Synopsis & Overview

Synopsis

The synopsis for the creative artefact I am producing, revolves around the hypothesis of my study. This is the exploration of how crime and morality in society has evolved since the 1920s, through the use of narrative.

The protagonist of the film is a gentleman who's family has been involved in crime dating back to the 1920s. It is based around a rivalry that has formed throughout history between two families. This is communicated during the film, through the use of paintings and photographs. These photographs and paintings will be captured in the focal story being told, where the protagonist ventures through hallways and rooms, to an office where he meets the head of a crime organisation.

The paintings and photographs will act as portals into the ancestors of the protagonist, conveying a back story into why the meeting between the two characters is occurring. It later transpires, after pleasantries have been exchanged, that the head of the crime organisation is a member of the rival family to the protagonist. This is clarified when the back story of their ancestors references the same family names as those in the meeting. 

Only at the end of the film, does the audience witness the killing of the head of the crime organisation by the protagonist. This is where the true motives of the protagonist become clear, conveying to the audience that all previous actions in the meeting were a charade and it was merely the continuation of a family feud.

Incorporating the ancestors of the characters, allows for previous crime throughout history to be included within the film, which conveys how crime has evolved. There is also a strong link to the study with the exploration of character motives, which would in fact reveal the morality of the characters. Through these characters I can instil the morality seen throughout the different criminals at different times, therefore acting as a reflection on society.

Overview

The film sequence begins with the protagonist, Jonathan Troop, entering a luxurious building with mahogany and oak furnishings, including red velvet curtains and golden and silver metal decorative pieces. He approaches the desk and tells the secretary that he is there to see Mr Matherson, giving the false name of Mr Thompson. She allows him to proceed up the stairwell from the lobby.

There is then the first transition to Jonathan’s ancestor during the 1920s, prohibition. This transition is made from the camera panning behind the desk to a painting of an old warehouse. The audience then sees men loading crates of alcohol onto the back of trucks with Jonathan’s ancestor watching over the process. He is standing over a map which is laid out on the desk plotting where the trucks and shipments for the alcohol are being transported, his right hand man comes over to provide an update on the shipment and Troop’s ancestor refers to this man as Matherson.

The film sequence then cuts back to Jonathan walking through one of the hallways of this prestigious building nearly bumping into a staff member who is transporting either food or goods on a trolley, as similarly seen in places such as hotels. After this has occurred the camera pans away from Jonathan and back into another picture, this time a photograph of two men with their arms around each other, in a way that friends would pose.

This photograph then demonstrates a snippet of the life of Troop’s second ancestor. He is meeting two contacts in the park and he is with his friend and colleague (the other man in the photo). Both men are sitting on the bench together. Troop’s ancestor then gets a photograph of his baby son out of his wallet and begins to discuss how he wants out of the criminal lifestyle and wishes to spend more time with his son. This then progresses to him asking his friend to be the godfather of his child, in which he refers to his friend as “Godfather Graham Matherson” commenting on how it has a nice ring to it. They are there for a drug trade, but it results in his friend betraying him by stabbing him in the back and leaving with the other contacts. On Troop’s ancestors death bed, He asks the questions why? As he watches his friend walk off with the contacts, drugs in hand. The scene ends with him bleeding out but panning across his body with his wallet left open, in order to retrieve the photo of his son,  where his name is revealed in the wallet as Simon Troop.

We then return to the main storyline in which Jonathan knocks before entering the study of Darren Matherson. Here the two characters exchange pleasantries and Darren speaks of how he wishes to take Jonathan into his employ, after having heard of the work he has done. We make the transition one last time to another ancestor, through a picture in Darren’s study.

The scene opens on a gang fight in the middle of the street, late at night under the cover of darkness, people are seen through the yellowy glow of street lights. The two gang leaders, a Matherson and a Troop discuss there disagreement over turf and where their product can be sold, this turns sour and the Matherson gang slaughter the Troop gang.

It cuts back to Darren in his study, who then proceeds to ask “so what do you say Mr Thompson, would you care to work as a member of my fine establishment?”. Jonathan responds by explaining that was not his name and his name was in fact Jonathan Troop, raising the known fact by both men about their family feud across the decades. Jonathan then makes Darren aware of the gun he has pulled below the table and speaks of his intentions to kill him, they are interrupted however by Darren’s employee who has entered to serve drinks. Darren dismisses them in order to finish his “meeting”. On his exit, Darren begins to calmly convince him not to kill him with points such as the amount of armed men he has in the building he won’t be able to leave alive, but Darren’s persuasive techniques are cut off midway with Jonathan shooting him through the head with a pistol. The camera left focused on the body, the audience is left to watch Jonathan calmly leave the study in the background.