Cathy's sections - A05+A06- responses WEEK 7

i'm in Brendan's group. So far the best idea our group has is about someone who has something stuck in a tree. The story will be about how the protagonist gets the item down and how it got stuck there in the first place. We will probably introduce one or two other characters who will interact with the protagonist and provoke explanations of the main character’s dilemma. We think that using flashbacks showing how he got into this situation with a voice over of him describing it to the other characters would be a good idea and interesting to watch. Some items we have discussed for the thing stuck in the tree are: a sandal or shoe, a watch, or a belt. We would like it to be something odd that might seem awkward to get stuck in a tree. I think that having the setting focused around a tree will provide for some very interesting camera angles and shots: from the tree, from the ground. Also one of our group members is an experienced tree climber and was part of the UCSD tree climbing club, so we shouldn’t have to much trouble arranging the set.

So far the best idea our group has is about someone who has something stuck in a tree. The story will be about how the protagonist gets the item down and how it got stuck there in the first place. We will probably introduce one or two other characters who will interact with the protagonist and provoke explanations of the main character’s dilemma. We think that using flashbacks showing how he got into this situation with a voice over of him describing it to the other characters would be a good idea and interesting to watch. Some items we have discussed for the thing stuck in the tree are: a sandal or shoe, a watch, or a belt. We would like it to be something odd that might seem awkward to get stuck in a tree. I think that having the setting focused around a tree will provide for some very interesting camera angles and shots: from the tree, from the ground. Also one of our group members is an experienced tree climber and was part of the UCSD tree climbing club, so we shouldn’t have to much trouble arranging the set.

For my fictional video proposal, I wanted to follow the lives of three friends transitioning to new lives out of the homes they knew so well and dealing with the separation. It starts off with a girl lying in fetal position on her dorm-room bed in silence, and fades out with the sound of a friend on the answering machine reporting she’ll be flying in the coming weekend. From here, it switches to a pan of a photo mural of the girls throughout the years for a backdrop to the introduction/opening credits. This short montage works to give the viewers an opportunity to put a face to a name for the three protagonists, and functions as a testimony of their years of friendship – displaying photos from first communions, baptisms, school productions, etc. It fades into a shot of the three girls standing in a pew at church with the rest of the congregation as the praise team in the front performs. Taking a direct angle shot from behind the girls, it would switch to a shot of two of the girls’ feet from under the pews as they joke around while standing on their toes and falling back down again. The music ends and pastor tells the congregation “you may be seated” and the scene cuts out to black. The shot fades in to a frame with Moxie sitting alone at a table in a coffee house full of ambient noise (the girl who’d been shown lying on her bed in the initial scene). Content in reading her book, Mox orders a small pot of tea as Erin and Jane stumble half running into the shot. “Sorry, we’re late,” they say. “What’s up?” They three sit there talking and joking about books and bad ending relationships, family problems and therapists, eating disorders and inside jokes – through this the sound in the shot slowly fades out, emphasizing the closeness of the three in their ability to talk on end as the three laugh at their issues together. The scene fades. Here it cuts to a scene of the three just finishing dinner at Mox’s. To display a small passage of time, Erin’s hair is cut and dyed a sort of purplish tint – Mox and Jane still look the same. Erin is seated at the dining table, her body pivoted away from the empty plate in front of her. She faces Jane who is seated beside her, tilting her chair back using her feet to stabilize her balance. Mox yells from the kitchen sink some conversation, and the camera focuses on her as she starts by saying something regarding the future. Erin and Jane yell back responses. Jane starts to get religious and Mox walks into the dining room irritated and leans against the wall. The shot changes to include the three together. Mox gets personal about religion and asks what the point is of going to church. Jane gets defensive and the two start to argue. Erin tells the two the “shut up” and brings up the subject of college in vain. Jane and Mox are both going off in a matter of weeks. Erin gets stuck in a sort of one sided conversation with herself as the two sit quietly irritated. “It’s a good chance to grow into separate people,” Jane says as the shot fades to an end. Mox and Erin see Jane off at the airport and the three joke around, happier than in the previous shot. Erin and Mox talk about when Mox is leaving, hug, and depart. Two or three seconds of black. The next few scenes show in silence the lives of the three living separately from one another. Erin is shown arguing with her parents, retreating to the bathroom floor, looking through the cabinet for whatever it is she can find. Fades to Jane crying, struggling with work and a long distance relationship with her boyfriend back home. Then fades to Mox, at a dance and handed a drink, shown dancing with a guy who is getting overly physical. These shots shown in silence and in a gradual slow motion, voiceovers are placed of answering machine recordings between the three, the last (as the visual is cut to black) of Jane calling Mox asking, “Where are you?” and ending with the initial scene’s same recording “I’m flying in this weekend.” I love you.” The camera fades in to a bathroom floor, the three crying and catching up, laughing it off and washing up – walking out to show the audience that this is a familiar scene. The three walk in to the sanctuary late from the back door as the members of the church stand up to sing once again. There is an obvious feeling that there is a strong speaker in the presences, and there is no dialogue as the background sounds of the church take over. Taking their usual seat, the three sit down – not standing with the congregation as they’d done earlier. Jane leans her head on Moxie’s shoulder, and the final shot fades to black. The ambient sounds fading thereafter with a slight delay.

For my movie idea, I was thinking of a story that is based off the same plot as Romeo and Juliet, but in a different environment, time, and something that is more modern. Not like the remake of Romeo and Juliet that was done with guns and such, but something that maybe other people could relate, but still somewhat like a fantasy. The story, of course, would be based off a strong love between two people, but I will also try to incorporate a different theme, maybe hoping the film would be an allegory. My theme of the movie would be to be yourself and to not fall under peer pressure. The main story line will follow primarily two characters, a girl from Muir College, and a guy from Marshall College. Because the two schools are highly admired by other schools, right next to each other, and are also placed well location wise in concordance to price center and other classes, these two schools have been against each other for quite some time. Although the two are required to take certain courses in their respective schools, such as Muir 40 and DOC, they both had the same interest in film and took VIS 70N. The first few weeks, they didn’t talk to each other, but one day the teacher had grouped them to do a 60 second film. Uncomfortable at first, they gradually got acquainted with each other, and it was almost love at first sight. They were unable to tell anyone about their love because they were afraid of ridicule from their school peers, especially the fact that they are from competing schools. Constantly trying to meet each other in secret places, like under the bridge of OVT and other skeptical places. They were so in love but were torn from what others would think of them. The movie ends with both schools find out that they are dating, and separate them. Rather than fighting for what they wanted and what they believed in, they fell under peer pressure and gave up what they loved. This movie would be great for anyone who falls under peer pressure and cares about their outer appearance. With the example of love, one should never hide who they truly are or not do things that they are interested in. And one should definitely not love someone because they do not seek the approval of your peers because of where they are from or their social status with other students. A major theme I would like the movie to be is that one should be who they are, because many high school students, and even college students fall under peer pressure. One starts to do things that are against their morals because they want to fit in, or one may not hang out with another person because they are “strange” or “weird” and they do not want to be associated as one of them. People should love who you are, and one should not be something that they are not, because ultimately, people aren’t loving you, they are loving the person that you are trying to be.

After thinking about many different ideas that I had for a film, I think that I have picked one which I think would make the most entertaining and complex film. I am not sure of all the details as of now, but I have a general idea of what I would like to do. The film would start of with the the last scene of the film which would be a young girl crying, alone in a room, lashing out and being hysterical. This scene would then just fade to a black with a title reading, 3 days earlier. The film would now begin at the beginning after giving a climpse into what the future held. I am not sure on the exact events that would occur now but it would be something like having the same young girl that was previously shown, walking around having a glamorous life in which she cared about nobody but herself. She would be show blowing off people paying no attention to the people she probably should be paying attention to, and little did she know, she would be affecting the lives of all the people around her. After showing some of her life, we would then focus on the life of another character who was slightly involved in the first girl's life. This character would be a boy. We would show the same scene that the girl was in when she encountered the boy and was rude to him but from the boy's perspective. After showing the overlapping similarities of the two people's life, we would cut to how the boy was happy but had little to be happy for and how the girl had so much she should appreciate and did not. Following this, we would show the girl struggling to discover who she was and putting on a facade that she had a happy and fufilled life although she did not. And we would show the boy, who may be less fortunate, but definitely appreciated his life more. I am not sure of all of the details following this. Ultimately the film would end with the girl, being abandoned and having everything taken from her after she was out one evening partying and ended the life of the young boy. She would then have to confront her own unhappy life and somehow find comfort in the unfufilling life that she has been living.

Given the relative limitation of having only one protagonist, it would, in my opinion, be pretty difficult to make a convincing film where you follow the events of one individual, without that individual being extremely introverted in appearance. The trick, then, is how to create a character who seems fully capable of functioning socially, without actually having the resources to show him or her functioning socially. The way I would bypass this minor dilemma is through judicious use of flashbacks, acting as the actual visual content for a more narratively-themed present. Specifically, I would, take a protagonist, and have him monologue to a psychiatrist who need never truly be seen...perhaps just a voice that asks him a question or two, leading him to begin talking...after a few moments of which, he would stop to think, and with a fade to white, the audience sees the scene that the patient was describing. With this setup, it would not be difficult to beautifully illustrate any given plot. So: here's one. As expected, a man is conversing with his psychiatrist about his life, relating the events in his life which led to the need for a shrink. I believe the greatest cause of people feeling that something is wrong in their life is to conform to social standards, even unfair social standards, and to not feel fulfilled. The protagonist would be a hard-working individual, who is always eager to please everybody...sacrificing his own time and inevitably life in the process. A series of upward scaling events, demonstrating the rising pressures and deadlines would culminate in a failed suicide, and then the narrator seeking for help--taking him to the psychiatrist. The film would close with the man being informed that nothing was wrong with him, and that he was perfectly normal, then being sent back to work. Man, I feel evil. :D

I never imagined that writing a story for an 8 minute fiction film would be so difficult. I have been thinking about ideas for this project for a while and most of what I could come up with seemed hard to realize. By going through ideas, though, I decided that my topic for this film should be relatively simple. Moreover, I decided to avoid fancy locations and complex dialogues. However, the locations used should be attractive and, if possible, outdoors. Regarding the story of the film, I am interested in life situations. Situations, that "real" people have to cope. My idea was to portray the life situations of three characters. Furthermore, instead of having the characters talk in front of the camera, I thought it would be interesting to record a separate narrative that represents what they are thinking. My first character is a young woman who just became a mother. Before the birth of her daughter, she was living a relatively wild life. She enjoyed going out at night, drinking, smoking, and dancing to rock ‘n roll music. Moreover, she was hard-working and never got bored. After becoming a mother, however, her life changed completely. Basically, everything that she does now is to care for her daughter. Even though she is happy about being a mother, she sometimes feels lonely and unsatisfied. She misses her job and being together with her friends… My second character is a man who is about 45 years old. He is divorced and has two daughters who are already in college. He loves going to the movies, playing soccer, and hanging out with his friends. He is tired of living alone and is looking for love. But, even though he is intelligent, has a good job, and is a nice guy, women are not very interested in him… Finally, my third character is the one I mentioned in class last Tuesday, a cabinet maker who loves music. He plays the banjo and knows how to sing hundreds of country and bluegrass songs. His dream is to be a musician, but, due to several circumstances, he is forced to work as a cabinetmaker… As mentioned above, the aim of this film would be to depict the life of three different characters. Since we all have to deal with certain issues in life, I believe that this would be an interesting topic for a short film.

A girl sits in front of her mirror smoking a cigarette. She sits in front of the mirror for days, and smokes, and doesn’t talk to anybody. She hardly eats anything all day, and sees nobody. When she does go out, it’s to buy tomatoes, her biggest obsession, and she eats them whole for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For dinner she sometimes pours herself a glass of expensive wine, smokes half a pack of cigarettes, and eats two tomatoes with old black pepper. One day, as she is leaving her apartment home, she sees a young man entering the apartment across from her. They exchange looks and she worryingly leaves to the grocery store to buy some more tomatoes. Interested in the pretty female, the man goes into his apartment for a few seconds, before leaving again to follow her and hopes to introduce himself to her. He watches her walk to the store close to the building, and puts on his best clueless expression before approaching her aisle. She is reading the can containing pickled tomatoes, and his holding it a few inches from her face, as her vision is quite bad. “Those are great with mustard,” he decided to suggest out loud. Startled by his presence, the girl gives him a brief smile and returns the can back on the shelf, before walking hurriedly away from him. Upset that this approach failed, the man decides to try again, this time giving it more thought than before. The girl has wandered over to the organic vegetables section, but cannot find the tomatoes she usually buys. Realizing her disappointment, the man understands that she is searching for tomatoes, and puts forth a second attempt to speak to the girl. “Tomatoes are actually fruit. People think they’re vegetables, but they’re not. Did you know that?” he asks her. After realizing that he knew what she was looking for, the girl smiled at him and nodded, before changing direction and locating the fruit section of the store. Following her, he continues, “Organic roma tomatoes are the best.” He pauses. No response from the girl. “Hey, don’t you live on my floor?” she turns to look at him, with her hand on an unripe tomato, and responds for the first time: “I think.” Delighted by her voice, the man gives her a big smile, and she cannot help but return it. Craving a cigarette, she decides that she must buy the tomatoes as fast as she can, and so grabs three whole roma tomatoes and places them in a plastic bag. “Can I invite you over for dinner?” he asks her bluntly. “What?” she replies, shocked by his rather forward question. “I make a mean tomato soup. I think you like tomatoes.” Walking away, she mutters an “okay” that he actually hears, and both go back to their apartments separately. A few hours later, the man knocks on the woman’s door and she reluctantly opens it, while chewing leftover tomato salad. Unprepared for his presence, the girl’s face twists into panic and he reads her expression carefully. “I just brought some soup.” Pause, no response. “I don’t know your number,” he tries again. “You shouldn’t let it get cold.” Finally, the girl takes the container from his hand, and invites him into her smoke-filled apartment. “I’m not a creeper,” he tells her. “I just wanted you to try my soup.” Once she opened the container, a sweet delicious tomato smell escaped it, and she said to him, “Thank you. Do you like tomatoes too?” Smiling, he replies, “Yeah. They’re pretty much all I eat.” -- Lina Grant emgrant@ucsd.edu

Limited by time and subject matter, this final fictional piece takes a lot of thought and effort. Looking at this as almost a cause and effect situation, I feel that at a basic level my piece should develop around fictional character. Beginning with an introduction to the character and developing a connection with the audience, the story will continue by allowing for the character to encounter a problem that needs to be solved. The idea that I have been working with involves a boy named Stephen who’s a promiscuous boy. He gets involved with his really close friend, Natalie. What ensues is a dramatic situation in which Stephen doesn’t feel he can give Natalie enough respect and Natalie can’t let go of Stephen. The introduction takes place on the beach as the sunsets. Having cheated on him, Stephen breaks up with his girlfriend of the last four years. Changing the setting to his dorm room, Stephen ends up drinking off his problems. Natalie, his long time friend, watches as he keeps drinking. Afraid that she might see something she doesn’t want to know, Natalie leaves soon after the drinking started. Stephen walks her home. After a night of heavy drinking, Stephen wakes up to a mean headache and a painful ache in his foot. Later that day, Natalie comes over to talk about what happened, but she ends up trying to ignore the flaws in the story. Cutting to later that night, Natalie ends up spending the night, Stephen wakes up, regretting what happened. He knows he can’t give Natalie what she needs which is an actual relationship. Stephen isn’t ready to get back into a serious relationship. However, after being friends with Stephen for all of senior year, Natalie wants to take things beyond friendship. After 3 weeks of indecision, Stephen tells Natalie that she needs to move on, but Natalie just can’t get over Stephen. For the next week, Natalie comes over because she’s a friend with everyone in Stephen’s sweet. Consequently, she just can’t get over Stephen seeing him everyday. Becoming more and more distraught, Natalie can’t break her feelings for Stephen. Stephen needs to break the relationship, so he makes out with another girl in front of Natalie. However, Natalie still doesn’t give up. She still can’t let Stephen go. The movie ends with Stephen walking to the cliffs and watching the sunset, pondering the situation and what to do about it. The tone of the film would be dramatic and reflective. The film would leave things ambiguous. Like life, the movie reflects the indecision that is characteristic of life and love. The music would also reflect the tone of life. Melodic but positive music would be the standard for the full 8-minute film. The setting will include the beach, a dorm, a residential neighborhood, and a party. The action will build up to the party as the scenes get shorter and shorter. Through this movie, I hope to show how love is a complex animal, full of nuance and indecision.

This is just a bit of what I'm aiming for... feel free to change some of the dialogue. The alarm rang—only to wake Elliot from his nightly dreams about owning a Sony Playstation 3, a gaming powerhouse most Asian teenagers would die for. It was a mid-December morning and aside from the PS3, Elliot can only think about much-needed vacation that awaits him within a week’s time. Until then, he must put up with multiple tests and a presentation on the analysis of Macbeth in his English class. The morning fog roamed wildly in the air, creating a violent flow of honks from the cars in the streets. Fortunately, Elliot lived only three blocks away from school. About two minutes into the walk, his cell phone vibrated. It was a call from Sandra, his girlfriend. “Good morning!” she said. “Hey, what’s up?” he responded. “How was your sleep? Pretty good?” “Same as always. Why?” “Oh it’s nothing. I was just wondering, that’s all.” “All right. I’ll see you in class.” He closed his phone with a loud clack. This is the fifth consecutive morning she has called him. It’s getting a little irritating, he thought. The relationship between the two began almost a year earlier. It started with a secret crush that everyone knew and became official with an emotional birthday present from Elliot that truly won Sandra’s heart. Ever since then their friends labeled them as an inseparable couple. However, recently the two have had problems with each other. Elliot has been too focused on getting into the college of his first choice while Sandra, at her own will, tended to give him too much of her love and not getting as much in return. Then the problem became worse. “Ready to go to chemistry?” asked Karen, a friend of Elliot. “Just about. How were your classes so far?” he said, smiling. “Boring. Mr. Johnson kept talking about transcendentalism in class and I had no clue what he was talking about. I practically fell asleep halfway through class.” Elliot laughed, “Well, at least you got some beauty sleep.” “Yeah, I guess.” “Because you need lots of it!” “Hey!” Karen and Elliot have been best friends since they were in middle school. From relationship problems to family matters, the two talked about almost everything. Sometimes Elliot wondered if Sandra was actually the right person for him. A few days later, the couple tried to work out their problems. “Do you love me?” said Sandra. “What are you talking about? Of course I do,” responded Elliot, “why are you asking me this?” “I don’t know. I just wanted to make sure.” “Are you having doubts about me loving you? Is that it?” “No, I don’t. I just… don’t think you love me as much as I do to you.” “What makes you say that?” “Because… you don’t.” “I don’t want to talk about this.” The following night, Elliot stayed over at Karen’s for some needed ventilation. “I seriously don’t get this,” said Elliot, “why is she being so weird?” “She just wanted to make sure that you love her. It’s that simple,” advised Karen. “Why, though?” “Well, do you love her?” “I… do.” “That was very hesitant of you. Are you sure?” “I… don’t know.” “What’s stopping you from loving her?” “You…” --khanh luc

these are some visuals that i came up with the other night.I would like to see these realized as either paintings or scenes in a movie. they are lists of elements for situations.I was thinking about pop culture while i wrote them. thats why mickymouse and michael jackson pop up so often. Tennis club, yellow sweaters, German flags, lemonade, Doberman pinchers on black leather leashes. Lizard suit, umbrella, watermelon, movie popcorn, a golden Ronald McDonald statue. Japanese caricature, blind guy from star trek, Mel Gibson caricature, mad magazine Michael Jackson, Elephant with small white umbrella jumping off a lifeguard tower into a strawberry and chocolate milkshake, Pamela Anderson looking into the sun ,her eyes shielded by her elbow. A lion’s waterhole, a man surrounded by vipers, golden earring glittery golden and purple head wrap, Mickey Mouse held by a hockey glove, spaceship takeoff, geodesic domes, beehives, Nike air Jordans, pixilated extraterrestrial. Mickymouse, Michael Jackson, white tiger with blue eyes, duck pond with waterwheel and gnomes frolicking with apple baskets,corncob pipes,and bright orange eyebrows. Jewish priests shooting stop signs with bows and arrows, Rambo is lowered down from a helicopter . he takes off his camouflage fatigues and puts on a long purple satin nightgown and dances with a glowing orb of light. rambo and the priests get picked up by lemon shaped creatures flying over the grand canyon with fake Rasta wigs on and striped red and white straws in their mouths that lead to glasses of milk. peacock walking towards us in the background. Howard stern dressed as a Mayan sacrifice, pigs blood across his forehead, golden beard and missing front tooth resembling an elderly half Chinese HE-Man. Donald duck eyes painted over with white house paint with a large flat brush, dollar signs in gold, bald eagle flying over a mountain peak, dark green trees, rich brown bark, grainy gray stone earth shards, spider web forest, arm in a bloody sling, wearing a white fox shoulder wrap. Gypsy wrinkled smile, camel smiling, Columbus boat, sea urchin, razor blade. Yellow high heels, hairy legs, tuxedo back rodeo clown, fake painted on beard, rolls a strike, bowling alley goes wild, cowboys firing pistols on wildly leaping horses. Vietnam war trash truck, president Nixon as a fat Albert character, a young George bush, a detailed diagram of the respiratory system of a hyena, tootsie pop owl. A paint by number painting, all black with white outlines and numbers of a shark with its mouth open. its used as a shooting range target, Chris rock dressed as a centaur, Matt Dillon dressed as a Filipino mermaid with a McDonalds ketchup packet in her hand squeezing it into to the mouth of her pet jaguar, a small puppy decorated as a drunk with a bump on his head popping through his old tattered hat. Pineapple slice fire dancing, overweight men in motorized wheelchairs, one wearing a red polo shirt and blue sweatpants, the other a gray polo shirt and pleated khaki pants and bright orange foot hair, tree stump with toadstools and fairies, japanime wanted poster of a Kellogg corn flake cereal box. Seagulls, gray seawater, scuba divers with bushy gray mustaches resembling Roosevelt, auction block, barbershop quintet, little black terriers hopping to get little mini hotdogs tied by white string to little sticks held by ice-cream cone box children. Deniro as taxi driver driving by smoking a cigarette, a nude queen Elizabeth crossing the street in Harlem smiling wearing a red garden hat, some of her teeth are painted black Little black mosquito helicopters flying over fresh lava knuckles with a palm tree and a pirate treasure chest open and glowing with golden coins, a crow with a diamond eye patch perched on the lid, a man with a pumpkin head stabbed and bleeding on the sandy ground directly in front. Glowing white crystal skull with a blond wig on and x-ray glasses, a black poodle with diamond necklace led by a woman in soft purple silver and gold, lichen and feathers in her hair special red clay mud on her forearms with red dots on each side of the arms. Hulk Hogan in white toga, green camouflage headband, and a chippendales cuffs on his wrists, walking a chimpanzee by the hand that is looking hungrily at a chicken rotisserie in an Asian street market, red and yellow words, three aborigines walking through with white body halos. Amish wife playing violin in barn, kids with white bonnets dancing in a circle, grandma knitting in a rocking chair, grandma looks like mayor giuliani.

For my project, I wanted to try to explore the psyche of a human. The main player will be a character who is a performer. He is in the theatrical business as a lead in a show. The concept I am taking, he will appear in the second act and continue through to the end of the show. His debut on stage will act as a quite lengthy monologue that tests his emotional boundaries. This, however, is the just the closing to the film. The project will spend the entire time progressing to this apex in the story. The entire film will be about the man dealing with life and his character. He will border on schizophrenia and you see the actor mentally shift between characters abruptly in an almost bipolar sense. He will jump only mentally between characters, his costume will stay the same, but his mind will be jumbled in a chaotic fashion, further influencing his fear of going on stage. The entire film will be played behind the curtain. As the film audience listens to the character rant and rave, they will begin to learn about his life. Snapshots and still will flash on screen. The script will have to be very in depth and complex, hopefully yielding a powerful piece. At a point in the story, in a few of the jump cuts, some will be of the lateness of the actor coming on stage in the real time storyline. The play audience that the actor is doing the monologue for will begin to talk and become impatient, talking to each other in a confused manner, some getting up and leaving. The piece will hopefully portray the process of a dramatic actor. He has to get in character bringing up past events to be more “in the moment.” Eventually in the plotline, the player will fantasize of a time when we jumped off a cliff. The editing will have to be intense to make the mood work. A shot of the player face down in the sand dead will flash just before stepping onstage. The shots of the camera will be on dolly and up close tripod (immobile). It will be somewhat dimly lit. In the last shot, he will walk out into pure light between the curtains and disappear in the light. I feel it will contribute better to the process. As the white fades away, I will have an audience clap effect. The piece will deal a lot with jump cuts and sound effects in an effort to mimic insanity. This will hopefully balance a poor actor (in case we cast one). I imagine a lead to be a middle height and slim male with darker hair, though not black, only brown. The man will be late teens to 20-something with heterosexual male qualities. He is a “Manly Man.” In his thought process, he thinks about love, about lust, about women and then randomly the audience. One prominent line he repeats to himself is, “the audience is naked, the audience is naked.” This is not a Comedy and will therefore we challenging for me.

You now it doesn’t exist. It can’t. But…sometimes, just sometimes you have this feeling; that maybe…. At times, you can almost sense something hidden just at the edge of your peripherals. You always try to quickly swivel your head to try and catch a glimpse but there is never anything there…unless you’re lucky. Then camera fades onto an average looking guy going to school, working hard. His name is Shiro. One night as he is walking home from work he decides to stop by his secret hideout. When he enters the place he finds a girl sleeping there. He doesn’t know what to do…but she looks cold so he takes off his sweater and lays it on her. Thinking nothing of it he leaves and goes home. Next night, he feels almost compelled to visit that place again. As he nears it, he sees the same girl surrounded by two shadowy figures. As they make a move to grab her, he darts in, throws sand in their eyes and snatches the girl away. Back at his house the girl tells him that those men were loan sharks. Her father, now dead, had borrowed a huge sum of money from them and now she is the only one alive in her family so they are going after her. Feeling pity for the girl, Shiro lets her stay at his house. The story revolves around these two as they learn to live with each other and sometimes evade the shadowy figures. One day, Tohsaka is kidnapped by those men and Shiro has to get her back. He finds out that she is actually from an old royal line dating back from the legendary King Arthur. Her father wants her to marry Alastar, the descendant of King Arthur’s enemy Morgan the Witch to stop the blood feud that has endured to present day. To prove himself worthy, Shiro takes on her father’s challenge in a series of battles. In the end, through sheer will and Tohsaka’s help he wins. They are allowed to go back to his house. However…there are still many out there who believe they are more worthy of Tohsaka so their lives are always filled with challenges.

For me it was pretty hard to come up with a story for an eight minute film. I mean it is possible but the ideas I came up with are not that great. Some ideas I came up with though for the fiction film is first picture a man dressed casually with no money and nothing at all on him, but a cigarette in a rural area. He wanders for a bit in this place and later wants to smoke the cigarette, but he doesn’t have a lighter. All he wants is to light the cigarette and since he doesn’t have a lighter he has to find some other way of lighting it. So, he goes around asking people if they have a lighter and so basically he goes through all of these obstacles (not sure what yet) just to get what he wants which is to light his cigarette. Another idea is a married couple goes to a near by lake or fishing area to go fishing and just relax. They get their fishing poles ready and start fishing. They chat while waiting for a catch and a little while later the husband’s fishing pole starts moving. He reels it in and discovers that he had caught a bag. The married couple looks at each other puzzled and confused. They carefully place the bag on the ground so they can open it. They open it and discover Ziploc bags filled with tons of money. They look at each other and discuss what they have just found. They think about whether they should keep it or turn it in and that is all I have for now about that idea because it could go in different directions from that point. Given the resources and amount of time we have I’m not sure if these ideas could be carried out. These are just ideas that I came up with and I feel that they could be developed to become stronger stories.

The story will be in flash-back format. The scene begins with a monologue spoken by a middle-aged man. He has a kind countenance, with drooping eyelids and a gentle smile. One would not call him good-looking, and he is not the least bit attractive. His teeth are crooked, his nose too big and round for his face, his chin too long, and his cheeks too gaunt. Many fine lines of wrinkles are deeply etched in dark, hard skin, suggesting long hours of labor spent outside in the sun. There is something wary about him, making him appear much older and wiser beyond his years. He is recalling a time not too far back in time. A time when he was happier and a little less lonelier He story is that of a love story. One that is both happy and sad. Both heart-warming and heart-breaking. These were days when he was most fulfilled, most joyful, and most hopeful. These were days he spent his every penny, every minute, every bit of energy on a single cause he had decided was his god-given fate. Days that were dedicated for a girl. This girl was no ordinary girl. She saw and lived life in a completely different light from anyone else. This he deduced on the night of his big fireworks show, where he first saw her. Back then, he was just a budding pyrotechnist and on this particular night he was given the chance to show off his trade. He was very eager to light up the skies with his own fireworks that he had spent so much time making and perfecting. Pyrotechnics was his passion. It didn’t pay well, neither was it easy nor glamorous. But it was rewarding in its self. He just loved to make other people smile, to light up the sky as well as the faces of the audience. He paid especially close attention to the reactions if the audience on this particular night. He wanted to make sure his show would be a success. After all, the crowd turnout was great. Among the hundreds of faces, there was one that caught his attention in particular. It was hers. Of course, everybody was overexcited and lively. But she had the best expression of them all. It seemed to him she was enjoying his fireworks more than anybody else in the crowd. And what more, she was absolutely beautiful. This was the beginning of their relationship. shortly, they had started to live together. He became a sort of aid to her. She needed someone to guide her, to take care of her. This was because she was blind. Because she was blind, she gets to “see” the most beautiful view in the world. As with his fireworks, he describes, “she was seeing a more spectacular show that anybody else there that night.” She gets to conjure up her own images of the world in her mind. Similarly, to her, he was the most handsome man in the world, her prince-charming. And the tiny apartment they share, her castle. He takes on a second job in addition to his pyrotechnics handing out flyers in silly costumes. All this he does, so he can look after for the both of them and save up money for her corneal surgery. After much time and effort and a couple of fixed loans, he is finally able to get her the surgery. He has gotten her the best doctor at the university hospital in the next city. She will be able to finally see. Fireworks. The small apartment they live in. Her beloved’s face. They will get married, and live happily ever after. He plans out a firework spectacle dedicated just for her, that will be put on after her recovery. However, this is not to be. She receives her surgery as planned. All goes well. Except for when the time comes for undoing the bandages covering her eyes. The man, the doctor, and nurses are all there, anxious for the results. The bandages come off, she opens her eyes, and is delighted by the first face that she sees. Her prince-charming. He is as handsome as she had imagined him to be. The kind man that took her in and sacrificed everything for her. Yes, this is the man she will spend the rest of her life with! But…this face does not belong to the man. Instead, it that of the doctor’s. A few months later, the man receives news that she and the doctor will marry. He still works his second job to pay off his loans. He had put on the fireworks show without her presence. It was the most beautiful show anyone could have seen. So many colors, so many lights. He looks up at them and thinks to himself, there will be, someday, once again…someone who will light up his sky.

I got this idea from David and I really liked it, so I’d want to make it. It’s where a girl is looking for her father that she has never known. I started writing out the script on Final Draft. But so there is a girl (about 17 years old) who is on a train going down to La Jolla. She’s on the phone talking to someone and as she is she is fingering a little slip of paper that is a little wrinkled and the ink is a bit smudged, but it says a name and an address. She then is looking at pictures on her computer and she skips over an album titled, “Mom’s Funeral” to “Dad” and in the album “Dad” is one picture. It is an old picture of a smiling young man and woman. The next scene, she is at the train station and it is deserted except for her. Finally, a middle-aged woman who looks like she has had plastic surgery and is obsessed with her looks comes running up. The middle-aged woman looks like she is southern and white trashy. She is the main character’s aunt (on her mom’s side) and the main character is staying at her house. A twist I would add to the story is that the main character’s mom died on the operating table while getting a plastic surgery procedure that her sister convinced her into getting. Overcome with guilt, her sister didn’t go to the funeral, and at the end of the film will break down when she finally deals with the fact that she is part of her sister’s death. The rest of the movie will focus on the main character trying to get enough courage to go and see her father, whom she has never met. Her father and mother met while on vacation in Europe and had a fling, then when they got back they never spoke again. He doesn’t even know she exists. But when she finally does get up the courage, she goes to the office where he works as an orthodontist and as she is entering, a man is leaving and she sort of bumps into him but he’s coughing into his jacket so she doesn’t ever see his face. He nonchalantly brushes it off with a quick “Sorry” that you would say to a stranger. She goes up to the secretary and asks her for him and she says, “oh, you just missed him” and points outside. As she is pointing you hear the sound of a car’s brakes squealing and hear shouts from outside. The man that she had just bumped into is now on the ground, a pool of blood coming from his head and a driver is getting out of the car, having just hit him. She takes out the photograph and it matches the man on the ground – her father

I liked my story from the creative workshop, so I just decided to add some more details and change some as well. An aspiring singer sings her heart out every week at the local coffee shop, but nobody thinks much of her talent, dismissing her voice as ordinary. She lives in a cramped apartment with her girlfriend, a waitress. Obviously, they do not have a large income, so they have routine financial problems, but manage to get by because they love each other and are willing to make it work. One night, the singer comes home after performing, excited about the dinner plans she has with her girlfriend to celebrate their two year anniversary. However, she opens the door to find her girlfriend dead on the ground, lying in a pool of blood with a gun next to her head. She is utterly shocked and calls the police immediately, but when they arrive, they see their poor living conditions and dismiss the case as a suicide. The woman cannot believe her girlfriend would commit suicide—sure they had problems, but they always strived to solve them. The idea that her girlfriend would commit suicide on their two year anniversary was too devastating to accept as true. Devastated, she screams in agony and throws things around. In the process, she finds her girlfriend’s diary. She eagerly begins reading it, hoping to find answers but only finds vague clues. She is determined to find out how she died and why. In the subsequent nights at the opera house, she sings with such emotion that the audience is profoundly moved. While she struggles through emotions trying to solve the mystery of her girlfriend’s death, she presents them on stage every time she sings—grief, anger, hope, anguish. She finally pieces together the clues of the diary and discovers that her girlfriend was killed by a woman who frequently visited the coffee shop because of her obsession with the singer. The singer doesn’t have an idea of how to get anyone to believe the truth. She is so overcome with emotions that the next time she sings at the coffee shop, she can’t help but sing of her girlfriend’s tragedy. The singer is so moving that people actually believe her twisted tale and the obsessive woman is made a suspect. The police search the woman’s place and find pictures of the singer and other evidence that points to the truth. The woman is arrested and the singer rises to fame, landing a record deal in the process. I also have another storyline involving a beauty pageant contestant who is at the top of her game, until she discovers that she has breast cancer. The doctor informs her that the only way she can rid of the cancer is to undergo a mastectomy. After her mastectomy, she tries to compete again but can hardly make it to the semifinals. Everyone perceives her differently and thus she realizes the superficiality of the pageant lifestyle. I like the idea but I realize it would be near impossible to construct.

My idea is about an unexpected love story. The plot starts with a woman whose name is Jenny, and she recently quits her job as an optimist and posts a marriage seeking personal on Internet. She does not set any limitation of the age, education level, occupation, or habits for her future husband. Then soon after the day she poses it, a lot of men come and gets “interview” by Jenny every afternoon in the same café that near to her house. Now from this point, no one knows why she would quit her job, nor wanted to get marry through a marriage-seeking ad. The men who come to meet Jenny have different background and reason, and the first scene of my film will start with her interviews with all the different guys. Some of the men have ulterior purpose ---sex instead of marriage. Some are procurer. Some are old enough to be her father. One mother comes for her mental retarded son. One is a lesbian who tries to convince Jenny to be her girlfriend. All in all, no one is normal. On the other hand, Jenny calls to a man and leaves voice message to him about the people she meets in the café everyday. She talks to him about how she thinks about them and how she misses him; nevertheless, the mystical person on the other side of the telephone never picks up her calls. One day in the café, something unexpected happens. A blind man comes to meet Jenny, and he immediately recognizes Jenny as his optimistic doctor years ago from her voice. He reveals the fact that Jenny uses a fake name to meet all of her potential husbands and lied about her occupation. The blind man asks Jenny why she would pretend to be someone else in marriage seeking meetings. It turns out that Jenny is the one who tries to lie to everyone and does not want to get married at first. That same day she comes to and calls to the mystical man again. As usual, no one picks up. She talks to his message machine and tells him the surprising day she has. Suddenly, someone picks up her call. It is a woman’s voice. She is the wife of the mystical man that Jenny calls everyday. She tells Jenny that the man they both love deeply died in a car accident two months ago right after he tells his wife that he wants a divorce. The wife doesn’t know about Jenny until she secretly listens to her voice messages for him. She tells Jenny that after hearing her marriage-seeking story, she starts to feel sorry for her, and she asks Jenny to stop calling this number anymore. --- Jennifer Ma

I like the affect of the narrative and the sound quality is always very clean. The narrative always seems to bring the viewer into the film. I don’t want to overuse it. I think the most affective use would be to have it set up the story, used heavily only in the first 5-6 minutes. The narrative gives the feel of being the past and so I want to use it to set the story and give needed background information then have the narrative disappear as the movie enters real time. Opening seen: we meet our character. Character sees him/her self in mirror and then monologue begins. Monologue continues as character continues daily tasks and the viewer begins to understand the history of the character and the dilemma in which he/she must face. Last part of the narration is the character speaking into the microphone in workstation so he viewer sees the narration finish. Then real time begins. And the last two or 3 minutes of the film are done in real time. Okay so I have laid out an outline for the movie, now all that needs to be decided on are the specifics. What kind of character and what type of dilemma. These are fairly flexible, and could include one or more of the following: confronting an unpleasant truth of the character’s past (i.e. abusive family member), or the results of a disease diagnoses (i.e. AIDS, cancer). I am sure there are many other scenarios that would fit the pattern, although I think the best one would be one where the ending is a twist. Instead of confronting someone evil, the story is then reversed and the protagonist is seen to have been at fault. I want the tone of the film to be semi-serious and definitely not comedy, although it could have some elements of a dark, ironic comedy. – Devin Bernhardt

I have an idea but it does not have a good ending and is not solid. Since this is my first time thinking of a story, it also seems a little too hard to shoot, especially the ending, and too long . If anyone likes it, I would love to have it developed and make it do-able. Some fundamental ideas I want to use in the project is: the narrator is the main character and narrative drives the story; it is fast paced, using quick editing; and, music/sound has an important role in creating a rhythm.　　　　　　　The story is about an absent-minded, bio-engineering undergraduate student, Tom, who lost a copy of his 20 pages research paper that is due in three hours. If he fails to turn it in promptly when the class starts, he fails the class. He desperately tries to find the paper or an electronic copy of it. Although the story happens in his room, there will be shots of him doing something somewhere according to his memory. The story starts in Tom’s room…　　　　　　　“Where is it…where is it …WHERE THE H*** IS IT!” Tom, the narrator and main character, is talking to himself while he is crazily looking into his backpack, desk, binder, underneath the bed, etc. (He seems like he lost something, but the audience doesn’t know what it is yet.) After looking everywhere in his room, he finds nothing but making a huge mess. He tries to think back from when the essay was assigned and until now. He explains how enthusiastic he was when the paper was assigned and how much effort he put on the paper. As he talks, the screen changes from his room to his past; a scene where the essay is assigned in the lecture hall, then moves to the scene where he is researching and writing the essay. Then back to current again, in his room. He looked everywhere possibly in his room. He tried to find the Word file, but he cannot find it. It disappeared. “How could this happen?” He looks at the clock. He only has three hours until class. (Now, the audience knows what is going on – introduction of the problem.) He thinks “Wait, what happened when I brought my paper to the TA?” He explains what happens at the TA’s while the screen is back to the past again. (This method of storytelling is seen in “Memento” by Christopher Nolan and “Fight Club” by David Fincher as I can think of right now.) He needs to think about every little detail of what he did and what happened. While he thinks of the past, he also notices that time is running out. Two hours thirty minutes left… He suddenly remembers he had his paper checked by his English major girlfriend, Nancy. He calls her and asks if she still has it. Nancy tells him that she already returned it to him. Tom can’t believe it. He thinks and thinks… Tom realizes he went to a café yesterday and was proof reading his paper. He doesn’t have much time anymore, so he decides to go to the café and see if he had left it there. He gets to the café, running out of breath because he ran his way. He looks at the table he was sitting yesterday. He looks around… It’s not there. He asks the waitress who was also working yesterday. She doesn’t know. Tom is hopeless. He only has two hours until class. There is no way he can rewrite it. He walks back home, feeling like it is the end of the world. Tom has never failed a class or got a grade worse than A-. He was proud of his grade. He even thought he was a perfect college student. But his legacy is the end. He is going to fail the class and have an F on his transcript. He thinks about how miserable his life is going to be. He fails to enter the top university in the nation – say, Harvard University – while his peers/rivals enter. He get a job he doesn’t care, a job far from his ideal. His girlfriend Nancy runs away with another guy. And he dies single without anyone beside him. He thinks of the worse that can happen… Tom comes to class. He feels like everyone in his class is laughing at him. Trying not to look at anyone’s face, he sits in the back roll as quietly and unnoticeably as possible. The professor asks the students to pass the paper to the front. Tom is looking down. It’s as same as the end of the world for him. He closes his eyes, trying not to think too much. He opens his eyes. Suddenly, he sees his name and his paper in front of him. A girl sitting next to him is holding the paper with a smile on her face. She seemed like angel from Tom’s eyes. After thanking her, he runs to the professor to hand in the paper. Later, Tom hears from the girl Susan that she accidentally found the paper in the café and noticed Tom’s name. She didn’t know Tom’s phone number or address, and since the paper looked perfect, she decided to give it to Tom in class.

"hello, my name is Kevin...and I'm addicted to lying. I don't lie because I'm afraid, or because I think the lie will get me anything, I just do. Guys, she said it. She said she loves me. I was selfish and majorly insensitive. I'm a--I'm a total idiot. I mean, a fool, a buffoon. [Identity: Who I’ve Been Makes Who I Am] "Hi…Clarence", said the psychologist, "how are you doing today.” ‘Clarence’ closes the door and takes a seat. "Hi, George, I'm doing fine." [on the desk, Dr. William LeMore is clear. He checks his papers and looks at the reason his patient is here]. "Ok, so tell me about yourself. What do you like to do?" "I'm an Angel Second Class, I'm your Angel, George”. “Mr. Oddbody…I'm not George. But would you like to tell me the reason you're here”? asked the psychologist. ‘Clarence’ looks like he’s struggling, then he slowly calms himself, “I’ve always loved being someone else. Putting on costumes, makeup, personas. There's something about stepping out of yourself and into someone else that is just so addicting. I guess then it comes as no surprise that I'm an actor. I...I don't think I know what’s real and what's not anymore. I don't know who I am anymore”. “Ah, that's good, that's good. How long have you been doing this”? “Acting? I've been in love with acting for as long as I can remember. Ever since I was little, I went through our garage to find old stuff and put it on. Halloween was my favorite day, not because of the candy, but because I got to dress up. And for the rest of the year, there were always school plays. In elementary school, I was an apple and a tree, a Crayola marker and a bee. In middle school, I was a dancer, Prancer, and Magee. In high school, I was Mercutio, the Music Man, Kinesias, Doctor Rank, and Swashbuck Valpariso. In college...who knows what I was. But I was not I and that was all that mattered”. “Have you ever felt…” begins Dr. LeMore, but is cutoff by ‘Clarence’, “No, you don't understand. I've got a job to do here. This isn't going very well. Well, you said this was going to be easy. Have you ever read Tom Sawyer”? “What”? “Now there was an industrious young man, and when the chips were down, he never gave up. You remember why”? “Look Mr. Oddbody…Clarence…I’m here to help you. I can’t do that if you can’t help yourself”. “He kept thinking about others, George. Not about himself, but about all the folks who needed him”. [fade to black] Next, theres a series of still shots about 2 secs long, and we see him as different characters, with different looks. i'm contemplating a scene in a church where he goes to a pastor to confront his feelings (again, using a different name/character) and the pastor explains the idea of a soul and heaven. (haven't planned which character) this is all I have so far, but the ending will probably end with suicide, as he thinks finally he'll be able to know his true self, as his soul seperates from his body.

I’ve sort of been playing with different ideas for my fiction piece, but none have really particularly stood out for me. I keep seeing and thinking about the same images I thought of a while back, but no more or less has been added or removed since last week. Here’s what I have so far: the film starts out with a girl who is seen drawing pictures of people at different moments of her life. Her face isn’t really shown all that much, but images of her room, her house, etc. let you see what kind of person she is. You can conclude that she is somewhat of an introverted artist who allows her emotions or feelings out through her various art works that are displayed around the room, but we don’t really know who she is. I’m thinking I want my fiction piece to be more of a narrative (reflecting her point of view), mostly to get her thoughts out so that the audience becomes part of her life. At some points in the film when certain images or things around the room are shown I would want to flash back to past moments in her life where these objects or images would be incorporated. Seeing as how it would be mostly narrative, she would explain how each of these moments have affected her or what she was thinking about at the time the events were happening. The present day scenes with the flash backs to the past would eventually allow us to get to know the girl’s whole story without ever really leaving the room. I’m not quite sure how it would end, as my thoughts about this project haven’t really been developing, like I hoped they would. I do know that I want it to be more of a visual piece where the images tell more of the story than the dialogue would. Anyway, whatever the ending is, the images that she drew of people would all actually be the different people from her past (or possibly all different images of a particular person from her past). The way she portrays them in her drawings would reflect her feelings about them, etc. I’m hoping my piece will turn out to be more of an intellectual, or a more thought provoking piece, rather than a comedy or an action. I also have some ideas on where I want it to be filmed, but I’m not quite sure if I have the “okay” to use my location. The only difficulty with my ideas for the fiction is finding an artist who could actually draw the images for me. I haven’t really thought about that potential problem-causing element of my project yet. Maybe I can pull a few strings with the vis-art department?

When Wolfgang asked us write our ideas during discussion, I came up with an idea for the project. That has basically been the only thing I have been able to think of. I never thought it would be this hard to think of or write a story. I may not want to stick with this idea, and I don’t even know if it’s possible to film, but I guess I’ll share the idea anyway. I wanted the movie to start off somewhere towards the end. It would reveal a man in a hospital bed. He would be in a coma, unable to speak to anyone or see/hear anybody around him. His room is filled with balloons and flowers. His friends and family are crying, he has a slim chance of living. I haven’t thought much of the bulk of the film. I wanted the viewers to dislike the man; the story would shed a bad light on him. I was thinking something along the lines of having an argument with his father and deciding never to talk to him. The argument wouldn’t be the father’s fault and I’d like the viewers to pity the old man. Time would pass and the two men would not have spoken for years. One day, the father goes to his son’s apartment in hopes of dropping this argument and talking once again. The father is very confident that the son will accept his apology. However, the son is unresponsive and instead of accepting the apology from his father, he tells him to leave. As the father is on his way out, the son realizes that he made a big mistake and runs after his father. Again, I haven’t thought of exactly how I would like this to play out, but I wanted the father to almost die, such as almost being hit by a car. The son would push him out of the way and be hit by the car himself. Then the movie would go back to the way it started, with the man in the hospital bed. The father would ask for some time alone with his son. It would be an emotional moment. After this, the family comes back into the room. Some time later in the day, the man will pass away. Like I said, I don’t know if I’ll stick to this idea considering that it would be hard to have it work out. I highly doubt it’ll be possible to film in a hospital room. I guess I can always change the story a bit to make it work, but I’m still not sure on what exactly I want to do.

An idea for a story I was thinking about went a little like this: We are observing a moment in the life of a young woman who is new to her new living environment. She is in her mid 20s, visibly nervous about life in the big world, and who appears to be quite anxious about something. We see her go about a moment in time when she finishes a transaction with an older store clerk in some sort of corner store (coffee, bookstore, don’t know yet). They appear cordial to each other, and the older male employee appears to have a kind look about him. After leaving, we get clues that there might be something more connecting the two seemingly unconnected characters. It comes out to us, the audience that the young female has actually tracked down her father who she has never before seen in her life. She is nervous because she does not know how to approach him with the life-altering news that he has had a long-lost daughter for all of these years and that she has been spending her whole life searching for him. The anxiety that we’ve already encountered in the young female can now be connected to her struggle in building up the courage to somehow tell this man who she really is. Bordering on an obsessive inner struggle, we observe the young woman building up courage in her small apartment in dropping the news. Cutting between frantic shots spanning the spectrum of human emotion, we see the young woman finally build up enough courage to confront her father. Yet, upon reaching the store, we see that he is no longer employed there. Either he has quit, or died, or got promoted to somewhere else, I don’t know yet. But we end with the young woman holding a photo spliced together from an old photo of her father interlaces with a current picture of the young woman as she appears today. -David Castaneda

I do not know if with our limitation of equipment and time we can do something really professional; but I do think that with our skills we can do something empirical and fun. At least I guess I know what I do not want, which can narrow my options for what I want. For instance I would preferred not a monologue therefore I am not talking just about one character but perhaps two or three?, I know that a character has to be embellishing by the appropriated set, garments, and make up. So I do not want anything different from our nowadays-regular life. I am thinking in something not much elaborated but part of real ordinary and regular life. I am working in an idea of a couple’s problem to solve. I want regular places, nothing very elaborated, sunny day preferable, and I am thinking that the characters have to be opposite. I think is hard to become a honest viewer of real life and to highlight the ordinary.

I like playing with questions like: what make social stereotypes? What is better, conforming or rebelling? In which situations? And the idea of reality. Not really sure any of these ideas would work in an eight minute film is the only problem. I probably need to figure out how to condense these ideas if I wanted to make them work for something that is not a novel. 1. Main character is a girl in high school, who is very shy and reserved, and basically a wallflower. She does not like school, but manages to get some of the best grades despite that. She wears pretty much only black, and is always connected to her ipod, which constantly plays underground rock. She only has one good friend, and girl who she has known since middle school (before she was quite as reclusive). Her friend decides it high time that the main character comes out of her shell. Would then follow the friend’s attempts at bringing out her friend, which might include dragging the main character to social events, etc. Realization would then be that the main character cannot change unless she herself wants to. 2. Main character is a tomboy, who loves to play sports. She does not dress particularly stylish, and does not really care about her appearance. Her friends drag her to have a makeover, and consequently, the hottest guy in school falls for her. But, he does not realize she is the same tomboy that used to wear baggy jeans. When she tries to go back to her sports, he will not let her. It comes down to what is more important, looks or what is inside? She realizes that he is not worth it if he only looks skin deep, and she is happy with herself. 3. Alice wakes up one morning and goes downstairs to get breakfast before school. Only, there is no one home. She wonders where everyone has gone, and goes outside to go to school. On her way to school, no one pays any attention to her hellos, and upon arriving at school, her friends ignore her. She goes to class and sits down. The professor starts taking role, and upon getting to Alice’s name, marks her absent despite Alice’s saying “here.” No one can see Alice. Alice runs out, wondering what is happening, and runs past a couple of professors in the hallway. They are talking about Alice, and how she had gotten in a bad car crash, and how they were not sure she would be ok. Alice, not sure what they meant, headed to the hospital, where she found her parents and herself, unconscious. Alice breaks down crying, hoping it’s all a bad dream. The heart monitor goes flat, Alice dies? No, Alice again wakes up in her room, to the smell of pancakes. It was just a bad dream thinks Alice…phew. (Or was it?)

Avant-Garde Realism “If yesterday’s avant-garde constituted a murderous gesture against the real, today’s avant-garde resurrects the anarchy of the real and the triumph of total”, states Nicholas Rombes in his article Avant-Garde Realism. In his article about “experimental” cinema, as the author calls it, he talks about the real in cinema thanks to the digital cinema. The article takes me to consider that seems contradictory that yesterday viewers wanted to mimic the roles that they were watching in films; even though viewers not always wanted to imitate the roles that one could think would be attractive to them. For instance, the millionaire who has everything in his life, or the poor, beautiful girl saved by the strong man, but also the “bad guys.” In any case, though films were inspired by ordinary life, filmmakers managed the story in a specific approach to trigger viewer’s attention. For that reason, or perhaps because the film triggered internal people’s secrets, viewers wanted to imitate in real life the roles they watched in films. If that issue was and is still nowadays the tendency, then, the responsibility for filmmakers was and is still enormous. However, as Rombes points it out, what dominates and have dominated films ever is business, what is most important for the industry of film is what it sells despite viewers’ consequences. I am talking about consequences in viewers because films are suppose to be real; in fact, so real that viewers can really be involved in the movie’s story. The film can raise their emotions to the point that viewers sympathize with a specific character, or simply the viewers take side. (Readers 204) I wonder, was somebody in the film industry expecting that a movie could be the inspiration for an extraordinary doctor to be, or the most dangerous serial killer to be? I think we, as humans, are visual learners; we are inspired for what we watch and films have become such a remarkable art that our most internal dreams can become true. For instance, who does not want to be one of the angels of “Wings of Desire”? Perhaps not only for having the ability to read people’s mind, or to perform as the vigilant of Beirut, but also to be able to read people’s mind around the world and to bring to them comfort. Nowadays however, as Rombes conveys “Far from taking us further away from the real, today’s long-take digital cinema takes us ever deeper into the natural time.” I wonder how much natural, how much real, and how much that reality can be manipulated so the film is more profitable for the “business.” If one of the most important tools of creating a successful film in terms of “business” is, as in advertising, to appeal to the deepest feelings of human nature; then, tradition and contemporary can merge together to create a very significant blend in a film that triggers those appeals. In order to merge those two, tradition and contemporary, is essential to understand the culture of the specific topic; literally, almost to live people’s life with different eyes than ordinary people in that culture. One has to understand that culture in terms of their social history and costumes; definitively, through aesthetic experience, cinema is the best media that makes possible such a difficult approximation. If these days in cinema is reality what captivates viewers’ attention and, coming back to old times, quite a lot of viewers want to imitate the roles that they watch in films, more than any other time in cinema is crucial to take real responsibility of what viewers watch. Hence, , the questions to consider are, despite the money, in truth, what kind of appeal filmmakers want to raise in viewers; for which kind of legacy filmmakers want to be remembered; and how remarkable they want viewers to be affected by their films?. Although reality is the avant-garde in cinema, most importantly is how to accomplish, either by reality or fantasy, films that encourage viewer’s to be active part for a better world. Film industry is and has been a powerful business for years; as Stalin highlighted, more than anything else film is a very influential instrument to manipulate viewers as filmmakers and the film industry desires. Principles of Narrative Construction In this chapter David Bordwell and Kristen Thompson give us the principles of narrative construction by clarifying that narrative is “a chain of events in cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space.” They also emphasize in the differences between story and plot; nevertheless, the authors state that story and plot overlap as they diverge; which I think, although both have specific characteristics, they both seem to have very a thin boundary to confuse us. However, the most helpful example is the North by Northwesvery t, when they talk about Roger’s mother and points out that we never learn what happened to his father; that is a story, it implies some events that we never witness. While a plot presents us some nondiegetic events such as sounds, music or images that goes beyond the story for better understanding of the audience. Bordwell and Kristen also offer in this chapter understanding of Cause and Effect, Time, Space and Range of Story Information in which they point out a significant Hitchcock’s paragraph in which Alfred Hitchcock supports his ability for suspense by conveying the difference of giving to the public fifteen seconds of surprise in contrast to fifteen minutes. The chapter is dense, but it is very rich instructive. (Readers 176-188)

I never thought it would be so hard to think of a story to tell, I mean our whole lives are just various stories interwoven right? Think Crash here, everything is connected in someway. Maybe that’s the kind of story I want to do, the portrayal of the link that connects us all. Or I could do something a little more personal? Something that will connect more with my peers? Ok, so imagine this scenario: two girls talking in their kitchen while making pasta. The subject of this conversation is boys. More specifically, how much it sucks not to have a boyfriend. These two girls continue to debate the importance of having a significant other and one of them brings up the fact that this is the last year that they’ll be on-campus, and it will probably be the year when they meet the person they’re supposed to get married to. Because after this year, they’ll be living off campus and will have a harder time just hanging out and meeting guys. They start to panic humorously and vow to both snag a guy by the end of the year. The story will follow them as they go after guys. This film will be a witty comedy, detailing the extremes that dudes and chicks will go through to meet their mate. The following are some lines that I would love to use: “I would be a total lesbian if I didn’t love the cock so much.” “Chill, crouching tiger, I was just kidding.” and “pardon my emo, but I totally feel like killing myself right now.” I want this film to have a distinct college feel to it, something in between the high school slapstick comedy and the dramatic grown up tears. There will be a lot a of laughs and maybe a few tears along the way, but I don’t know, it might be hard to fit into an 8 minute short, but I’ll do my best. If anyone is interested on collaborating with me to work on this, please feel free to email me at: tntruong@ucsd.edu. I would definitely love to be able to do something like this for our narrative project, but I am willing to work with other ideas and stuff too.

The essential factors of a fictional piece or any type of film are emotions. The way a film can easily modify a person’s emotions is simply fascinating. Some ideas for a fictional piece I would use to spark emotions on a viewer, would be for instance begin with something light hearted a type of comedy, which would make the viewer laugh. As the piece develops I would slowly create a sad and tragic mood to finalize with something melancholic. The different emotions a person feels throughout a film is what makes them remember specific moments of the film or the entire film, thus the message the filmmaker is trying to come across is most likely to be received. This being the heart of the film the story would only rely on one central character and several challenges he or she has to face. Moreover the structure would also play an important role in order to create emotions on the viewer. I would probably choose a point in the middle of the story and then flashback. The flashback would consist of the light hearted part of the story, finally reaching that specific point the story would give a twist turning the film into something more serious, sad and eventually melancholic. Another essential factor for the film would be the music and the ambient sounds. The music would have to carefully chosen in order to sync with the images and actions of the protagonist. On the other hand, the film would have a certain effect if it carried little or no conversation. The actions would drive the film instead of words. Asides from music and sounds the film would also depend much on color. Beginning with bright warm colors, the film would reflect a light hearted environment but as it would develop the colors would then tend to become darker and eventually end with the film being more or less black and white. All of these actions, the sounds, and color would have to be done while in editing in order to create the specific effects. In addition, I would choose a more poet story telling type of film, in order to use metaphors or comparisons to send a message across. Though this type of film may seem boring or cliché, if done well it make the viewer feel many things. Personally, I believe films should included their sense of emotions in order to be good films, from comedy to drama, but at least some emotion to make the viewer feel something. Finally a good film is the one that doesn’t rely solely on special effects or locations, but one that knows how to handle emotions and has a good story to send the message across. If possible my film would most likely be based on the inner conflict of the character than the outer. –Diego Ley

Media: Narrative Proposal The story of a woman who leaves her family, from the perspective of the daughter. The story is mainly narration accompanied by images, without dialogue. The film’s mood is very empty, with bare images, and with the intense hollow feeling of being unsatisfied, as though a question is never truly or fully answered. First Scene: Woman sitting cross-legged in a field of flowers staring at the camera, which is held very loosely (so as to show that it is from the perspective of a person who is taking a photograph of her). An unseen man, presumably holding the camera, urges her, “Come on honey, just smile.” Man’s voice become frustrated, “Goddammit.” The image distorts and shakes, as he ‘throws’ down the camera. Daughter’s voice, narration: She was a caged woman, plagued with a fear of failure. Her sin came not from immorality, or even injustice, but from that longing for meaning. [Possible accompanying image: Compilation of images where she is wearing a kid’s mask, (halloween-esque). She is posing with it, but bare and broken feeling.] When the wrinkles began to pattern her forehead she became afraid and she cradled me for days. Her perception of her failure began to seep into her skin. [Possible accompanying image: Naked room, preferably just the shadows of the two together against white wall.] I’ve long forgotten her scent and her touch. I’d lie beside her in the morning. The air was so cold and I’d stick my feet under body for warmth and she would whisper into my ear her awful dreams of decay. Her lips stopped moving but her mouth continued to shake against my cheek. Visions of long abnormal skulls, men wrought with spasms of ecstasy and desolate skies lined with telephone lines. These were my waking images and her hollowness stayed with me all day. [Image accompanying line: Contrast between two scenes; one scene, blue undertones, of room with mother and daughter in bed and second scene warm, browns and yellows, with images in field. Dream images are much more warm and feeling, while the room scene is cold, and emotionally static.] I promised her that I would never wash her morning kiss off my face. She told me no one would want to be near me, and I told her I’d live in a box then. [Image accompanying line: Little girl looking through hole in the fence out to the street, her view from the hole, and the view of her eye in the hole. She is watching her mom who is waiting for the taxi. She is holding a suitcase, with checkered jacket slung over one should, view from behind her also.] She didn’t come back. My father claimed she wasn’t right in the head. He said that it was unnatural for a mother to leave her child. I have tried not to forget her. Swollen and small is where you’ll find me now, trying to figure out what made you so unhappy. [Not sure about complete ending or images, just the feeling.]

The starting plot of a story that I want to do is a story about a boy that is trying to raise his status in society. In trying to do so, he has many obstacles to face. There are many bad influences and discouragements from his peers. For example, they will tell him that his place is where they live and “once a gangster, always a gangster” type of comments. He has to choose to leave everything behind. At the same time his father is a drunkard that abuses he and his mom every night. He desperately wants to leave the life he is in now but he has so much childhood things to leave behind. But then one day, the person that changes his life comes along (haven’t decided weather it’s going to be a girl or a teacher). This person changes his life in such a way that he starts working hard for school so he can get into college. At the same time, he is inspired to excel in the talents he is best at. Through all this his is torn between living his old life new hard working life (which he is not used to living in). As he progresses, he makes new friends, but at the same time some old friends become enemies because they think he “betrays” them. He gets in a fight here and there along with near death experiences. His influence will also say a few inspiring lines throughout to encourage him to continue to fight the good fight. In the end, he is successful. He thanks his good influences and starts up a community to help his hold home. He tries to make the place a better society. He is also about to give his mom a better wife and husband. At the same time, he helps his biological father get back on his feet and quit the drinking life. He feels a need to give back what he has received over the past few years. I think that I will make this a serious type of story. Comedy will come from when he is with his friends and making jokes. The main theme is “to work within the system to beat the system”. Societies usually look down on certain parts on the communities and this story is to show that society shouldn’t be too judgmental because everyone deserves a chance of “the American dream”.

I have some ideas for a film, or I could go with anyone’s idea and help write the script dialogue for it. I just don’t want to do anything too serious or cliché, because it’s just comes off as cheesy... My sort of thinking is that:If you don’t have the film-looking equipment, you might as well make the plot of the film amusing. Anyways, if you don’t have an idea, I suppose I could suggest a few (names can be changed any time): (1) Roger sees his old roommate, Ben, on TV at an antiques show. A while ago, Roger had given Ben an old chair as payment for rent he couldn’t fulfill. Ben is currently at an antiques show getting Roger’s old chair appraised, the chair turns out to be worth many times more than what Roger had thought and now he goes off to look for Ben to get the chair back. But getting the chair back turns out much more difficult than he had assumed. (2)Thomas needs a pretend girlfriend for a meeting with a friend of his –who is also bringing his girlfriend. Unfortunately his last girlfriend just broke up with him, so in the end he asks the last person he can think of -his lab partner- who is practically like a sibling, extremely socially awkward, and wants his guitar hero controller in return for pretending to be his girlfriend. However, during the meeting, she cannot stop accidentally insulting everyone, including Thomas. (3) Sam is in San Diego with friends looking for Sam’s father/mother (that left a long time ago), who wrote a travel guide for San Diego a long time ago. They assume that Sam’s father/mother is here because it’s the only travel guide they have ever written. However, the travel guide proves to be actually very badly written, they get lost and eat at all the worst restaurants they’ve ever been in. Perhaps there are no other guides because they were a horrible at writing them… and Sam & co. are really wasting their time in San Diego. (4) James, who is easily panic/worry driven realizes he really wants to go out with a girl, whom specifically told him they could only be friends. He whines and complains to his group of guy friends, who commiserate and talk about how they see girls and their rules when it comes to girls. (This is supposed to be quite funny and I think I can write this one descently well simply because all my life my best friends have been guys.) Little does he know, the girl he likes has been listening in the whole time. (5) Two adult siblings come back from their uncle’s funeral and continuously bicker over why one got better things from their uncle’s will. However, their bickering is actually the extension of other issues they’ve had in the past, even if they only focus on what they got in the will. In the end, things get resolved because what they thought they got from the will isn't actually what they really do get. If you're interested in someone to write out a script and churn out lines really quickly, I can definitely do that if you can give me something good to work with (one of my hobbies when I'm not too busy is to try the Nanowrimo every year), email me at vmyang@ucsd.edu .