The Research Behind Writing a Screenplay About Death

Abstract

''At a Window'' is a narrative fiction feature film about a mother and a daughter. It is the story of a reclusive mother who is forced to live with her estranged daughter in Maine. More importantly, it is the story of a terminally ill mother experiencing her final months with the middle-aged daughter she left behind. At the end of the film, our ill protagonist decides to take her own life with the help of the organization Death with Dignity. The film deals with the human experience of death and how it affects the relationships with the people around them. In order to create a naturalistic representation of the process of utilizing Physician Assisted Suicide and, moreover, through Death With Dignity, we will explore how these relationships are affected and altered when someone makes the conscientious decision to die. In order to truly explore the mother/daughter relationship in our film, we are doing this research. Our overall goal is to inform and authenticate the writing of a fictionalized story. We hope to accomplish this by treating death as a character, and creating a 'platonic love triangle' between our mother, daughter, and death. As part of our research prior to the writing of the screenplay, we have conducted a series of interviews with real people and their experiences with the death of a parent.

Elizabeth "Buffy" Cautela and Jacob Barnes | Communications Media and Game Design | Faculty Sponsor Rachelle Dermer