The Wise and Foolish Builders

Description

This short is a fantastical comedy about two children who secretly admire one another but are driven to fight one another through nerves and awkwardness. The short should follow the parable of 'the wise and foolish builders' (St Matthew 7) however it should also discuss the challenges of youth involving peer pressure and love. The story will play on conventions of young girls maturing earlier and young boys bullying girls that they fancy. The short should be light hearted but have some serious moments of drama. The comedy will rely on subtlety, playing with gender stereotypes and shock. It should also spoof other films such as The Matrix, Tom and Jerry, and old war/ martial arts/ slapstick films. The setting and supporting characters should be plain and bleak while Rosa and Jacob appear colourful and unique, automatically making them a match. Though the short is about two children the film should target an older audience and be shot from a nostalgic perspective following the direction recently taken by Wes Anderson (Moonrise Kingdom) and Spike Jones (Where the Wild Things Are).

Biblical Connection

The story of this short should follow the parable of 'the wise and foolish builders' (St Matthew 7). This parable discusses the importance of building one’s life on good Christian foundations and how, if it is not, one should not succeed in life. The house represents life and its builder represents the one who is living that life. In this instance the female character, Rosa, is the wise builder and the male character, Jacob, is the foolish one. Jacob is bullying Rosa and is being led astray by another boy. Therefore Rosa challenges Jacob to a battle of wits and they each build a fort in order to stage this fight. Rosa builds her fort on the rocks, making plans, consulting books on architecture while Jacob tries to make her slip up and does not concentrate on his own build. Though their forts appear to be equally matched in battle a storm comes and washes Jacobs away. In the parable the foolish builder’s life is ruined, while his house collapses in on him, however our character Jacob is saved by Rosa. His redemption shows the kindness of the wise builder and allow Christian views on forgiveness to enter the story.