Script for Jane Eyre - Essay Example

Jane Eyre Script for Jane Eyre: S ROLL OVER THE ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE. MONTAGE OF JANE EYRE’S CHILDHOOD: *JANE as a young girl, sobbing during a funeral ceremony as a priest throws soil over her parents’ graves. She is led away by her aunt. * Jane being scolded by her aunt who seems very cross * Jane arriving at an orphanage, where she is surrounded by other young girls, especially HELEN, a young girl her age * Jane and the other girls being subjected to cruel treatment by the teachers at the orphanage * Jane’s friend Helen dying of consumption in her arms * Press cuttings about a typhus epidemic, revealing the poor treatment meted out to the orphans * Jane and other girls being moved to another place * Jane as a young woman ready to be employed. SCENE 1: INT: HALL OF THORNFIELD MANOR: DAY: Jane interviewed by housekeeper MRS. THORNTON, and meeting her young charge, ADELE VARENS. SCENE 2: EXT: THORNFIELD MANOR: DAY: Jane meets and helps a horse rider whose ankle is strained and helps him back to the mansion. SCENE 3: MONTAGE OF JANE AND MR. ROCHESTER FALLING IN LOVE: Jane in the hall of Thornfield Manor, meeting young Adele and being introduced to MR. ROCHESTER, the horse rider Jane meeting Mr. Rochester on a walk with her young charge. The two adults speaking to each other politely Jane coming down the stairs after dinner to find a book to read and discovering Mr Rochester in the library with a drink, reading a book Jane and Mr Rochester on a walk outdoors, smiling and talking to each other INTERCUTS: A maniacal LAUGH being heard in the halls A guest MASON is attacked a fire breaks out. SCENE 4: INT: GATESHEAD HOME; DAY/NIGHT: Jane returns to her childhood home and nurses her dying aunt, who gives her a letter from her uncle, passing on his fortune to her. SCENE 5: INT: THORNFIELD MANOR; VARIOUS: Jane and Mr. Rochester declare their love for each other; Mr. Rochester goes down on his knees and asks Jane to marry him. SCENE 6: INT: JANE’S ROOM; NIGHT: Jane is sorting through her things for the wedding. The MUSIC is foreboding and suddenly there is a MUSIC STING as a strange, savage looking woman enters Jane’s room and tears Jane’s wedding veil in two. Panicked, Jane screams, Mr. Rochester runs in and provides the same explanation as he had for previous events, i.e, the drunken behaviour of one of the servants, Grace Poole. SCENE 7: INT: THORNTON HALL: DAY: Jane and Mr. Rochester in wedding clothes, are standing before the priest, who starts reading the wedding vows. When he announces that if anyone objects to the marriage, they should speak up, two witnesses – Mr. Mason and a lawyer – stand up. They dispute Mr. Rochester’s freedom to marry, stating that he is already married to Mr. Mason’s sister. The secret is then revealed; the woman who attacked Jane was Mrs. Rochester, a madwoman who is locked up in one part of Thornfield manor. Mr. Rochester breaks down and confesses that he is indeed married, but it has not been a normal marriage because of her mental illness. Mr Rochester asks Jane to run away with him to France despite the fact that they cannot get married, but she refuses on principle. SCENE 8: EXT; THORNFIELD MANSION –NIGHT: Jane - sneaking away through the grounds with her suitcase, and boarding a coach away from Thornfield Mansion. SCENE 9: MONTAGE: Jane stopping at an inn Misplacing her funds Jane forced to beg for food Jane turned away as a suspected thief Jane passing out on the street due to starvation and being rescued by a young clergyman named St John, who takes her to his home where his two sisters live. Jane’s warm interactions with the clergyman’s two sisters. SCENE 10: INT; ST JOHN’S HOME; DAY: St. John’s reserved interactions with Jane until his sisters leave. Then he asks her to marry him and go to India, because he says his observations have shown him that she is good wife material. She refuses to marry him, but agrees to go to India. Simultaneously however, she appears to HEAR Mr. Rochester calling her name. Realizing that it may be her last opportunity to see Mr. Rochester before leaving the country finally, she decides to go back to Thornton Manor to see him. SCENE 11: THE THORNFIELD MANSION; DAY: Jane arrives at Thornfield mansion to find blackened ruins, because the mad Mrs. Rochester had set fire to the house. She then tried to jump off the roof in an attempt to commit suicide; Mr. Rochester tried to save her but lost his eyesight as well as his hand, while also being scarred badly. Jane assures him she will stay with him and marry him. SCENE 12: MONTAGE: Jane and Mr Rochester getting married Jane and Mr. Rochester strolling the lawns with Jane guiding Mr. Rochester A son is born to Jane Mr. Rochester having an operation for his eyes Mr. Rochester looking with delight at his new born son. FADE TO BLACK SCREEN: END TITLES ROLL. THE END Creative Analysis: The creative inspiration for this screen project arose out of the potential existing in the story, especially the suspense and build-up towards the revelation about Mrs. Rochester’s existence and her madness. My objective was to create a script of the story which was able to highlight these elements and build up Jane Eyre’s story towards a climax through the use of suggestion and context. The screen adaptation cannot be as exhaustive as the written book due to the limitations of screen time; however the project is similar to the book “Rebecca”, in that the opening pages of the book which describe a dream are like a composite of the entire story. The screen version of the Jane Eyre story achieves the same objective of providing a capsule of the entire storyline, through a focus upon specific scenes which are important, while other less important scenes are shown in the form of a montage or a rapid flash of several scenes which give a general idea of what is happening in the story. It is also similar to the novel “Rebecca” in the emphasis placed on atmosphere and the foreboding context within which the events of the story take place. This is also a love story like Jane Eyre, with the two protagonists falling in love with and marrying older men who are rich; it also ends with the man’s home being burnt down. While the protagonist in “Rebecca” is however timid and afraid to assert herself, Jane Eyre is a more confident woman. This alters the way in which these two protagonists react to the events occurring in the story. The choice and timing of scenes is intended to demonstrate how successfully the author of “Jane Eyre” is able to achieve the atmosphere of suspense through a focus on the sensory perceptions of the protagonist. There are some scenes which are shown through a montage; these are the less important ones in so far as the impact on the viewer is concerned. For instance, intercuts of scenes that have been included in the script while the romance between Jane and Mr. Rochester is progressing are an example of the phenomenon of vivacity which Scarry (1995: 4) describes in her article, because the perceptions of the viewer are dependent upon the gap which exists between what Jane is actually seeing and the element of threat and suspense which could be created through sound effects and lighting. A musical score may not have immediate acoustical content, but as Scarry (1995:2-3) points out, it can contribute towards the creation of atmosphere and a delayed sensory response. Jane Eyre is unaware of the existence of Mrs. Rochester; she gleanes glimpses of strange events occurring, but they are not fully explained, hence the viewer gains a perception that Jane is in danger. Scarry (1995:2) has described vivacity as the gap between the object that is imagined and the perceptual object, which consists of the actual objects the reader is seeing. Applied in the film, this accentuates the atmosphere of suspense in the film, because the gap between these two creates the atmosphere of suspense. According to Sadolski and Paivio (141), who have described mental imagery in the reading process, written representation contains both “verbal and non verbal mental representations”; both of which contribute towards the effect that the narrator is seeking to achieve. This could also be applied in the film medium as well, because it’s not just the spoken dialogues which provide a sense of what is happening, but also the non verbal cues that a viewer picks up, such as the background sets, the music, the expressions and reactions of the actors as well as their body language. Similarly, Scarry’s principle of radiant ignition could also be applied (Scarry, 1995:3). I was inspired to commence this project because of my fondness for the book and the character of Jane Eyre. The final product I prepared does not however match up to the impressions I gained while reading the story, because the script I prepared still needs to be fleshed out more fully. While I referred to script writing templates, I found the work relatively easy because the episodes and sequences were already compartmentalized in my mind, from my own reading and re-reading of the book. I used the Final Draft script software as a reference point to prepare my own script, however if I had constrained myself to the format it used, I would not have been able to complete my summary of the entire story within a limited number of pages. Therefore I chose to con dense the contents of the entire book into a brief description of the scenes rather than setting out dialogues and specifically breaking down the shots into the way they would show up on screen. I am fairly satisfied with the script summary I have produced, because it does conform to the general storyline of the book itself. While adapting the textual material to writing for the film medium however, I found that the most significant problem was being able to visually present the thoughts and perceptions of the narrator Jane Eyre in a way that the viewer would be able to grasp. I had to resort to the process of filtering the available material, by focusing only on the most important scenes, to try and present them with more detail and enhancements with sound and music cues, while relegating the less important scenes to less film time and footage. ASSESSMENT FORM 1. What is the inspiration for your project? The inspiration for this project was the book “Jane Eyre” which has always been one of my favorite books. It is however, a story told in the first person and therefore describes the feelings, perceptions and ideas of the narrator so that the reader gets a good idea what is going on. I wanted to see how well these mental, unspoken perceptions could be transcribed onto the film medium, so that a viewer gains a close approximation of the actual feelings and thoughts of the narrator, Jane Eyre. 2. Which parts of your project do you feel are most effective in getting your point across? I feel that the way I have chosen to highlight a few of the important scenes by allowing them more screen time has been very helpful in focusing upon the crucial elements of the storyline. I feel that the arrangement of the music and background elements on film could contribute very well to the effect that I’m seeking to achieve. I also feel that these non verbal elements might contribute towards achieving the effect that the text produces through other techniques such as kinetic occlusion and vivacity, as described by Scarry. 3. Which parts still need work? The basic scene breakdown/ script that I have prepared is not yet comprehensive in terms of its detailed components. It requires more details to be input, such as dialogues, music and a detailed breakdown of shots. Moreover, I also feel that I could perhaps work on the script a little more in order to introduce more of the principle that Scarry refers to as radiant ignition, whereby mobility is conferred on to objects through the use of light and textures. While the lighting aspects can be addressed through the film medium, it would be a more difficult proposition to make the viewer aware of the texture of materials used by the characters in the film and the impressions that they convey. 4. What sort of feedback would help you the most in revising these particular parts? The most important kind of feedback which would help would be through effective production design, i.e, by using color schemes and costumes that propagate the desired effect. It could also be achieved through the use of flashback sequences, or voice-overs, wherein the thoughts running through the characters’ minds would be articulated in the form of background dialogue. References: Sadoski, M., and Paivio, A. (1994). A dual coding view of imagery and verbal processes in reading comprehension. In R.B. Ruddell, M.R. Ruddell, & H. Singer (Eds.),Theoretical models and processes of reading (4th ed., pp. 582-601). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Scarry, Elaine. “On Vivacity: The Difference Between Daydreaming and Imagining-Under-Authorial-Instruction.” Representations. 52 (1995), 1-26 Read More