It's Just an Idea

     For this portfolio project that I'm working on with Vanessa and Brennan, we've come to think of different directions our story could go into. Some ideas were mostly based on some kid either discovering some mythical item, or finding a new "world." However, we landed on the idea that we we're going to base our story on a kid that got bullied by this older kid and the bullied kid would murder the older kid. We ran with this idea and started to develop it even more. 

    We evolved and expanded this story, by wanting the story to begin through its end like Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects. In this film, the story begins with the ending and the film itself explains the events leading up to the mysterious conclusion between all characters. We found that showing the murder at the beginning of the film would be best to introduce the protagonist, Asher, whom, in this case would be the bullied kid. Then the rest of the films story would showcase the mental and psychological events leading up to the murder. This storyline, would show scenarios that are in relation to Murphy's law, where "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." Meaning that Asher would go through traumatic events through the film, fueling him to the point of the murder. 

    One thing that I believe and have received feedback on is the cliche archetype that comes with a kid getting bullied and killing his bully. I say this because in the opening Asher gets confronted by the bully to give him his homework and that's what ends up fueling Asher's rage. So, from the perspective of what my group and I think, is that we should anchor somewhere else on in terms of a new idea. Meaning that we believe we should try and have a similar bases of the story, but switch up certain aspects where Asher instead of being bullied, he gets assaulted or something along those lines. The whole point of this is to make the scene feel more authentic in terms of how the audience feels about the encounter. Next week, we are going to try and develop the story just a bit more so we are able to then finalize our script, since we, in a way, are trying to make a more realistic interaction that creates a justifiable reason on why Asher kills this other demeaning kid. 

    Now, just after the part of the murder, we want the next scene to be the actual beginning of the story where we see the mental weaknesses that Asher has. As of now we want to create a match cut with whatever the first part of the opening ends with to transition into the beginning. Once we are set in this new environment we want to create and show things that Asher those that show his messed up characteristics. So, maybe Asher is researching something out of the ordinary that could possibly be incriminating or maybe he is playing with an object in a strange or eerie way. This is to build up and develop Asher's character, in order for the audience to know, straight away, that Asher has psychological/mental reasons on why he decided to kill this kid in the beginning of the film. It's almost a form of foreshadowing that works to slowly build up Ashers way of life. 

    As of now, this is what we have and feel our story is going to direct itself in. Hopefully by the end of week four we'll be set and finished with our script so we can begin our planning and production.  

FILMS THAT INSPIRED:

The Silence of the Lambs - 1991

The Usual Suspects - 1995

Zodiac - 2007