A Chorale In The Ocean
I wrote this screenplay as a writer-director. As I had the intentions of filming what I was writing, what I wrote was invisioned with how the scenes would be directed at the same time and as such there are several directors notes intertwined within the scenes. I knew that I wanted to write the screenplay from the journey of a deaf girl, working on promoting the deaf community and the awareness of bullying and family neglect, but the story itself was inspired by my love and curiosity of the sea. I was even more inspired by the Oscar winning short film The Silent Child and the anime film A Silent Voice. Ironically, at the same time I was in the process of writing my screenplay the Oscar winning film The Shape of Water came out in cinema and it was a whole year later that I got to watch the film on DVD and I discovered the simularities in concepts between my film and The Shape of Water. This really made me happy as I was able to compair my concepts to that of an Oscar winning film.
The film was nominated in the EIFF screening list for 2019.
The Plot
Ava was born deaf. She was born into a family where her mother cares not for her daughter just her family's reputation, her sister is full of herself and her father abandoned them soon after Ava was born. Because of the lack of support she got Ava found it incredibly difficult to communicate with her peers and grow as a person so that one day when the ostrazising became too overpowering she decided to try and take her life. But before she could leap into the water she is saved by a 'mermaid' creature, Echo, who is able to speak to Ava. She claims to be 'the embodiment of the voice of the ocean' and she has come to help Ava. Their friendship blossoms and Ava learns not only how to communicate and understand people better, but how to become strong enough to stand up for herself. However, the longer Echo is away from the ocean the quiter it grows and the more Ava spends with Echo the more classes she misses and her grades fall dramatically. Can this forbidden friendship work when two worlds have collided?
Writing Status: Completed. Revamping in progress