PRE-PRODUCTION: Story Development & Changes

Since my meeting with Simon, I have gone back to the initial concept stage and made some significant changes to the story, using some of the characters, events and themes I had originally come up with. Some improvements that needed to be made included stripping back some of the content, as I had made the story rather complex with lots of stories within. This made it seem like a melodrama with too much going on in between the main events of the story and not giving it the centre focus it needed. The characters I had written, particularly the mother character I wanted to build on and really give her a motive, based on her back story. As my previous idea was very plot heavy, this wouldn't allow the audience to engage with the characters and establish a connection with them. Instead, they would need to focus on the twists and event changes in order to follow the story, not allowing for much audience participation and understanding of the characters.

The mother's back story is a troubled childhood, her parents split up and her mother left, leaving her with no strong maternal character in her life, and a useless father who only supported her when it was completely necessary. So, when she has twins at the age of 19 with a boyfriend who she is no longer with, she is determined to make something of herself and be the mother to her daughters that she never had. I wanted to start with the mother and really build on her as a character that the audience will be able to identify with and initially root for. This was important for me to understand what I wanted to story to be about. I decided I wanted the story to be about family - and parenting in particular. Other recurring themes include love, loss, abduction and poverty.


Pitch/Tag-line
Here I have devised an initial pitch for the story to act as a summary of what it will be about, without giving away too much context.

One Mother's desperate attempt to locate her abducted daughter. Could she be out there somewhere? 

I think that this tagline tells the audience that the story is about the mother and what has happened to her. It also tells the audience what her motive in the story will be without giving away the reason why. Leaving a question for the audience divulges a theme of mystery, which will become important later on in the series. Even though I have broken down the events from my original idea and restrained them, I would still like to incorporate some of these but centre them to one location, and one main character.

Plot Summary

• A young mother is living in a small town in the state of Illinois with her 5 year old twin daughters.
• She is a waitress at a local cafe, working long shifts every day of the week to pay rent and support her daughters, desperate to provide for them.
• Their father works as a Solicitor nearby and sees his daughters as often as he can.
• The mother sometimes leaves the twins alone whilst she goes to work, feeling she hasn't got any other option, however someone has observed this and is watching them.
• One day, one of the twins is playing in the garden and is snatched away, leaving the other traumatised.
• The mother returns, horrified and desperately contacts their father who is equally panicked and reports the child missing to authorities.
• An investigation is under way, when the missing twin is suspected dead. Evidence of bloodied clothing is found but no body is retrieved.
• Driven by her desperation and guilt, the mother refuses to accept the evidence, dedicating herself to uncover what happened to her daughter. The father removes the other twin amidst fears the mother is no longer stable, suggesting she looks after herself first.
• We return to the story 6 years later and the mother has dedicated her life and work to finding the child, her house is covered with paperwork, setting up an online charity dedicated to finding missing children.
• A new family has moved to town with a little girl, it is revealed she was adopted. The mother suspects that it is her daughter, and begins stalking the house and family intensely, initially befriending the little girl for information. Authorities believe she is emotionally unstable and don't entertain her pleads of enquiry.
• When she obtains a hair sample, a police officer agrees to have it examined. It is revealed she is the birth mother of the little girl. The police officer and the authorities uncover that the child was taken from her abductor for not having legal documents and fostered by her current guardians.
• Happy and stable with her foster parents, the daughter rejects the mother's offer to join her, leaving her distraught and feeling like she has failed her.
• In her despair, she attempts to steal her, and in driving away she is cornered, crashing the car and injuring herself. 
• The mother is prosecuted and institutionalised for her actions, however she accepts that her daughters are both cared for and living stable lives. The father and twins are reunited, continuing to live their lives separately respecting the little girls request to remain with her foster parents.