Film Pitch - Tainted Blood

This is a piece that I did last year for Scriptwriting. In a group we had to come up with a film idea and pitch it to our lecturer. It was the first time I had worked in a group at University and it was a nice bonding activity, too. I'm still really close to the two girls, and one of them, Megan, also has a blog, it's called The Student Housewife.

We spent a lot of time on the script and rehearsed constantly, and in the end our efforts paid off as we received a first for it! I was really nervous as I tend to talk very fast and I didn't want to be the one that let the team down. Luckily, we had rehearsed it so much that I read at the perfect pace even if my heart was beating a mile a minute. Since then, however, I am much more confident in my reading aloud, in fact, I read something out loud to my classmates this morning!

During the pitch we all had something to say, and we colour coded our scripts. Megan was blue, I was purple, and Lauren was pink. I thought I'd leave it in colour to liven up my blog a bit, and so you can see how we all contributed.  

We came up with the idea after reading an article about the average life span being longer than it used to be a few decades ago, and I began to wonder what would happen if nobody ever died. In a way, it's very like the film Children of Men, only I haven't actually seen it so in no way did we copy it! 

I really like this idea and maybe one day I'll write it out in full as a book, obviously with Lauren and Megan's permission!

Tainted Blood is an action drama feature film following the lives of separated twins and their struggle to change a world where procreation is banned as the elimination of illnesses leads the human population to soar.

Seth is a young man that has spent most of his life hiding, living in basements, abandoned houses, or even underground, as he is an illegal child, born in a time when procreation has been banned by the Government. This is because after scientists found the cure for all diseases the world has become a dangerously overpopulated place.

His life takes a devastating turn as his girlfriend confesses that she is pregnant. Seth can’t bear for his child to grow up the same way that he did. When Seth was younger his twin brother, Xander, was taken during a governmental raid. These raids were to check for illegal children, and any that were found were sent off to army camps to learn how to fight and then join the ever threatening war over oil supplies. The two brothers were both hidden in a basement, but after Seth made an accidental noise and the Raiders started coming for him, Xander let himself be taken in order to protect his brother.

So Seth, in fear for his girlfriend and his unborn child, sets out to find the mysterious revolutionary movement called the United Forces of the Lost Generation (UFLG), who consist of other illegal children planning to overthrow the government and its regime. He has to disguise himself as an older man to avoid the suspicion of his age or being caught. He manages to travel around Britain hearing more about the UFLG and avoiding the Government, most of the time, but he has a few close calls.

 Throughout his travels he hears more about the group and eventually finds its hidden underground headquarters. Giving a motivational speech at the time is the UFLG leader, who looks exactly like Seth. It is his twin brother, Xander.

Seth manages to meet with Xander and says he wants to join the UFLG. During this meeting Xander explains how after he was taken he fought in the war and has seen many horrific things, but he worked his way into the Government. And now he knows all the ins and outs of the ‘Cure Vaccination Programme’. Xander says that he has a plan to stop the vaccination, therefore stopping over population and leaving Seth’s child to live in a better world.

Xander’s plan involves the use of Seth’s blood. Xander reveals that their father, who died before they were born, had an extremely rare genetic mutation that caused him to be immune to the vaccination. This immunity has been passed onto the twins and now their blood is riddled with many diseases and bacteria, of which the world’s population may not be able to survive. Xander and the UFLG plan to mix Seth’s blood with the vaccination, which has to be given annually to the whole world, in order to cut down some of the population and hopefully put an end to the war. 

The only problem is that the next vaccination is within the month and they need the blood now. And it will probably take all of Seth’s blood and he won’t survive. Seth asks why it has to be his blood and not Xander’s. But Xander tells Seth that he fought in the war and is now a Government official and that he deserves to live, whereas Seth is a nobody, somebody that has been hiding all his life, and not worth anything. Seth is appalled, he doesn’t want to die; he wants to be able to raise his child in a peaceful world.

However, before Seth can escape, Xander uses his followers to overpower him and take him to a secret medical facility. Seth wakes up in a bed with drips and wires coming off him and his blood being taken from him. It’s being put into containers that will be sent all over the world and secretly added to the vaccine. Xander oversees the extracting with grim satisfaction. Seth pleads with his brother, saying he is sorry for him, and sorry that he had to go the war and not him. Xander begins to break emotionally and begins to change his mind about the whole thing. But it is too late. The last of Seth’s blood has been drained and he dies.

Xander is devastated by what he did, but carries on the operation none the less. The blood is successfully mixed, and after the annual vaccination many people become sick and die. The new vaccination manages to wipe out a third of the population and puts an abrupt end to the war.

Now, because most of the Government was wiped out due to the vaccination, Xander starts a new Government to help rebuild the world, but without an ultimate cure, without a ban on procreation and without war. But Xander makes sure that Seth’s girlfriend and child know what a sacrifice he made, and that his legend lives on.