As we reach the end of the filmmaking process, however, things have slowed down ever so slightly, so I've found the time to make this post about the internal monologue that will feature in our film.
Below is the full internal monologue, and below that is an explanation of how and why it was written. Just like our shot lists, it was not written in the way an actual film script would have been, because this would have required much undue effort; Tom and I aren't selling the scripts, we merely need to record our ideas for our own later use, in a way which we can both understand and interpret quickly and easily. The bold writing is the spoken monologue itself, and the accompanying italics are notes to show where the line should be placed in the film.
From the very beginning of the process, Tom and I wanted the audience to be able to hear the protagonist's thoughts non-diegeticly, via an internal monologue. We wanted the character to seem both enigmatic and realistic, speaking in phrases that revealed the depth of his thought, but without providing specific detailing, or a definite context. The lack of detail would also add to the realism of the words as the character's own thoughts; when we think to ourselves, we rarely think in a way that would make a great amount of detailed sense if another person were to hear it spoken aloud.
We also wanted the film to have a certain message hidden within the mystery, so when writing the monologue, I tried to make every line a covert, inexplicit reference to some philosophical concept, or some dilemma of thought. For example, the line 'And you can't control circumstance, so you work with what you have,' alludes to the conflicting concepts of determinism and free-will, and the following line: 'Acting, not because you must, but because you can: doing, not because that's who you want to be, but because that's who you are,' touches on Aristotle's teleological interpretation of morality in Nicomachean Ethics (350 BCE), which is more explicitly mentioned in the teacher's dialogue during Scene 3.
Having only five-minutes of space for the entire film, I was also conscious of the need to be concise, and express as much as I could in as few words as possible. In other words, the monologue needed to be epigrammatic throughout. This was no more important than in the final lines of the monologue, where I wanted to leave viewers with something that would stick in their mind; that they would continue to think about after the film has finished. The final lines, shown below, address the viewer directly for maximum impact:
'Don't lie to yourself about these things; justice is only a dream.
Have the conviction to accept this, and you'll take the world one step closer to that sleep.'
With 'selflessness' the defining characteristic of our protagonist, the themes of 'justice': of what is fair and what is right, should be implicit throughout our film, and to explicitly mention 'justice' at the end should punctuate the film nicely.
As Tom and I have waded deeper and deeper into the production of our film, it has become increasingly surreal, and I wanted to acknowledge that at the end of the film with the mention of 'dreams,' just as I mentioned the theme of 'justice.' What this acknowledgement should do is assure the audience that, whilst the film isn't necessarily realistic by any means, that is no reason to not take heed of its moral sentiments.
Of course, I say all this now, but once we have recorded the monologue being spoken and added it to our footage, it may be too long, too melodramatic, or it simply may not fit the film. We may end up using every single line, or only a few, or somewhere in-between; there is really no way of knowing until Tom and I actually watch it for ourselves to see what works and what doesn't.
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