The Fully Fleshed-Out Idea!! (finally)

 We Did It!

Guess what!! (read the heading) That's right, we did it! My awesome and creative team has finally developed our idea/story for our Coming-of-Age film! For a while, we were throwing around small details we wished to include that fit the genre, but we never had anything really...clear. That is until now! You wanna hear about it? Or well, read about it? Great! Cause I wanna talk about it! Well, type about it!

The Story

The basic synopsis of our story is a young teenage boy, 16 or so, is obsessed with the fantasy world and dreams of making a popular best-selling fantasy comic series that nerds like him can relate to. His main inspiration is his across-the-street neighbor, whom he is in love with. She is unfortunately in a very toxic relationship with her jerk boyfriend who enjoys tormenting our main character. So the main character's comic revolves around a wizard saving the princess from a wicked monster.

Our story focuses on the main character struggling with being seen as a loser by the school and still trying to fit in. He works to be heroic to fit those who he admires in the fantasy world as well as help the girl of his dreams leave her terrible relationship. It will also see her perspective and relate to other teens stuck in toxic relationships that are hard for them to leave. It'll teach teens that they aren't alone in their issues and show how they can improve themselves and the circumstances that they find themselves in.

Obviously, the entire plot for our film is yet to be figured out. But we definitely have enough to create an (dare I say) outstanding film opening! And that film opening is about to be gleefully explained to you now!

The Opening

It starts, with a blank screen and the sound of an engine and sketching, both battling to overtake each other. The engine wins and we see the source is the jerk boyfriend's (Madison's) Mustang. We then show him speeding down the road like a madman while increasing the sound of his music then switch to our nerdy main character increasing the sound of the same song on his phone. We get different shots of the main character drawing in his room, working on his comic. This comic will then contain the title of our film! His room will be decorated with posters focusing on his fantasy side, figures with the fandoms he may be in, art supplies everywhere, DnD dice and books (provided by yours truly), and the regular teenage boy mess. 

After establishing pieces of the two's personality will we have alternating shots between the two in similar positions doing their thing. The jerk drives aggressively and wildly while the nerd draws in a similarly aggressive and wild manner. As these switches between the two happen, boxes will appear similar to comic book narration boxes that'll give credit to the directors, writers, producers, and maybe the main editor. 

Then we stop this alteration by having our main character look up out of his window, which gives time for the actor's name to appear in a speech bubble, as he sees his crush through her window getting ready. There's a shot of her with a thought bubble containing her actor's name. Then a shot of her boyfriend driving angrily with a spikey speech bubble with his actor's name inside.

Then we plan on having our main character's mother yell "[Main Character] go get the mail!" Where our main character will correct her by giving her his preferred fantasy name, saying "It's [preferred name]!" He then leaves downstairs to get the mail and as he does he is nearly hit by the previously mentioned jerk boyfriend's car! He yells at our main character before the girl runs out, quickly apologizes to the main character, saying his preferred fantasy name, and then runs into her boyfriend's car while yelling at him. And that's how we'll end it!

The Film Plan

The shots with the main character will be filmed at my house since I have the art supplies and a good placement of my bedroom. We plan on moving out everything in my room but my dresser and bed (but moving both pieces) and moving my art desk out of my office and into my room. We'll scatter my room with what I have mentioned before represents our main character and continue on.  The shots of the girl will be done at my teammate Sofia's house since she 1) lives in the same neighborhood and 2) also has a good bedroom placement. We'll film the main character getting hit in front of my house and do it slowly but fast forward in editing. We'll be using Madison's car to film the scenes she's in and she'll be driving up and down my block.

I will be playing the girl, Madison will be playing the jerk boyfriend, and one of our friends will be playing the nerd. Sofia will be filming and credits, Mackenna will be mainly on props and costumes, Madison is set and also filming, and I will be editing everything together. Together we make a super team!

Concerns

Names are a bit of an issue. Feels like picking a baby name honestly. I'd like to research the meaning of certain names that would fit each of the characters to then bestow it upon them. Then when it comes to the title... we have to think of something that would encompass not just the opening, but our entire story itself. We really have to think of the characters and what they mean to the story and what the story would mean to an audience. This would help us find character names and a title.

Then comes the other, bigger concerns. Time. I'm scared we have too much content and too little time. We have 2 minutes and 2 minutes only. We want to fit a lot into that 2 minutes. With my experience editing and making videos, despite seeming like a lot of time, 2 minutes is barely anything to a creative mind. Especially to all the creative minds of my group. We should get the DREAM shots that we would absolutely want in the opening. Then get filler shots that would definitely enhance our opening but aren't needed if we are over the limit. That way we have buffer room and can feel a little easier with time.

We need a lot of props and good costuming! We luckily already have the locations picked out, but we lack the needed costuming and need more props. We do have some props... but just not enough for what we want. We may have to settle if anything because we're broke teenagers. We ain't going to buy everything we need. Luckily, I am a bit of an artist and have the art supplies. I also have some DnD items to lay around. Madison has good costume pieces for her character as the jerk boyfriend. I have some outfits in mind for my character the girlfriend. But for the fantasy geek? We are.. still working on that. We want a wizard hat and cloak. That would be awesome. But if not obtained we'll have to figure something else out. Overall, if we don't have what we want, we might have to settle. 

Although I am concerned about our actual ability to achieve some of our wants, I know our determination, passion, and creativity will drive us far! Can't wait to see what we'll create!

Us When We Finally Figured Out Our Story