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CREATIVE PROPOSAL: THE SURVIVALIST

SYNOPSIS

The future; a time of starvation. THE SURVIVALIST has been living off the grid before
the grid went down. Growing food on a small farm hidden deep in a forest, he protects
his land from thieves and foragers with man traps and a shotgun. But the long years alone
have taken their toll on him, and his beginning to lose his grip on reality

His isolation is broken by two visitors; KATHRYN and her teenage daughter MILJA.
They are starving and desperate for food. Initially reluctant to share any, he relents when
they offer a night with Milja. The exchange becomes an uneasy ongoing arrangement; as
Kathryn schemes to take control of the farm, and Survivalist finds his feelings growing
for his daughter. When the farm comes under attack from outsiders, they find they must
work together to survive, developing loyalties which will be tested when food runs short.

THE SCRIPT AND PROJECT

The script has been developed through Northern Ireland Screens New Talent Focus
scheme, which included input from BFI and Film4 executives. It has received hugely
positive coverage in the industry, including topping the UK Brit List and ranking on
Hollywoods Black List for the years best unproduced scripts. As part of the
development process with the BFI, a short film MAGPIE was made that is set in the
world of THE SURVIVALIST and illuminates much of the style and tone with which the
film we be told.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

STEPHEN FINGLETON one of Screens Stars of Tomorrow 2013. His BFI funded
shorted film SLR starred Liam Cunningham, won Best Irish Film at the Oscar qualifying
Foyle Film Festival, and was nominated for an IFTA. His other He is currently
developing a science-fiction feature to direct for Scott Frees Ridley Scott Presents slate,
and is writing a thriller for Working Title. He is represented by Jack Thomas at
Independent Talent Group and Philip Damercourt and Philip Raskind at WME in the
US.

DIRECTORS STATEMENT

In 2010 I saw a documentary called Collapse, which was part character study of an
eccentric conspiracy theorist, part expository lecture on peak oil theory, which contends
that the world economy will collapse as fossil fuel prices rises. The film resonated with
me hugely, and I continued to research modern societies fragile reliance on fossil fuels
and other finite resources. This led me to think about the different survival strategies one
could undertake in order to survive in a collapse of society, and the story emerged from
the character of someone who has shut themselves off from the world, and themselves.

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THE SURVIVALIST should have the feel of a contemporary thriller. The film must be
authentic and immediate. The science-fiction setting should be treated as incidental to the
story; it is primarily a situation thriller centred on characters who are less concerned as to
why the world has gone the way it has than simply surviving. The film avoids the now
clich vistas of collapsed urban environments or the genre-familiar expositional crawl
and/or monologue, and dramatizes some specific outcomes of the calamity. The audience
is invited to piece together the backstory of the world from the clues laid out in the story.
They will be more invested and believe in a world they discover for themselves. The film
is a genre offering for an up-market, art-house audience; the same audiences who enjoyed
Cache/ Hidden Let The Right One In, Moon, and Drive.

While the film is set on a farm and surrounding forest, it takes place in a time of
industrial collapse. Therefore it is important every detail we see is plausible and
convinces the audience of the broader calamity every detail must feel authentic. The
success with which we paint the specific window into this world will define how much
the audience believes exists beyond it. The nudity and violence are frank.
Actors should have the appropriate look for a time of prolonged malnutrition. Production
design must be entirely convincing; the audience will be poring over the screen for clues
as to the world and the Survivalists backstory. Make-up must be invisible; specialist FX
and bloodwork visceral and convincing not CGI. Clothing must be worn, grubby -
improvised repairs and stitching. THE SURVIVALIST is set in an analogue world. The
wind-up torches, off-the-grid. It should have a slightly old and textured feel. An emphasis
on natural light would be ideal for the film again emphasizing authenticity.

In the same way that Avatar used the then relatively-novel use of 3D to make a new
world more real for an audience, THE SURVIVALIST will use a rich soundscape and the
absence of a traditional score to create a discrete, almost subconscious sense of
displacement. It will have a create a deep, textured world through sound a forest
buzzing with lifeforms (for example, it will be particularly dense with bees, thanks to the
decline of a human population). The attention on sound is intended to enhance the
audiences experience and invite a more engaged response where morally challenging
scenes are presented without a score to colour-code their response. A sound designer
should be involved in the production as early as possible, rather than beginning work at
picture lock they should be working collaboratively with the picture editing team. The
use of music is part of a strategy to accrete the auditory elements beginning with digital
silence (the bar graph opening), wordless atmosphere (the opening 20 minutes), then the
introduction of dialogue, a scene of diagetic music when Milja uses the headphones
which reminds the audience of harmony since the picture began, then finally non-diagetic
music in the final scene and end-credits. In keeping with the films quietly optimistic
ending, this final use of music has the potential to a great moment of catharsis for an
audience who sat through a suspense-based film. Danny Boyle, in particular has used his
final music queues brilliantly to control the audiences response and end on ecstasy, even
with quite bleak story universes. (Sunshine, 28 Days Later).

There are four major characters in the film; Survivalist, Kathryn, Milja and the forest.
The story is set in England, and it is thematically important that the survivors we see
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lived in the region the film is set in they have the home-turf advantage. Perhaps the
woods have an added memorial edge to Survivalist; selected because they were the ones
he wandered in as a child and has a special familiarity with it. Accents are therefore
English; native British actors are preferable, but S. African/ Aus /NZ actors who have had
international roles and audience experienced with their accents can work as well.

SURVIVALIST (Augustus) presents a substantive and attractive challenge for an actor;
he must be able to hold a cinema screen silent and alone for a substantive part of the film.
What is essential is his presence; a face that could carry a Leone western. Beneath a
rugged exterior, hides a man still trying to choke down the trauma of what hes done to
survive. Sometimes we get glimpses of the fear the keeps him going. How this is
expressed depends on the actor; he can be stocky, working-out part of his regime of self-
discipline, a need to seem more physically - or wiry, emaciated - thin neck and elbows,
figure dictated by diet.

MILJA is described as having a dangerous beauty, a gamine quality which can hold the
still frame of the lens. At once we see how her beauty is an added risk to her life in this
world (watch the mayors daughter scene in Once Upon a Time In Anatolia for a
fantastic example). The film uses Miljas sexual confidence in many ways being the
active partner to further soften the transaction and retain empathy for Survivalist. As
the film develops, Milja increasingly moves from the protection of her mother to
someone who is making her own often startling decisions. It is vital the audience
believes Milja is a teenager to maintain the films authenticity.

KATHRYN should have a certain stoic hardiness inherited from her landed background.
This plays into the subtext of the revealed nature of the characters; the pressure cooker
environment brings out and defines the core characteristics of the characters. When we
first see her alive, with her daughter beside her, and an outstretched machete in a way,
this is all we really need to know about her background - she is a survivor. She is
calculating but not cruel, detached but not dispassionate. It is important she is mature
enough to be plausibly post-menopause (given the environment of the film and her
dietary restrictions, early onset menopause is more likely). The sexual chemistry of the
story is delicately balanced; Kathryn must then be able to bring out her sexuality in a way
that enraptures audiences as effectively as it wrongfoots them on first appearance.

The film is written for a deciduous forest, with an emphasis on the creatures. Post-event
films (a catch-all phrase for post-societal collapse, post environmental calamity, post
invasion, etc.) typically have a barren landscape The Road for example, is specifically
about the death of nature and retaining hope in the face of it. THE SURVIVALIST is
very different; the ecosystem is alive and thriving, but industrialized food production has
collapsed. The seasonal changes are important in a number of respects; contained thrillers
are typically set over a contained period in time. By flagging the seasons for the
audience, we are formally telling them the story will take place over the course of a year
and adjusting their expectations accordingly. The film has four movements like a
symphony; a lonely opening overture, a terse 1
st
movement, a sweeping 2
nd
, and an
adagio 3
rd
.