Premise

Life worth Leaving is about a young father who has to make the decision whether to stay in a loveless relationship or free himself and lose his daughter.

On the surface Alex and Grace are like most couples and often disagreed with each other, though it soon becomes clear there is something under the surface. 

After the birth of their daughter they are thrust into a situation they can't handle, and after 3 years of job losses and scraping to get by their relationship is held together by their commitment to Annie, while domestic violence and abuse starts to seep into their everyday lives.

Style, Structure and Tone

Life Worth Leaving will be shot in a social realism and almost cinéma-vérité style leaning toward hyperrealism, whereby the naturally raw and sensitive issue of domestic abuse can be acutely represented. With this in mind the violence and abuse within the text will be implied throughout the first and second act, allowing the audience to posit themselves with Grace. This will play on audience presupposition as often portrayal of domestic abuse in film texts occurs as masculine dominance over the female victim. In the third and final act does the audience bare witness to abuse and violence, as it becomes apparent the supposed abuser is in fact the victim, turning the audience presupposition of masculine dominance on it's head. 

The style is directly influenced by a mixture of British social realism texts such as Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank (2010), Ken Loach's Riff-Raff (1991) while remaining visually and thematically akin to Tyrannosaur (Considine, 2011).

While the non-linear narrative structure is more influenced by American drama such as 21 Grams (Iñárritu, 2003), visually, thematically and contextually the text lends itself more to a British social realism. 

Domestic violence within the UK has been steadily rising, with the Crown Prosecution Service showing that since 2004 the 35,000 reported cases of domestic violence had almost doubled in 2008/09 to 67,000, rising further to 74,000 in 2009/10. Though this is a positive representation of an increase of reports and subsequent prosecutions of domestic violence, while 1 in 3 cases of domestic violence failed prosecution, while a larger percentage go unreported altogether (CPS, 2012).  

The UK also has an alarming rate of teenage pregnancies, though decreasing sporadically, the Office for National Statistics reported a figure at 38,259 girls aged 18 or younger pregnant in 2009 (ONS, 2011).

Life worth Leaving fuses both the trials and tribulations of young pregnancy with the issue of domestic violence in a non-traditional sense, from the perspective of an abused man. Men make up around 40% of domestic abuse victims, and often the cases are never heard, or are ignored by authorities altogether (Campbell, 2010). The intention of introducing the female character as the abuser in the third act, plays on the presuppositions that abusers are male, furthermore highlighting that a male victim often goes ignored, or has more to hide.

The non-linear narrative will be a crucial element in disclosing/ inciting the domestic violence, and will allow the much larger story to be told within a 10 minute timeframe by focussing on extremes of the relationship. This will also enable an easier, more in-depth creation of the two main characters by divulging key characteristics in key scenes. 

Opening with Alex as he is being driven by his brother to his former home, to pick up his belongings. Alex is remembering the events since meeting Grace that have led him to this moment, occurring as a flashback of important moments. Travelling in the car acts to bookend the flashback, using this technique allows the context of space and time to the violence and abuse.

The initial scenes will set Alex and Grace up as a couple who have just met, fumbling through a drunken encounter as Alex passes out before "the good stuff" happens, continuing then through their initial relationship prior to the birth of their child. During these scenes there will be hints of confrontation that hint that there is something bubbling under the surface.

After a while there is an indication that the pair have a child together, coming about through a confrontations about smoking and being irresponsible.

This is furthered as Alex proceeds outside for a cigarette, as Grace holds the baby looking out of the baby's bedroom window.

The baby will also be used as a narrative device to subtly portray Alex as submissive, whenever the baby cries Alex proceeds to the baby's room in order to comfort her. This could also be used as a way of defusing some of the heated confrontations between Alex and Grace in the scenes that follow and at one point during these scenes Grace will be seen to plead with Alex not to leave, while stating her intent to change. 

Gradually the confrontations become more and more heated, though visual evidence of abuse will be unseen;  this can be done in a number of ways, for example, through the use of creative sound design while a confrontation takes place in another room, or through the use of sound on a black screen. The main intention of the first two acts is to set Alex up as an abuser, while there will be no visual evidence of this.

The reveal that Grace is the abuser occurs subtly at the end of the second act and flashback, as bruises being stroked by a feminine hand are shown to be Grace comforting the marks she has left. She also consoles Alex but blames him for the abuse which then turns into a confrontation. As this becomes more and more heated Grace screams at Alex to leave and he promptly proceeds upstairs to pack his bags, during which Grace brings their daughter in as a way of convincing Alex to stay.

After the flashback, the narrative catches up to the present, allowing a clearer understanding of the Alex's motives.

Upon returning to the home the plot reunites Alex with his abuser, being greeted with pleas and promises that will echo those seen during the flashback as a way of connecting the flashback with the present, highlighting the ongoing trauma experienced by the character. Alex heads up to see his daughter Annie that ends in an emotional climax to their narrative, this is an echo of Alex's previous encounters with his daughter, during which he is seen to comfort her, this time as Alex leaves Annie starts to cry, but Alex, after stopping outside Annie's room for a brief moment, proceeds to leave.

The intention isn't to demonise either character, nor is it to be entirely propagating of the idea that women are to blame for domestic abuse. Simply the intention of the text is to highlight the presuppositions that society has of domestic abuse, while simultaneously highlighting the difficulties faced by a father forced to leave his child.

Domestic violence is a very serious issue and as such the tone of the film is noticeably raw and emotional, though the initial scenes of a drunken encounter will allow for a lighter contrast in order to intensify the later, darker moments.