Finalising My Plot

Out of my five potential ideas, I am immediately going to exclude Good Cop Bad Cop from my list. As much as I like the concept of combining a crime thriller and psychological thriller, I feel that the problems lie not in the narrative, but in the practicality of the editing. Personifying the different sides of his conscience as separate characters would provide great drama, but I do not possess the editing skills to impose three identical images (the officer, his good side and his bad side) into one scene. As a conceptual narrative this is excellent, but for my current abilities this is slightly too ambitious. 

This brings me down to four. I think that my Hitman short film and my Moral Crime short film, which both follow the basic idea of committing crime to provide for family, are emotionally engaging and suspenseful, but too common. The idea of people indulging in criminality to provide for their family is a recurring plot thread in a lot of contemporary stories, such as Breaking Bad, A Place Beyond the Pines and Hell or High Water. They are quite formulaic plots, but the fact that many people make critically acclaimed films/television (like the examples above) proves that the formula is still a successful way of engaging viewers. That being said, personally I would like to try something a little different, partly as a way of discovering my own creativity, but also because there is no way I can replicate this formula to a level on a par with something like Hell or High Water. 

This leaves me with two, Mistrust and Blame. Mistrust sounds quite reminiscent of Triple 9, Reservoir Dogs and the opening scene of The Dark Knight, about robbers with a deep apprehension towards one another. So again this idea isn't wholly original, but with my twist at the end where the snitch turns out to be his best friend, I think it could add a new dynamic to the suspense, something which is expertly demonstrated in Point Break.

Nevertheless, despite my passion for Mistrust, there is a blunt simplicity to Blame that doesn't rely on twists and turns, just the complex unravelling of the protagonist. To me it seems like quite an inventive narrative and would combine aspects from Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy, so I feel like it honours my inspirations while allowing me to branch out with my own authentic direction. So to conclude, I will be opting for my Blame narrative. 

My Final, Detailed Story

The protagonist, a young man called Dylan, sits thoughtfully in his car. He looks emotional and vulnerable, staring with a trance-like intensity out of the vehicle. We jump back in time, as a detective tells him that his brother has been killed in a car crash. It is revealed that the two brothers had a rough childhood indulging in criminal activities, but the detective informs Dylan that the death is completely accidental, and that it is unrelated to any of their illegal street business. Nevertheless, he is hellbent on revenge. We jump back to the present, and we see that Dylan is stalking the person who killed his brother in the crash. Sat on his lap in the car is a gun, and he watches the man in the distance with a predatory anger. He gets out of his car and sticks the gun in his hoodie, following the man. It turns out the man is meeting his son and wife in the park, and Dylan watches in surprise, realising that this is a caring man and a loving father, not the violent thug he is expecting to find. With this profound realisation, the brother continues to follow the family, curious and thrown off guard. He then walks away, accepting that humanity is capable of redemption and forcing himself to realise that his brother's death was not an act of hatred. 

As of yet, I am not entirely sure how I want it to end, but the rest of it is more or less correct.