Private Story
Sticks and Stones
At just 19 years old, Perth student Radheya Jegatheva is already an internationally acclaimed filmmaker, artist, poet and writer. His films have appeared at more than 400 film festivals around the world and won more than 200 international awards.
Radheya’s 2017 short film iRony, about the rise of technology and social media’s influence, launched his international career, winning him 122 awards across 6 continents throughout 2017 and 2018 – on top of being named an Official Selection to 5 Academy Award-qualifying film festivals. His 2016 short film, The Tyger, based on William Blake’s 1794 poem of the same name, is used as a teaching tool in schools and universities around the world.
iRony was developed from Radheya’s poem, Seven Billion, which in 2016 was chosen from over 30,000 entries to win a Young Australian Writer’s National Award for Poetry.
A second-year Arts student at Curtin University who achieved an ATAR of 99.15, Radheya represented Australia at the 2015 and 2016 World Youth Scrabble Championships. He was also the overall winner of the 2018 West Australian Young Achiever Award.
2. Writer and/or Director birth date(s)
Radheya Jegatheva
04/29/1999
29th of April, 1999
3. Film proposal
Sticks and Stones
A (dark) comedy
Synopsis
When Sophie, an 18-year-old university student, is challenged to an online Scrabble game from a mysterious opponent, she soon realises that the words played in the game bring about occurrences in her real life. As the game progresses, the bizarre and incredible events keep getting better and better - but could one wrong move change her life forever?
A script (version 3) of this film concept has been written and is available. As much of the humour is in the dialogue, this is not conveyed in the plot points.
Plot points
1. 18-year-old university student Sophie, is up late at night 'working' on an assignment.Dressed in yellow pyjamas, she is Facetiming her friend Felicia. She receives a request to play an online Scrabble game and jokes about it.
2. She clicks the request to find that it is an anonymous opponent. They have begun the game with the word 'LEMONS'. Sophie plays 'GOLD' and talks to Felicia some more before going to sleep.
3. The next day Sophie is walking to her bus stop when she feels something hit her on the head. She looks around for the culprit to see that a lemon had dropped, which rolls into the bushes on the sidewalk.
4. She notices something shiny in the bushes, and discovers a beautiful gold chain necklace. She stops for a moment, contemplating, before she sprints back home in the other direction of the bus stop.
5. Sophie suspects that the words played in the game seem to create related events in her reality. She shares her theory with Felicia, who laughs it off.
6. We see a montage of words played in the game, including 'ASP', 'CASH', and 'ROCK' which happen to respectively manifest as (mostly) favourable events in Sophie's life. The score updates.
7. Her opponent plays 'STRIPES'. Sophie is on the bus to university when she hears sirens. She looks out of her window expectantly to see a…zebra crossing, before a zebra races past the bus on the road.
8. Sophie is at home, tuning the news channel to find that a zebra had escaped from a local zoo. Drunk on her newfound power, she excitedly continues to play the game over the next few days.
9. We see the words 'APPLE', 'SCORE', 'FIRE', 'HEAR' and 'UNICORN' played on the board, creating more favourable outcomes for Sophie. This montage continues and increases with speed. The score updates.
10. Sophie is slightly behind in the game. Her tile rack has the letters 'T O R T Y L E'. She is struggling to decipher the letters on her rack and is unable to make a good word.
11. She decides to cheat, and uses an online word unscrambler to see what words she can play. Under this list, one word catches her eye in particular - LOTTERY.
12. She plays the word LOTTERY, scoring a bonus 50 points for the seven-letter word - putting her in the lead. After she collects the remaining tiles, the tile bag is empty - the game is almost over. She leaves to purchase a ticket for the jackpot that night.
13. Sophie returns to her room with the lottery ticket, and waits eagerly for the numbers to be announced. Facetiming Felicia, she squeals with delight as she has found out the winning numbers match with her ticket.
14. She hears a notification sound from the game. Her opponent has played the last word, using the 'R' in her word LOTTERY and winning the game. Her smile drops and she stares at the screen.
15. Felicia notices someone behind Sophie. She turns to find a man in all black, his face obscured with a mask. We hear Sophie's screams as the final word is revealed: 'MURDERED'.
I have developed the tone of the screenplay to be more comedic, and the events that occur to Sophie are mostly positive to maintain a light-hearted atmosphere. I intended to lull the audience into a false sense of security (the pervading sunny lighting and weather, bright colours and more humorous subject matter - conventions of comedy) before the much darker final word is played - and underlines the irony of the title.
The film taps into the theme of ‘cheaters never prosper’ and the power of words (in a more literal sense). The colour yellow will be a significant visual element in the film. Greed is symbolically tied to the colour yellow, so I decided to incorporate many yellow elements including the lemon, her clothing, etc. to not only communicate this ‘greed’ element but also to complement the bright, happy tone of the story (until the very end). Furthermore, rather than using completely unexplainable and impossible events, I’ve made sure that everything that occurs as a result of the words has some level of justification to it, playing with the idea of believability and extreme coincidence.
We don’t get to see Sophie interacting with Felicia in real life – she’s only ‘with’ Sophie over her laptop, only present when she’s also playing the game. I wanted to make her seem more isolated and disconnected despite having all of the luxuries and riches which are brought to her through the game. This sense of disconnection turns into helplessness at the end when Felicia watches Sophie’s demise through the video call. Although this has a purpose in the screenplay, it may be something for me to reconsider, especially for the sections of dialogue and banter between the two characters.
I had trouble deciding whether I should make this in a live action format or as an animation, as I have had more experience with the latter in the past. However, I feel as though the jokes, the tone and the twist would all be intensified and communicated more clearly through a live-action format, and is why I have chosen to stray from animation with this particular piece.
4. Abbreviated budget and ideal production timeline
Total budget: $5000USD
Approximated spending:
| Camera/Lighting equipment | $2300 |
| Crew budget (sound, hair/makeup, etc.) | $1200 |
| Editing software licences | $600 |
| Hiring of actors (two main actors) | $400 |
| VFX elements (e.g. Zebra) | Less than $200 (for stock footage elements, etc). I will be doing VFX work. |
| Other costs (catering, music licencing, etc.) | $300 |
These costs are not final and are subject to change.
Pre-production
Pre-production is set to transpire from February 2019 to July 2019. This would include all of the planning elements necessary, including storyboards, selection of actors, location scouting and more.
Production
Production of the film would take place within a month, ideally in August 2019 to October 2019 depending on pre-production factors.
Post-Production
Editing will be completed by me to both save on production costs and help communicate my conceptualisation of the screenplay. I will also be able to perform most of the visual effects work based on my pre-existing knowledge and commission work I have done in the past. This should take place over November and December 2019, to be screened for Scout Film Festival in 2020 if this does get selected for the grant.
5. Film location (town/state/country)
Perth, Western Australia (Australia)
6. Original langage of film
English
7. Sample of the director’s previous work (link to website/Vimeo/YouTube channel)
Website:
https://radheyajegatheva.wixsite.com/radheya
Short films:
iRony
https://filmfreeway.com/1308281
The password is ‘ironic’.
Journey
https://filmfreeway.com/820125
The password is ‘RADHEYA’.
You Are What You E.A.T. (documentary project at Nokia Bell Labs)
https://filmfreeway.com/projects/1565075
The password is ‘Nokia’.
333