We have a Story

Change of Plans

    I know I sound like a crazy person switching what I want to do for my film opening day by day, but I actually have an excellent idea now. This time, it's nothing like anything I'd thought of before, but I think with my last thoughts I wanted to do something that was very profound and elaborate with a deeper meaning to everything; while those films tend to be extremely good, this weekend made me realize that sometimes the simplicity of life itself is what I enjoy, and what better way to convey that than through a coming of age film.

    This video I watched, The Evolution of Coming-of-Age & Teen Movies, demonstrates many different coming-of-age films that I looked at for inspiration.

Character

    I was thinking of creating a film opening about a teen girl who dreams of becoming a superstar, but in the meantime, she babysits her neighbor's kid and has taken on many part-time jobs. She is sweet and has a very trustworthy look to her, but when no one is watching she grasps this mischievous alter ego. She doesn't talk much, rather she demonstrates what she wants through her actions, and this will be a blessing and a curse throughout her story, where she will face lots of rejection before achieving success. 

Plot

    The rough outline for the plot would be this girl cannot seem to catch a break because she keeps on getting fired for stupid mistakes. She realizes that her dreams won't show up at her doorstep and that she has to work hard for them step by step, only problem is she doesn't know the steps so she kind of just skips all of them and takes a giant leap to Los Angeles to catch this dream herself not knowing that it's not as easy as it seems. She faces rejection throughout the film constantly, which is a theme I'd like to emphasize. In the end, she books a job, but instead of showing her process of rising to fame, I think I would show magazines and proof of her being a superstar. Obviously, none of this will actually be shown in the two-minute film opening, but I'm glad to know the journey that I want this character to go through so I can make a better development in the first two minutes.

Film Opening

Childhood picture of me modeling.

    Fun fact about me, I've been modeling and doing commercials since I was about two years old, so when growing up I loved to dress up, wear heels, and feel like the tiny superstar I was. The only thing about it is that I was embarrassed to model in front of my parents, crazy to think that I could model in front of a camera with professional studio lights pointing at me with no problem, but if I did a modeling show at home, the only audience that could watch were my stuffed animals. I would grab clothes from everyone's closet, and strut my pretend vouge outfits in front of a huge mirror we had, making sure nobody was there to see (and I still do it sometimes when my parents aren't home).

    So how does this tie back to my film opening? Well I remember whenever I would get caught I would be so embarrassed, so I was thinking I wanted to set the tone as well as introduce the character in the first two minutes, and a great way to do this would be to show her compassionate side caring for this kid when she is babysitting, but as soon as the kid falls asleep, her mischievous side is revealed and she sneaks into the rich parents' closet to try on clothes. After showing a montage of the wannabe superstar side of this character, she is caught in the act with both the parents walking into her awkwardly dancing wearing the mom's clothes. She is immediately fired and this first scene ends with her calling someone for help in finding a new job.

    I was looking into other films that could help me figure out how to show this and I think this opening scene from Booksmart (2019) is very close to the tone I'd like to set for my film. I especially liked the use of music, and lack of it as well, to make them awkward or look stupid, which I thought was very funny. I think I could definitely try including that element in my film.

Booksmart Movie Clip - Opening Scene (2019)

    Now that I finally have a very concrete idea, I can begin developing the shot list and storyboard and writing down locations to film, but I am extremely happy with this idea especially because it feels so close to home. I can't wait to continue to update you on this project, so stay in tune.