STORY TIME

I'd first like to apologize for my inactivity. This past week was quite busy to say the least (blame aluminum wire). That aside, STORY TIME. 

I think for this to make sense I should go over major, overarching plot points, and general shifts in mood rather than specific details.Nicole and I are interested in experimenting with a non-linear plot, so it's best for me to give background information, and then detail how we're gonna portray that. 

Timeline

To give some background, our main character (temporarily named Jasmin) has always enjoyed her artistic endeavors alongside her childhood best friend- let's call him John for convenience. Jasmin and John had always enjoyed the same bands, praised the same old time movies, and even made short films together. John and Jasmin shared the same child-like spirit/creativity that I discussed in my previous post.  

As they grew up, John grew apart from this kind of atmosphere that he now deemed somewhat unnecessary with the pressures of high school, and college on the horizon. However, he was still supportive of Jasmin, and helped her in her projects whenever he could. 

John's supportive attitude changes when he starts dating a girl, who doesn't really like Jasmin (let's call her Alexa for now). Not only does she find her childish and immature, but she's also skeptical of Jasmin because of her sexuality. In other words, Alexa sucks. John then kind of molds his personality around Alexa's and starts to agree with her beliefs- ultimately pushing Jasmin away even more. John also kind of sucks.

Following this we see a shift in Jasmin's character. She feels as though if she tires hard enough to revive the spark that her and John had, they will become best friends again. Jasmin tries harder than ever to be that happy person she wants to be and impress John. Tragically, this irritates john because he feels she's trying too hard to be something she's not. John quickly becomes tired of this, confronting Jasmin about her not being "genuine" and acting "fake." 

She doesn't take this very well. She feels that nothing she ever enjoyed had any value in it because it was all "fake." Jasmin completely removes herself from all the "childish" things that made her happy just because she wants John to be her friend again. She essentially blames herself for John's lack of interest, and decides to change her way of being completely.( This is where the "murder" part I referenced in my last post comes in, but I'll get back to that later) 

Evidently, her logic was faulty in that just because someone no longer appreciates the things that make you happy doesn't mean they're not valid. She realizes that after trying so hard for someone's friendship, she's not really happy. So the resolution is her coming into terms with who she really is, and validating her interests as well as the fact that she doesn't need someone's approval for the things she likes. 

Now you may be wondering how we're gonna allude to such a dramatic shift in character within two minutes. 

While brainstorming ways to resolve this, I immediately thought of the beginning of Fight Club, directed by David Fincher. The movie opens with a scene from the most climactic part of the story, before going back to the normal progression of events. We believed this concept would be a good solution given that we can juxtapose two very different moods, to not only develop interest and create mystery, but to also allude to the drastic shift in character development. 

Another way we wanted to allude to the intricacy of her "fabricated" personality was through the symbolism behind a stop motion puppet of herself. This doll would be a symbol for her childhood self, as well as what she was trying so hard to revive and hold on to. The fact that her and john worked on stop motion films together would tie her disillusion over his disinterest to the puppet. When john mentions that she is like a fabricated persona, Jasmin immediately relates it to the puppet- which leads me to my next point. 

During the part of the story where she's trying to remove herself from the things her and John enjoyed as kids, she decides to place all the blame on this metaphorical representation of herself. To the point where she stages an interrogation of the doll, which eventually ends in clay carnage. This would be the first scene of the film. The fact that she's directly addressing an object is meant to show her losing sense of reality, but I'll elaborate on that later on.

The scenes following the clay murder would serve mainly to establish character, and introduce all the character's quirks. We plan to show Jasmin in her room, in the middle of animating a stop motion film. She would be very energetic, yet meticulous, as she's trying to get the best shot possible. We would want to contrast the controlled environment in the stop motion set with the chaos of her room- to further reinforce that while she may be a tad atypical, she's very determined about her craft. The storyboards will hopefully give a better sense of how the scenes will play out. 

I can't believe I just made you read all that. Hopefully you have a better sense of how the story will play out now, though!  

This week I'll be working on storyboards and making the actual puppet, hoping to start filming next weekend!

Fincher, D. (Director). (1999). Fight club [Motion picture]. France: Twentieth-Century Fox.