PLANNING - Background Information

 The Plot and The People

    It is time for me to finally complete the background information for my film opening and the characters you see in it. I will include the notes I took for this part as well as my updated script.

 

Acts/ Scenes

    Act 1 of my film opening is the exposition of my movie and the very beginning of the rising action. In this act we see a day in the life of my protagonist. It is a Saturday to start

    Scene 1 just shows my protagonist getting ready for her day to add a sense of realism. This part will be completed in either complete silence, or with a soundtrack playing in the background. This will help build the feeling that something ominous is at hand.

    Scene 2 is more of the same. The major difference is that in this scene, there is more dialogue. The dialogue, however, comes mostly from the podcast the protagonist is listening to and a voice-over that provides some world-building context for the audience.

    Scene 3 is, again, meant to add depth to the personality and life of the protagonist. Here, it is revealed that she is a popular influencer. This scene also allows us to see her music taste a little bit, giving the audience some clues about what perspectives my protagonist might have.

Characters

Main Character

    My protagonist, Emma Dayes, is a 16 year-old female social media star. While I usually choose names with more conventionally symbolic meanings, I chose Emma's full name because it sounded like "Oh My Days!" a little. I think her name is still symbolic in a sense because the main reason I use this phrase is when I see how out of control America's political situation has become. It serves as a symbol of her (and my) exasperation.

    Emma is a creative, fun-loving person who believes in having confidence through Christ. She does preach this message to her followers and relies on her faith through out the film. This is going to be a big part of the film. She believes strongly in expressing yourself freely. She is also someone who is very smart. Her quick pattern recognition, emotional intelligence, and analyses are her strongest assets throughout the film.

The Daily Script Host

    The host for the Daily Script, Rita Mildred, is a 49 year old female who secretly hates the SCRIPT, but hides it. She has two sons and a husband. Her eldest son was black-lined (or dealt with) for Illegal Improvisation. She is very fearful of the consequences; yet, ironically, she is one of the only people Emma can convince to help. Despite this, Rita manages to feign an optimistic cheery attitude for when she produces the podcast. Rita ends up pushing through her fears. This is hinted at in her name, which means Honest (or Brave), Gentle Strength. 

Special Guest

    The special guest on The Daily Script Podcast, Shaheer Salamut is a 35 year-old Arabic male. He is a famous actor and he has this captivating charm about him. Though he will not speak or be seen much, I want this to be conveyed through the podcast as much as possible because I want the audience to feel the gravity of his death.

    He is against the script and his appearance on The Daily Script was an Illegal Improvisation. Therefore, he gets blackened. This will not be revealed until the next morning, where it will be stated in the news. His name strongly hints at his tragic outcome because it means The Person That Is Famous Will Die." This will be a pretty major plot point to slowly moving the story to the start of Emma's journey.

Reflection

    I have finally updated my script to include the character names and some other actions and shots that I didn't specify before. Doing the background helped me lay-out the order of my film in a more detailed way. It also allowed me understand my characters a little better, which will help me improve the way I present them to the audience. Now that I have my background information and my script, it is time for me to start storyboarding my film. That will be my next blog post.

    Until then, farewell!