I met with Lucia, Amanda, Nicholas, and Benji for our first group meeting. We each explained our ideas, themes, concepts, and/or inspirations and the rest of us asked follow up questions to help air out some details and fill potential plot holes. We also made suggestions that either strengthened their idea on something or changed an aspect of it to make it fit better.
NICHOLAS
Nicholas didn't have a name for his film yet but he did have a good idea of what his film and opening was revolve around. He wanted his story to be about a 19-21 year old who has had to live with a disease his whole life that he's always been bullied over and he is finally trying to make a change by working out and becoming his best self and eventually enter this boxing competition to show off his abilities. Nicholas mentioned he wanted his character to be in college trying to become a doctor since he wants to help people with diseases like himself so that's why I mentioned 19-21 years old as that's the general ages that are starting off in college. Benji suggested that trying to establish that the character has a disease, has been bullied, is starting to work out to overcome his insecurities, has a goal of entering the boxing competition, AND showing that he's also a medical student is too much for an opening and so Nicholas decided to take out the medical school out of the opening but he might keep it in the description for the actual film. Lucia also stated how when the character is working out, he should continuously get flashbacks to when he was being bullied and each time, he works harder and harder and reaches a new limit for himself. I feel like this was a very productive group meeting for Nicholas as he was writing down several notes while we all spoke and he told us on how he was going to tell his partner for the project about all of the suggestions he wrote down.
BENJI
Benji's was about two friends who work out together and encourage each other to become better. Benji didn't have a title idea or names for his characters but the previous sentence is basically what his entire film is about according to him. I suggested that he could maybe give the two of them a goal that they attempt to reach just to add some more other topics within the film besides working out with each other. He told us how he was going to have the opening be a montage of the two friends and how in one scene, it was them going to be on the football field. He said that since he's a football player, having the scene take place on a football field shouldn't be difficult to achieve. Besides that, no one really had any other suggestions or ideas for him but he seemed pretty set on and he didn't have any questions that he had about his own film that he'd want us to try and pitch some answers in so it seemed like a helpful group meeting for him as well.
JUAN (me)
My idea for my opening is this woman who is preparing to host a dinner date at her home. I told them how it was going to be this montage of her first playing some music on a record player, setting up the dinner table, and cooking in the kitchen. When I told them that there would be a flashback of her holding a bloody knife with a dead body on the floor, they all supported it and claimed how clever and interesting that aspect of it was which made me feel more confident about my idea. I then then mentioned how the woman would receive a text that showed her date is outside and below that guy's date was several other men whose last texts were how they had just arrived. I told them how this scene establishes that the woman is a serial killer to which they also added on how good it was. When I mentioned how the title card would appear right after she smiles sinisterly at her phone and then a doorbell would ring to interrupt the title card and bring the audience back into the movie, they got confused on where the doorbell would be. Some thought it should happen before the title card, in sync with the title card, and after the title card but honestly, not to sound egotistical or anything, but I thought my idea for the title card was the best only because of how it would provide a great transition from title card to movie again. Lastly, I mentioned how the title card would appear which is the word "MANSLAUGHTER" but the "MAN" would be distorted in a way to specify that she not only kills men but targets them too. Overall, they all mutually liked my idea and I didn't really receive any suggestions or other ideas on it which I guess is a good thing! The group meeting definitely made me feel more confident about my idea.
LUCIA
Lucia didn't have an idea for an opening or idea but she did know that she wanted hers to be coming of age. I suggested on how her character could maybe live a double life meaning at school, she had nice clothes, hair, makeup, etc. but when she got home, she lived in an RV or something and was very poor in reality. Benji then suggested how maybe her character could be bullied or something to which I then added on how maybe the character could be the bully. I elaborated on this idea by saying how the character could maybe be the secret author of a blog where she exposes everyone's secrets but in school, she's a loner which would make her unsuspecting. Besides that, there wasn't much more ideas to add to Lucia's but at least we got some strong concepts in there that align with her chosen genre of coming of age.
AMANDA
Amanda also didn't have any ideas for her film besides the fact that she wanted her character to be a teenager fighting a drug addiction. None of us had any actual ideas, just small comments on how she could try tackling her theme. I mentioned how she needs to ensure she incorporates the character's school life into her drug addiction and use her school life to represent how addicted the character is to drugs.
I'm unsure if we'll have the same partners for every meeting but it was very easy to talk to the four of these people and I feel it benefited each of us when it came to confidence and/or influencing each other on our ideas.
No comments:
Post a Comment