Treatment

The Shutters

Story by Joanna Bronson

September 16, 2010

Concept

In photographer, Maggie Shutters, closet (in her home) lives a family of women cameras that have each been forgotten and stored away every time Maggie upgrades her camera. Steps is a male camera and the latest addition to the closet. Through his perspective the story unfolds of his life and the impact of living with this family of women. The women all live out their lives until their last piece of film deteriorates and marks the end of each of them. In the end Steps is able to have one last happy moment in a gallery being commemorated with his family’s life’s work.

Theme

Steps learns the real meaning of life. His societal influenced ideals of the fast paced high life become a long lost materialistic idea as he learns the real meaning of life, love, and women.

Characters

Steps - Main character that dictates the story about the Shutter household. He is an instant Polaroid camera
(1980’s, NYC) who discards his materialistic lifestyle to become part of the Shutter family. His personality is of an urban pop culture New Yorker. He use to running with and capturing the highlights of a popular crowd.

Lady Liza. a.k.a. Ma - Mother camera (box camera, 1920’s) that takes care of the two younger daughter cameras. She is left to Maggie from Maggie’s father. She takes Steps into her family and treats him as a son. Her personality springs from her era of a jazz influenced, liberal woman. She is the cornerstone of the Shutter family.

Steen – (Isolette, 1950’s) The eldest daughter (Teenager), Art deco camera. Constantly fights with youngest sister. Has the biggest view lens, opts for the most attention and has the most heard voice.

Page - Youngest sister (1970’s) 35 mm camera. Pre-teen. She is curious and grows attached to Steps, constantly following him and wanting to play. Her personality is semi hyper, cool, and sweet.

Maggie Shutters - Photographer and owner of all the cameras. Only her hands are seen in the end of the film when the cameras pass away and she packs them away and sends them to a gallery where they are put on display with all the photos they ever took. Some portraits of her and her family are shown in the gallery.

Synopsis

The story is about a family of women cameras that help each other cope with being forgotten by their owner, Maggie Shutters, who stores them away, and continues to upgrade her camera as she gets older. They form a bond and love for each other. The story is told from the perspective of the latest addition of the family a male Polaroid camera named Steps.

Steps came from capturing a life in the fast lane. However, after living with these women he learns the values of love and family. But all life must come to an end in time. Each camera has a certain amount of film rolls left, once they run out the each camera will pass away. As time passes and more junk gets stored into the closet, dust and cobwebs collect around the family. As time passes Steps, being the last member of the family living, watches more junk gets stored into the closet, while dust and cobwebs collect around his family. Surprisingly one day the closet door opens and he along with the rest of his family are taken from the closet, put into a box and sent to a gallery. There they are put on display along with the lifetime of their work both outside and inside the closet. Steps gazes upon his lost family and hugs them proudly. The last shot is a photo of this most unusual family while they were happy in their prime, together at home.