Modifications To Our Narrative

Mikey and I pitched our initial film idea to the class and both media teachers, to gain some feedback and new ideas/modifications for it. I feel that this was a great idea to do, as the age of our class matches the age of our target audience, and although very few enjoy this specific genre of film, it was very informative to hear their ideas on what we could do to entice a wider audience to being attracted to our film. The feedback was generally positive, stating that we had good ideas and had built on the conventions of a sports drama. However, we were also informed that some specific areas of our narrative were weak. We were told to think about including;

• a love interest for the protagonist, as a spur to achieve the best of his ability
• the protagonist actually taking the drugs, so that he can feels isolated from his team. This also gives us the chance to explore new themes.

This is the agreed final plot of our narrative;

Protagonist trials to get into his Sixth Form/College rugby team. He trains exceptionally well, and eventually gets picked for the starting XV. He continues to train hard in preparation for the first game of the season. Upon kick off, he shows several glimpses of his brilliance- creating good moves, making great tackles and slotting the kicks. However, within 20 minutes of kick off, he gets tackled horribly horribly and injures his knee- this appears to be the end of his game. After going to the hospital and having several scans he is told that he may never run again, making playing rugby again almost impossible. Rugby had been a massive part of his life ever since he could hold a ball and run with it- so this stage in his life became very difficult for him, and his friends and family who had seen this usually overactive person cut down to using crutches to get around anywhere. The protagonist gets offered some performance enhancing drugs by his best friend. He reluctantly accepts them as he has always lived his life by a code of not cheating, but has now realised that this may be the only way to get back out onto the field and play the game he loves. Before a rehabilitation session, his coach discovers the drugs in his bag, and he is dropped from any connection with school rugby as his team and coach have lost total faith in him. The protagonist continues to try and make a comeback, but constantly has the guilt of his reckless actions at the back of his head, so fails to make a lot of progress. He feels as if the game has turned it's back on him and he is not confident that he has enough strength and courage to overcome it. Through the actions of his close family and friends, the protagonist begins to realise that there are more important things in life than rugby but the people around him know how much the game means to him so relentlessly push him to the limit- body and mind- for the opportunity to step back onto the pitch, cleanly. After training relentlessly, 14 months later the protagonist is able to return to full-contact games. His team has made it through the pool and knock-out stages of the Regional Championship Cup, and are now in the final. He returns to the field with 15 minutes left on the clock. At first he finds it hard to compete at this level, especially as he has not gained the full trust of his teammates yet either. With only a few seconds left on the clock and the scores tied, he finds himself in possession of the ball. He drops kicks the ball, revealing some of the skills he had before the injury, the ball dissects the posts, and his team win the game.