First Draft Synopsis

This is the first rough draft of the film I wrote this morning, I have been having a lot of trouble working out the goal of the film. With a lot of help from classmates and friends to bounce ideas off of I think this draft is just what I was trying to get at with Stagefright. After finding exactly what it is I want to say with the film, the title will definitely be changed. It isn't really about overcoming the fear like older drafts were. It's about expression, and the difficulty of doing so and the bravery needed to bare yourself like the actor is trying to do.

The film is about an actor who is not satisfied with his own performance and lack of real connection with the audience. He gets applause for his routine but it never feels right; it never feels like he has earned it.

During his usual performance he hesitates, falters and stops and a kind of visual metaphor takes over. He acts as if the audience are not there, pacing the stage and feeling his way through the balances and nuances of the performance, stopping to think and consider his actions. The performance will be a silent personal physical response to his frustration.

As he moves about the stage the audience will be ever present and will move as one, recoiling from his frustration, drawing in close scrutinizing his mistakes, flowing back and forth as he paces. The audience react more to this genuine struggle than to anything he has performed.

He reaches a point where he has no other choice but to face the audience again and as he turns to confront them he is washed over by the looming audience. He fights and struggles at first but finally adapts and sees a glimpse of the connection he could be making before being washed off of the stage. Both the actor and audience have disappeared we are left with an empty theatre and unsure of the ambiguous fate of the actor.