STORY-TELLING UNIT: My 25 Word Pitch for 'The Meeting'

The title: 
The Meeting

The pitch:
A man who has just been diagnosed with schizophrenia makes an attempt at taking his own life but is prevented by a seemingly friendly stranger.

The genre:
Drama

The two main characters:
- Kyle, 22, an optimistic uni leaver who has just landed a decent post graduate job at an insurance firm in London. He takes the train from Chatham to London to get to work everyday. He is tall (6ft +), clean shaven and has lighter hair. (Kyle is just a hallucination of John's - an image of what John wishes to be)

- John, 24, has been struggling at his job due to his mental health leading to him booking a doctors appointment. In this appointment he is diagnosed with mild schizophrenia. He is tall (6ft), with dark hair and a beard.

The main location:
A pier with deep water flowing beneath. The characters meet here when one makes a suicide attempt.

The source material:
The Guardian: Man reunited with stranger who talked him down from suicide attempt.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jan/30/man-reunited-stranger-suicide-attempt-london-bridge


Plot:
John, having been distracted and stressed at work, finally decides to see a psychologist in the evening about these weird symptoms he has been having. John discovers from this appointment that he does in fact have mild schizophrenia.

Feeling like this is the end of the world, John rushes to the pier with the view of taking his own life. Just as he is about to climb onto the edge of the pier, a friendly stranger intervenes. Eventually the stranger (Kyle) manages to talk John out of jumping. The pair get chatting and decide to grab a coffee. Whilst Kyle goes away to make a quick phone call, a few of John's friends see him in the coffee shop and decide to say hello. John tells his friends that he is there having coffee with a new friend, this confuses John's other friends as they had just seen him walk into the coffee shop alone (a hint that Kyle is just a hallucination of John's).

The next day John has a treatment session scheduled, however, Kyle manages to persuade John not to go as he claims it is just a way of doctors trying to control him. Kyle continues to become more destructive and manipulative. John finally goes to one of his treatment sessions with Kyle only for the psychologist to tell him that there is no Kyle and that he is just a figment of John's imagination.


Initial Ideas and Development:

STORY-TELLING UNIT: "The Meeting" Initial Ideas

STORY-TELLING WORKSHOP: How The Workshops Affected My Ideas