VCA Film

ACTORS NEEDED URGENTLY

SYNOPSIS

After The Formal

Graduating year 12 students in formal attire mill around in the grounds and car park of a hall in the twilight. Above the fence is a sign reading congratulations year of 2010. Next to the fence, a boy of ten is beating a drum strapped to him. The beat is slowly quickening. At first glance, it looks like the normal proceedings after a school formal. Parents get photos with their children, clusters of 18 year olds chat excitedly and one boy is hoisted on the shoulders of his friends. But as time goes on, the observation of uncanny moments hint that things may not be exactly as they seem. A group of girls are smoking and one stubs a cigarette out on her hand. After a photo a father puts his hand on his daughters bottom. Three boys piss on a fence. A group of boys tip beer on another while he vomits. Two 18 year olds make out passionately against the hall and the boy hoisted on his friends shoulders is not as willing a participant as first thought. Although people are dressed in civil clothes, their behaviour appears primal and animalistic. The young man hoisted on his friend’s shoulders struggles as they bring him forward to the steps of the hall, where a crowd is gathering, taking photos and laughing. The young man is thrown down on the steps. An older man who resembles a headmaster emerges from the hall. The boy at the fence stops drumming. The headmaster raises a knife to the young mans neck and slits his throat. The drumming starts again and the crowd cheers.

After The Formal explores the human need for ritual by comparing the modern ritual of a school formal with the ancient ritual of human sacrifice and in doing so asks the question: Behind the veil of civil ideals, have we really changed that much?