Today in class while discussing our original treatment with Rohan when he asked that we flesh out the idea. It needed something more. We then started to discuss the characters, one suggestion from Rohan was that we over exaggerate the characters to make them interesting. Throughout this discussion we came up with the idea of using Disney Princesses. The idea is that we focus on the struggles of Princesses living in todays world. For example, we have Sleeping Beauty trying to study but she keeps falling asleep.
We put this Idea of having all the characters as Princesses past Rohan and he said it would probably be better to stick with other characters that are easier to portray and more exciting to watch on screen. However, we figured that we could pull it off and wrote the following treatment:
Treatment Written by Maggie O’Shea:
“The clip opens with our protagonist, ABBY, sitting on a bench in a large lawned space by a lake. She is dressed in feminine, retro-style clothing and there is warm afternoon sunlight. She’s absentmindedly strumming on a ukelele when something catches her eye. On a path nearby, a man with Elvis like hair walks along carrying a large bunch of helium balloons. As Abby watches, he happily gives the balloons out to passersby. At this point, she begins singing as she remains seated and plays the ukulele. After a few lines, ELVIS HAIR disappears.
Abby (still singing) cranes her neck looking for him, and stands up to wander around and look for him further. She can’t spot him, so gets up to look around.
We cut to our first character, RAPUNZEL, a young woman with absurdly long hair. She is walking through some trees, but finds her hair is snagging repeatedly. She sits down to try to untangle the knots, and is approached by Elvis hair, although we don’t see his face, who hands her a hairbrush and a balloon, which she accepts thankfully. As he disappears, Abby arrives frantically, miming and pointing to the balloon to ask where Elvis Hair is. Rapunzel points and the two walk in that direction.
We then cut to our second character, CINDERELLA [ALAINE THOMPSON]. She is walking along a path carrying several shopping bags when her heel breaks and she stumbles. She sits down and begins to try on shoes from the bags. They are hilariously varied and she is increasingly desperate as none of them appear to fit. As she tries on something truly ridiculous (eg, a pair of flippers), Elvis Hair once again comes to the rescue (although we don’t see his face), offering a balloon and a pair of thongs which she puts on gratefully. Again, Abby arrives at the sight of the balloon with Rapunzel and Cinderella offers to join the search.
Our third characters are an older couple, SNOW WHITE and PRINCE CHARMING. They are having a picnic, and we watch them take food out of a hamper until Prince Charming pulls out an apple, causing Snow White to recoil in horror. A hand enters the shot behind them offering an orange instead and a balloon. Again, Abby arrives at the sight of the balloon with the other princesses in tow and the group move on.
Fourthly we have SLEEPING BEAUTY [CINDY NGUYEN], a uni student reading a text-book and making notes under a tree. She tries to concentrate, but repeatedly nods off. After about the third time, she falls asleep completely, and a hand from the side of the shot quietly places a red bull next to her with a balloon tied to it. Sleeping Beauty wakes only to see him leave, and is shaken fully awaking by the arriving Abby and is roped unwilling into the shot.
Finally, we have a quick shot of a woman at a bench reading a book. She has already received her balloon which she is holding. When Abby arrives to ask for her help, she shakes her head, and we cut to a wide shot where we see she is wearing a mermaid tail. There is a jump cut to
Abby wheeling THE LITTLE MERMAID along in a wheelchair.
In the final scene, Abby sees the bunch of balloons over a hedge or tree, and the group eagerly runs to see Elvis Hair. Abby is at first too shy to approach, but the group encourages her, almost physically pushing her towards him. She taps Elvis Hair on the shoulder and he turns so they face each other. They introduce themselves, and he offers her a balloon. In our final shot the two walk off into the distance and we pan up to a shot of the balloon.”
