Aurélien Lainé

Let’s go a bit deeper in our story. Here is the synopsis. It’ll be short of course because this is a short movie. Oh, and I am writing the synopsis as a quote just like I did with the logline. I do it just to differenciate it from the main post. Naturally it is not a quote per se, just a differentiation from the main post.

Sophia is a young woman in her late twenties who finds herself in a root. She moved to the city a few years ago to study. More studies followed which led to a temporary job that she can’t seem to be able to leave now. Life caught up on her in a way she didn’t expect, taking away her dreams and the joy she used to find in little things. She finds little comfort with the people she knows as she never took time to make real friends and while having drinks with acquaintances, she realizes that they little care about her and so does she about them. This can’t go on. Once home that same night, she takes a picture off the wall: Moana, the ocean. The next day she’ll go out of her usual way, out of her routine and will take a trip to the ocean. She doesn’t have a car and will probably have to hitch-hike but she’s not scared, what scares her the most is the life she’s building now.

The next day she gets up early and packs up a backpack with clothe for the weekend. She comes out of her house and walks towards the nearest bus stop. There she finds something unusual: two people, wearing Gi, hakama and a katana in their belt are waiting, straight and stoic. She waits with them. Finally a bus comes but one unlike any of those she has ever ridden before: it is an old, red, double deck London bus. A lady in the bus invites her to hop in, the two samurais follow. Upstairs, she looks at the city ravelling behind the windows. The sound of a bell takes her out of her reverie, the bus stops. The lady from the bus pops her head out upstairs and calls Sophia with a smile. This is her stop.

She walks by herself on the side of the road and we discover that she recently went through a break-up, he wasn’t ready, so he said. An old car approaches, it drives fast and stops right next to Sophia. On its license plate it says ‘JESUS SAVES’. Inside, not a doubt, a man with long hair looks at her with a majectic smile. She hops in and gets on with a scary ride with Jesus. He shows her his Driver’s License: Jesus Tyler is his name. He drives fast and talks about the world, the people he needs to save and how life is great. He is super energetic! He stops her at a crossroad and drives away just as crazy.

She starts walking towards what she believes is the way to the ocean. She’s not as lucky finding a ride this time and we discover how she kept herself busy and pushed away more than one occasion to make friends and cut the bridges to her adoptive family. Finally a van stops with people wearing renaissance costumes. Four people and two kids: the bride, the groom, the best man and the made of honour. The whole wedding fits in this car. They’re all a bunch of happy people and she learns that when you’re family’s not around, you’ve got to find a way to have your fun with people who truly care. But if there’s a chance that your family can be around then you should embrace them. And finally they make it to the beach. They drop her off and she walks away.

The ocean is amazingly beautiful. She hasn’t seen it for as far as she can remember. She wanders around until she finds a man fishing. He will tell her what she needs to hear about life. From far away, someone calls after Sophia, it’s the bride running towards her. She invites her and her new acquaintance for a BBQ. The fisherman brings fish, the kids play in the sand and there she meets with a sweet piece of life. It will be fine, life will be fine.

Ok, that’s like a straight piece of rock that has just been extracted from the mountain allright? It will be reworked on and on and on but hey, you’ve got the skeleton now. You can argue that this is more detailed than a synopsis. Sure, it is halfway between synopsis and treatment. That’s just the way it is. I hope that you like it.