Mockumentary - Plot Synopsis

Fionna, a young girl of 17,she appears just like any other teenager. She goes to school, hangs out with her friends and struggles to get all her work done on time.

 But Fionna isn't as average as she makes out she is, she has an exceptional medical condition which causes her to break out into hysterical laughter every 15 minutes. 

in our documentary we interview Fionna, who tells us that her condition is difficult to live with, but that she wouldn't have it any other way. 

Her teacher, Mr Savage, tells us about how he is struggling to come to terms with teaching a student with such a bizarre condition, and how it affects the learning of Fionna and her fellow students.

 We then interview Fionna's friends who tell us that Fionna's condition is beginning to become difficult to live with, 

that they are struggling to remain empathetic and are tired of having to hear the constant laughing! Finally, we talk to Fionna's parents, who's faces have been hidden to disguise their identity, as they are so embarrassed of their daughter.

 Fiona's mother, while sympathetic, is overpowered by her father who is completely the opposite. 

He is intolerant and frustrated and tells us that they have tried everything to cure Fionna but nothing in the world seems to work. 

This documentary will follow Fionna in her dailyroutine  and try to understand how she lives with her inexplicable condition

Mockumentary - Props / Costume List & Itinary

As a group it was most convenient for us to have all our filming completed in one day. We therefore decided it would be best to complete all our filming at school. Unfortunately we only decided on a date as we drew very near to our deadline for footage submission, in hindsight it would probably have been more productive to plan out our itinery with lots of time to spare in case we encountered any hiccups. 

As we decided to complete all our filming in school time we had no choice but to film our cast in the clothes they happened to be wearing on that day. However, in some ways this was convenient as in a school environment out cast members were wearing what would be expected of then. For example with Fionna and her friends wearing their usual sixth form clothes it made it more believeable that this was their natural environment. As Mr Savage was in his usual PE kit it was believeable that he is a teacher, also, using a real adult makes the mockumentary somewhat more proffesional.

We decided not to use any props as we did not think they would benefit the mockumentary any further. If, for example, we had been given the other group's task of 'Chairboy', the prop of a chair would have been important. But based on the theme and title of our mockumentary they were not necessary

Mockumentary - Cast List

 CHARACTER PROFILES

Fionna - Fionna is a young girl of 17 who on the outside seems just like an ordinary teenage girl, but Fionna has a life consuming condition which causes her to burst out laughing at random intervals.

Friends - Joe and Luke are two of Fionna's friends that have been interviewed alongside Fionna, despite her presence both of the boys outwardly express their frustration towards having to deal with Fionna's condition.

Mr Savage - Fionna's teacher Mr Savage finds her condition sometimes difficult to deal with. He struggles to teach alongside her laughter and has noticed that pupils in classes with Fionna sturggle to focus, he notes that her laughter is contagious and often others end up laughing alongside her. Despite this, Mr Savage recognises that Fionna has the same rights and need to learn regardless of her conditions. 

Parents - Fionna's parents portray an almost 'good cop, bad cop' type of relationship. With her mother as a sympathetic, caring character and her father as an unsympathetic, intolerant counterpart.

ACTOR PROFILES

Fionna - Fionna is a highly experienced actress and has featured in several on stage and student made productions, making her highly suitable to play the main character in our mockmentary.

Friends - Joe is also an experienced actor and has featured alongside Fionna in several productions, making him the perfect actor to act alongside her. Luke is hivhly confident and happy to appear on camera. Luke also knows Fionna and so is therefore more comfortable to be in a short film alongside her.

Mr Savage - Mr Savage is a real life teacher at the school which Fionna attends, he is willing to help students when they are in need of him. He is sympathetic and accepting of all pupils as a teacher should be, making him ideal to play to role of a sympathetic teahcer.

Parents - Anna is playing Fionna's mother. Although she is not an experienced actress she was eager to be on camera, as she is such a caring person we thought she was ideal to play a sympathetic mother. Ronny is playing Fionna's father. Ronny has been involved in performances with the Young Farmers theatre group and was happy to be on camera, making him a good cast member to play an intolerant father.