The idea I’ve come up with for my short film is the concept of a Mocumentary; a film with the stylist techniques of a documentary but with a scripted story-line that is at times exaggerated and hard to believe would be true, creating a comical element.

My short story explores the life of a very Australian, patriotic family whose intelligence is obviously questionable to the audience and to a few select characters on screen. The married couple have two young boys, the eldest following closely in the parents’ footsteps (wearing Collingwood footy jumper on screen etc) and the youngest being a polar opposite of his family members and most residents in the close-knit small town where they live. The youngest child being sick of the embarrassment of living with an extreme family in a small town where no progression is made (apart from a longer cricket season and the world’s largest meat pie) sees no other way to escape than to run away. The Family being very unaware of the obvious situation at hand (the son might leave an “I’m leaving” note and they assume it’s a suicide note) thinks their son has died.

The film will follow characters with hand held, ‘on the go’ observational documentary style and with conducted interviews. My plan is to focus on the Mother and Father in their living room/kitchen and around the house. I plan to include photos of the family around the house and have the mother and father show the cameraman around the ‘lake’ (which would be a small pond or something you’re unable to drown in, but the only body of public water in the area) where they suspect their son died. I already have a house I can use for the family’s home and it is suited aesthetically to what I’ve imagined their home to look like.

I would also include a series of vox-pops or door knocking scenes where the cameraman goes to local people’s doors, maybe 1 or 2, and asks questions about the missing boy. The people ask whether he played cricket or footy and with the reply no they claim not to know him. Then one person comes up on the street and tells us where the find the boy in a very matter of fact, blank tone (as if everyone should’ve realised he’s not dead) and tell the crew he’s moved to Melbourne. These are scenes I could likely conduct within my home suburb of Hampton as it’s very residential and can easily appear as a small town, with the use of my friends homes and local streets.