” in Paul’s case “The life of Paul Bison”. However, we felt this was unoriginal and came up with a different name. The new name was “Morbid Stain”. The reason for this was because the life of Paul is morbid and he is a cleaner leading to us combining the two elements. This lead to controversy as there was a split of opinions as some felt the name was rude and detracted away from the seriousness of the film whilst others really liked the name and thought it was unique and memorable. Discussion intoa new name was carried out and names such as “Morbid”, “Morbid Lives” and “Morbid Life” were all suggested. Even the name “If you only knew” was suggested as it was the name of the song used in the short film. A friend of ours suggested the name “Job” and unanimously we all agreed.