Treatment

Director: Mariah Smallwood
Producer: Rebecca Firth
Director of Photography: Hugh Stephens
Sound Mixer: Matt McFarling

Circles Treatment

A documentary short exploring the reasonings behind women shaming from a large demographic, showing us that women from all ages experience gossiping, backstabbing, and broken friendships.

In other words, high school never ends...

Act 1: Teen Queens

Scene 1: Monday Lunch (1 minute Narrative Skit)

Black Screen. The school bell shrieks on a fall Monday as doors slam open while obnoxious chatter and loud footsteps fill the room. The screen flashes to the bird’s eye view of the circular lunch table with 2 girls who are dressed in pastel sweaters matched with jeans while rocking a high ponytail. The two girls, Nicki and Katie, begin gossiping about their friend June. Katie begins whispering to Nicki saying that she heard June was making out with Daniel at Heather Bateman’s party last Friday night. As the girls continue bashing their friend and munching on their salads, June approaches the table holding a tray with a PB&J and a bag of chips on it. As June sits down, the girls immediately stop gabbing and then ask June if she is still on for hosting the Saturday Night Sleepover this week. The scene ends and a magazine begins to flip pages until we see 3 teenage girls sitting on a couch surrounded by teen magazines while laughing and chatting.

Scene 2: The Sit Down- Group Interview with teenage girls in the same friendship circle.

The magazine pages continue to flip until it stops on 3 teenage girls sitting on a couch surrounded by magazines. Light pop music is playing as a bowl of popcorn sits down on the coffee table. The girls begin to recall true accounts of when they have gossiped about friends or when they were gossiped about. The high school girls will tell stories of past friendship mishaps with a mix of an observational approach as we see the girls chatting in their natural environment. The girls individually will recall true accounts of when gossiping has hurt their friendships with others and what they hope to do differently in the future. Then the girls collectively discuss why they think women shame other women and the effects from it.

Act 2: The “40 Years Young”ers

Scene 1: The Mommy Bunch (1 minute Narrative Skit)

Black Screen. With a “Brady Bunch” themed set-up, there will be a 4-window frame with Easter egg colored boxes. In the top left box, a close-up of Brenda appears as she is on her pastel colored phone. Suddenly a phone rings and Traci appears in the top right box next to Brenda, answering the phone. Brenda begins to complain about another neighbor, Robin and her obnoxious child who vandalizes the neighborhood. The two women both continue to negatively bash Robin and her parenting methods until Brenda gets another phone call and answers. A close-up of Lisa appears in the bottom left box as she enters the conversation. It does not take long before the two women let Lisa in on their hateful gossip about Robin, in which Lisa jumps on board and continues with them. The dialogue begins to fade as we hear another phone ring, Traci is getting another phone call so she tells the others in the call group she’ll be right back. On the other line with Traci is Robin who appears in the bottom right box. Robin asks her if their tennis match and mimosa date is still on for the next day. Traci responds excitedly and claims the date is still on between the two. Robin closes the conversation and the two happily make kissing noises as they say bye to one another. Traci joins back into the call group with Brenda and Lisa, telling them it was just the telemarketer on the other line. They continue to the trash talk behind Robin’s back as the picture fades out with upbeat trumpet tune. The conversations between the women are upbeat and fast paced.

Scene 2: The Sit Down- Group Interview with middle aged gal pals

The scene fades in with 3 middle-aged women sitting on a screened patio with glasses of wine and appetizers on the table. The women are sipping wine and chatting with one another, symbolizing their close friendship and a group. The women will tell stories of their past experiences with women shaming and how it has or has not changed now that they are adults and mothers. The women will tell stories of how their personal friendships have changed overtime, and their role of being a friend has transformed over the years of maturity. Along with interview questions about gal pals, the women will chat amongst themselves in their natural environment and let the subjects form their own topic of conversation.

Act 3: Cookies with Grandma

Scene 1: Merle, Virginia, & Wanda’s Cooking Show (1 minute Narrative Skit)

The observational footage cuts to the Cooking with Granny Show.  Three elderly women, Merle, Virginia, and Flossie, are standing behind a kitchen counter. On the counter, there are pots, pans, dirty dishes, and a big cake in front of them. Virginia tells the viewers they will be right back after these messages as the director says cut and tells everyone to take 5. Flossie leaves and quickly after, Merle begins complaining to Virginia about how Flossie has been adding cinnamon to all of the dishes and she thinks it is distasteful. As the women clean up to set up for their next dish, makeup and set department come on the stage to get ready for the next take. While production staff is buzzing around them, Merle and Virginia bicker back and forth about their friend. Flossie comes back to the stage as Merle enthusiastically rushes her to the front and center. The Assistant Director counts down to 1 and yells ACTION! Cuts to Black like an old-fashioned TV.

Scene 2: The Sit Down- Group Interview with life loving Grandmas

The scene fades in with three elderly female friends in a kitchen decorating cookies. Colorful kitchen tools and cookie cutters are scattered on the counter top with messy icing tubes squeezed and disarranged. The women are chatting and laughing back and forth. The elderly women will tell stories of past and present friendships and how them being a friend has changed over their lifetime. The women will individually tell stories of friendships, backstabbing, gossiping, and the changes of these over time in different circles of friends. The women state their closing remarks about past, present, and possibly future friendships and how they have evolved over time. The screen cuts to a bird’s eye view of a circular sugar cookie being decorated.

Ending:

A voiceover of an elderly woman recalls the cycle of personal friendships and how relationships with gal pals have evolved over time. The voiceover looks at the big picture and illustrates how friendships overtime grow or crumble, depending on the amount of trust and reliance friends put on one another. As the voiceover continues, a montage of shots, representing women from all ages, doing everyday activities with the symbol of a circle being represented. From little girls running in a circle on the playground and a preteen putting on lipstick with her mouth wide open, to a mom turning a steering wheel and a grandmother baking a casserole in a round pan. The clips within this montage continue to speed up until the picture goes black. Credits roll.

Extensive Research Post

The first thing I did when I began my extensive research was first look at other documentaries surrounding my topic. I found a lot of bully documentaries like Bully (2011) and Bullied to Silence (2012). These full-length documentaries have an informational and morbid overall tone to them. These documentaries are different from our concept because we don’t want to focus on bullying, but why friends hurt other friends. We also want an upbeat atmosphere to our short. So then I went in and looked at documentaries closer to my niche of interest. One recent documentary that stuck out to me was Unslut (2016), and this doc. Heavily focuses on the rape culture and how young girls are represented in the education system. So, many documentaries surrounding this topic of women shamming and verbal abuse heavily focus on online interactions and the heavily talked about rape culture on campuses and cities. This topic can be viewed in a very dark manner or a playful manner. So, as I continued my research I had movies like Heathers (1988) and Mean Girls (2004) playing in the background as playful/ dark humor inspiration.

After looking at recent documentaries, I then went the old fashion route and went to the library to get some books. Two books that caught my eye were “I am Not a Slut: Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet” by Leora Tanenbaum and “Beauty: The Twentieth Century” published by Universe. “Beauty” was one that was really interesting to me because the book was broken up into decades and went into detail the norm of beauty at the time. For example, The 1970’s chapter had a big photo of Farah Fawcett and it talked about how hair was the symbol of the period. The 1990’s chapter talked about how lengthy and “wirey” girls fit into the grunge movement that popular during that time. These conventional views of what beauty is and what does or does not fit into that specific category of beauty are the foundation of women shaming. If you do not fit into societies or media’s view of beauty, you are immediately ridiculed and talked about.

After looking at other films and books that surrounded our concept, I wanted to find research that was close to our topic and I could get some ideas flowing in my mind (if that makes sense).  I want to heavily focus on modern women shaming, but it was important to first look into the past conventions of beauty and how women shaming evolved. But I feel in order to do real extensive research with my topic I need to focus on contemporary forms of media like You Tube channels, social media, blogs, and gossip magazines. So then I went to You Tube and started watching women from all ages vent about women shaming and friends talking shit. And boy, was that entertaining. Through the griping and complaining, I was actually able to get some good insight on the current issues that surround women shaming. And, ironically, a lot of videos I found were men talking about women shaming other women. Different videos touched on different sectors of women shaming from slut shaming and bitch shaming based on a woman’s appearance, to shaming a woman simply for having an authoritative position and a big career. It was interesting to see that the women who get shamed on excessively are women who are trying to make an independent lifestyle while wanting to feel beautiful in their own skin.

One video I watched was this guy holding gossip magazines being super confused on the titles on the magazines and the way they are targeted towards women. After I watched the video, I ran to the store to pick up the latest issue of Cosmo and Women’s Health. Before even opening the magazines I saw eye catchers like “How to get Sexy Abs and a Tight Butt” and “The Ultimate Guide to a Hot Bod.” All in all, basically everything on the cover of both magazines had to do with a woman’s outer appearance. This constant pressure from the media encourages women shaming other women for their appearance and fashion choices. Now, I know the media isn’t the only one throwing wood into the fire, but they are sure encouraging this certain standard of beauty.