Statement of Intent

SOPHIE’SMAP

STATEMENT OF INTENT

Claudette Ward, Gabriella Livingstone, Harjinder Sangha, Maciej Stolarczyk, Shantel Neo Rui En, Sundeep Panag

blog: https://sophiesmap.tumblr.com password: fmp2k19

Outline
Camera: Black Magic Ursa Pro, ProRes 422 HD/4K Film

Logline:
A young spunky boy Jamie, who’s recently lost his older sister Sophie, finds a map she drew & begins an exciting adventure with his tech-savvy best friend Alice, following the map & hoping to find out where his sister has gone to.

Synopsis:
Jamie & Alice follows a map drawn by Jamie’s older sister Sophie whom Jamie has lost, in hopes to find her and it leads them to all of her favourite places. Alice is reluctant about going on this adventure, but Jamie is adamant to find his sister again. They look for clues in those places, but the longer they ventured, the more Alice realised where his sister is actually at. And she is never coming back. Alice tells Jamie to stop this pointless game knowing they’ll never find his sister and he gets mad. Everyone says that she’s gone but he doesn’t understand where she’s gone to. Through this film, Jamie tries to comprehend his own feelings and understand what it means to let go of someone that’s lost forever.

-----------

The aim of ‘Sophie’s Map’ is to bring the audience’s attention to the unique way in which people, in this case a child, deal with common grief when losing something or someone dear to them. Some people’s first experience with loss is with their pet hamster or dog, and for Jamie, the 8-year-old protagonist of our short film, his first experience is when he suddenly loses his older sister in a car accident. It’s hard for him to understand what it means when people say that “she’s gone.” Gone where? Where did she go? I need to find her.

But through his journey and adventure he has with his best friend Alice to find his lost sister, he goes through confusing feelings, denial and slowly understands what this loss truly means. And he learns to accept it. By filming from Jamie and Alice’s perspectives the short film should also explore the multiplicity of emotions a child can go through when experiencing trauma as well as how they cope with them. Overall the film should give a sense of catharsis for both children and adult viewers in a nostalgically hopeful yet somber, or saudade way.

We’ve all been kids before, brimming with imagination and curiosity and lack of subtlety, and oh what simpler times those truly were.

Themes: Grief, Loss, Saudade, Nostalgia, Imagination, Death, Sibling Relationships, Catharsis

Key Contexts, Sources and References

Kids point of view on grief and loss. Kids starts to understand the finality of death at about eight years old.

• Withdrawal, sadness, loneliness.
• Gets angry more often, difficulty concentrating at school.
• Tries to be the perfect child.
• Regressive behaviour.
• Tries to be brave and control things.
• Feels different to their peers, struggles to express him/herself verbally.

All of the above relate to this age group, but it’s important to be aware that by this age children know death is final. They are also more aware of how adults and others around them are reacting to death. This group may also:

• be especially anxious about the safety of family and friends, and themselves
• try very hard to please adults and not worry them, and so not let themselves grieve
• feel stronger emotional reactions, such as anger, guilt, sense of rejection
• want to take on more adult responsibilities, trying very hard to please
• feel embarrassment; feel different from peers; may conceal their loss
• become more focused on what’s happened and ask questions, think about it a lot, have dreams about it, and perhaps want to talk about it often to others

Film references:

The films and games below are references we’ve found along the way that has truly inspired us for this story, both characters and visual. Many of them are from the perspective of kids and how they see the world and it gives many of us adults a nostalgia from each of our own days as children.

• Bridge to Terabithia (2007) dir. Gábor Csupó
• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008) dir. Mark Herman
• Grave of the Fireflies (1988) dir. Issao Takahata
• The Florida Project (2017) dir. Sean Baker
• Life is Strange: The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit (2018) studio Dontnod Entertainment
• Empire of the Sun (1987) dir. Steven Spielberg
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011) dir. Stephen Daldry
• Up (2009) dir. Peter Docter, Bob Peterson

Books:

• A taste of Blackberries by Michael Wimmer
• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Crew and Roles | The Adventurer’s Club Members

Role	Name
Producer	Claudette Ward
Director	Maciej Stolarczyk
Cinematography, Line Producer	Gabriella Livingstone
Script Writer, Script Supervisor, Offline Editor	Shantel Neo Rui En
Art Director, Production Manager	Sundeep Panag
Online Editor	Harjinder Sangha

Crew to be filled
1st AD
1st AC
2nd AC
DIT
Gaffer
Sound Recordist
Boom Operator
Music
Costume & Make-Up
PA Runner

Risk and Ethics Assessment (Claudy)

https://www.gov.uk/child-employment/paying

CHECKLIST

Consent: It is important to get the informed consent of everyone taking part in a research project. This includes explaining to them the reason for the research project, the exact nature of their contribution and what will happen to the information they supply. This consent is usually in written form, and in most cases of filmed / photographic recording uses a standard release form.

Privacy/Confidentiality: It is vitally important to respect respondents’ privacy and confidentiality. Respondents / participants have to give explicit consent if they are to be identified and if they request it, their anonymity must be protected. Sensitive information must be stored securely.

Vulnerability: It is essential to obtain ethical clearance if you are doing research / projects with people under the age of 18, or who may be considered vulnerable in some other way.  

Dissemination: Care should be taken when creating practical works or writing up and publishing / disseminating results. There is the potential for harm to respondents in the way their information is presented and disseminated.

Risk: the most important of these. The guiding principle is that no harm should result from the work undertaken, either to the respondents or to the researcher. This applies from the planning stage through to dissemination of the results. Below are some examples of potential risk. Module leaders/supervisors are asked to consider student proposals and if they identify a potential risk, or are unsure, they must contact the School Research Ethics Committee for guidance. You complete the table below to enable your supervisor to make such a decision:

Potential risks to be considered
	Examples of harm	possible	unlikely
Psychological	Lowered self-esteem; emotional distress; embarrassment	Likely
Comments: We are asking a child age 8 to act in a way that could be distressing for a young person, we will be sure to be transparent with the child's parent/guardian before we sign any contracts to ensure they are completely happy with the script and what we are asking for from their child and we will also be asking them to supervise their child on set so they have a familiar person around. We will also ensure we explain the script and the theme of grief to our child actors using age appropriate language so they understand to the best of their ability what the film is about and we will make it clear that it is a made up story. We will lease with the child’s parent to find out what activities the child likes so they are distracted in between takes. We will also contact a child psychologist if felt it is necessary.
Physical	Illness/accident consequent on participation	Likely
Comments: We will be filming outside in some scenes so we will ensure there is substantial shelter and refreshments for actors and crew to prevent illnesses. We understand that children can become less able to recognise risks when in an unfamiliar environment so we will ensure that we tape down all cables, keep kit organised in a separate area to ensure neither the kit or actors get damaged, we will arrive early on set to set up equipment to reduce risk of injury. We will also give a safety induction on arrival at each location to the children and parents as well as send them a copy of the risk assessment for each location. We will also ensure frequent breaks are given and all crew are made aware or proposed risks.
Social	Unwanted exclusion from society; ostracised by neighbours/friends/family/significant reference or peer group	Unlikely
Comments: We will minimise the amount of time the child is taken away from school to ensure their relationships do not suffer. We will also audition both of our child actors together to ensure their personalities do not conflict and make each other uncomfortable. We will also be cautious about what we post on social media to prevent any cyber-bullying.
Economic	Economic deprivation as consequence of answering questions	Unlikely
Comments: We will ensure we cover their expenses to ensure they are not at an economic loss. This will be negotiated before the contract is compiled.
Legal	Legal penalties ensuing from answering questions	Likely
Comments: We will ensure that we attain the appropriate licensing in order to work with children. We will also ensure the correct risk assessments are completed and all laws are abided by.

Consent: We will ensure that we have parental consent from the parents of any minor we work with and we will also ensure appropriate release forms are issued.

Privacy/Confidentiality: We will audition actors in person by asking them to act out a selected scene from the script. We will also only publish the names of our actors and crew with permission, we will withhold any other information unless they grant permission for it to be published. We will store any personal information of our cast & crew on a paper copy in a folder in a locked cabinet within the university premises and will dispose of it on completion of our project.

Vulnerability: We intend to have cast members that are under the age of 18, therefore we will need ethics clearance. We will ensure the safeguarding of any minor is an utmost priority.