Article Researh

The story I have chosen is 'Mysterious Red Blob Washes Up On An Australian Beach'

Pitch: A young dog-walker becomes panicked when one of her dogs runs away and discovers a glowing red 'blob' which allows her to see the future. She wraps up the blob and takes it home. Only to find no one else can see it other than herself. She is a chosen one and finds her purpose is to help people for the greater good. However, she later becomes greedy and uses her discovery for her own benefit, resulting in a tragedy.

Tagline: Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed

Treatment:

Whilst walking 4 dogs, Charlotte starts to daydream about having special powers after watching a film called Superman the night before. While she is daydreaming she forgets about one particularly naughty dog named Red, who frees himself from his collar and runs off frequently. She is distracted when she hears her dog start to bark and notices he has gone missing. Panicking, she runs towards the sound of her dogs bark thinking the worst, talking to herself saying how his owner, an nice old man named Peter who adores Red will be devastated if she doesn't find him. Peter is always nice to Charlotte, he is unable to walk Red himself because of his age but is extremely grateful, so Charlotte doesn't charge him.

Finally, she finds Red in a ditch and calls him to get him to run back, but he doesn't move, he is distracted, barking at something she can not see. Tying the other 3 dogs to a tree, she struggles as she makes her way down the slope to grab him, when all of a sudden she too is distracted, by a red glow. Cautiously she walks towards the beam of light to see what it is, only to find a glowing gooey substance, thicker than jelly on the dirt. Red is still barking in the distance, threatened by it. While she tilts her head and moves closer to get a better look, she see's her reflection in the blob, she instantly feels obliged to take it home for further inspection. Wrapping the blob up in her white coat, she picks the rather heavy object up and covers it in order to avoid anyone seeing it.

When she gets home to places the now tainted jacket on her table and opens it, she pokes at it and pulls it but it does not break, just wobbles slightly. She puts 2 slices of bread in her toaster when it starts to glow again, she turns around and moves closer, to find a moving image appear. Fascinated, she watches as she see's a little boy on her street named Joey riding his bike and cross the road, and a car pull out of nowhere which hits him. Horrified she runs outside to see if he is okay, but there is no accident, she sighs of relief. everything is normal. She is just about to go back inside, when suddenly she hears Joey's bike bell ding, as he goes to cross the road, she shouts,

 'JOEY WAIT!' 

He stops and a car comes speeding down the road. Shocked, she stands there for a moment as Joey shouts thank you as he continues to cross the road. She sees another red glow appear from her house and runs in, looks at the blob once more to see her toast burning. Quickly she pops it up and finds it had just started to burn. She looks at the blob again and watched the glow die out. 

The next day while walking the dogs, she walks into a book store to find out more about unidentified objects, when she see's a poster on the window advertising a reading from a psychic. Grinning, she leaves the book store, takes the dogs home early, shocking the owners who are not very happy, especially Peter who feels bad that Red isn't getting his daily walks, and goes home. 

She calls a close friend named Amy and invites her over for a chat, however she has a motive, she asks Amy what her plans are on Friday, by which Amy replies with telling her about her plans to go out clubbing. Dismissing herself, Charlotte runs upstairs and asks the blob,

'What will Amy be doing on Friday?'

By which the blob responds by showing Amy arguing with her boyfriend Jack and staying in upset, overwhelmed, Charlotte informs Amy she doesn't think Jack would be too happy about her plans.

She waits until Friday, watching the clock when she receives a phone call from Amy who is sad about an argument she has had with Jack, asking Charlotte to come and keep her company. Charlotte lies and says she feels ill to Amy, leaving her friend alone and in need. This shocks Amy as its unlike her friend, but leaves it anyway.

Charlotte goes straight to her laptop and orders some business cards online from a sight with a red logo, with the slogan "success is nothing unless you have someone to share it with". On the cards she writes '100% Accurate or your money back readings for everyone from 16+ Monday to Friday, appointment only' and puts in an order for 500 cards, next day delivery. 

As the days go on she distributes her cards and receives numerous phone calls on her red answer machine looking for people to book appointments, but she deletes the ones from her friends who are saying it's difficult to get hold of her and that they miss her. After some thought she decides to charge £150 an hour for readings and becomes obsessed with the blob.

One day she tries to get a reading for her last client of the day, a young man in a red t shirt, but the blob doesn't work. In a panic she lies to the man telling him he will be rich and successful and has nothing to worry about. After a long day she proceeds to look at the blob incase there is anything wrong. The blob starts to glow, only this time it's showing her own future, she's sitting in a room upset about something and calls her friends for help, but no one answers her, she looks sad, lonely and tired. When she gets a phone call back she answers instantly, only to find it's another client, telling her she's amazing and wanting to book another appointment.

Charlotte dismisses the blobs warning and continues her business, until one day her news paper comes and she see's an add for Peter Jones, about a funeral on Saturday for all the locals who may have known him. Her eyes instantly fill with tears and she picks up the phone to call Amy, she can't believe he's gone. In need of company she calls a few more of her friends who again do not answer, but she goes on Facebook to see they're all out together without her. Angry, her face turns red and she cries even more. She looks at the blob in disgust, which loses it's redness. A client calls and she knows what they're going to say, she declines the call and throws the blob at the wall, the blob was right. 

Charlotte loses her friends as she has become blinded by greed and money, she looks at the pink £50 notes on her desk and regrets everything she has done, she picks up the phone, calls her dog walking clients and asks for her old job back, binning the business cards and picking up the red leads.