Short Film Ideas: Money Is Evil

For this short film idea, I had in mind of creating a story in which revolves around the life of a ten pound note; the activites it is used for by a various number of people, and the overall misfortune it brings. The reason for this choice of idea is that I believe it matches perfectly with the proverb "the love of money is the root of all evil" as I intend for the characters in whose hands the ten pound note falls into will display signs of greediness for the money and become attached. However, it will be due to this yearning and selfishness for the money which leads to their misfortune, thus explaining why it is evil.

In short, the story will start off with a ten pound note flying around in the air, and its path will be tracked by the camera. The money lands in the sight of a lone chav who is walking down the street smoking frantically searching for some money. He spots the money and picks it up. After looking around, he decides to walk slyly walk away hoping no-one sees him as he is under the impression that the money probably fell from the hands of someone close by. The camera follows this chav walking down alleyways and stops to find him dealing drugs with a gangster. He hands the ten pound note to the gangster in return for some weed.

As the gangster is a high school student, the next scene is him using this "well earned" money to bribe a studious classmate to do his homework for him. Which the class geek gladly accepts. This scene is then followed by the geek happily walking down a street grinning away at the money they have received for their hard work. However, not all is good as they are then suddenly attacked by a trio of bullies who snatch the money away from the geeks hands. This eventually turns into a squabble between the geek and the bullies but then no thanks to a 'tight' grip on the ten pound note, a wind picks up and blows the money out from one of the bully's hands for a brief second.

The ten pound note then lands in the middle of the road and lies there. This is followed by a few extreme close up shots of everyone's head turning to look at the money and in their eyes will be a reflective image of it lying on the ground. After a few shifty movements, the geek leaps into the road and is seconds away from reaching out for the money but unfortunately, they get hit by a passing car (which will coincedentally be driven by the chav).

The final shot will be a canted angle where the audience sees the geek on the floor with the chav running out of their car and rushing to the geek's side calling for them if they are okay. The camera then zooms out slightly and refocuses, leaving the audience to see the ten pound note lying on the ground in the foreground, and in the background is the geek on the floor. To finish, the short story will fade out black.

The reasoning for the choice of such a story is because I intend for the audience to be the teenager age range as I hope to convey the message not only that money is the root of all evil (the proverb which the short story pivots around) but also that things which may seem normal to an ordinary teenager should not be overlooked. This explains why I have tried to involve a stereotype of the most common teenagers (chav, gangster, geek, bully) within my storyline. Furthermore, by using such characters, it acts as a hook which enables the the story to accomodate and catch the audience, since it means the audience can relate to these character types.