Setting up the story and character exploration

 

The Themes

Getting started on our film was very natural, The director already had an idea before the group was created and they explained it to the rest of the group and all of us liked it. we were very eager to film so we decided our group members and were already workshopping the story since December. The first thing we had to do was to figure out the story and Themes. Our director had the idea of a film where a character has a crippling obsession with bugs and by the end of the movie, the character becomes their obsession.

The character obsession include insect taxidermy and entomology which he writes in a journal.

The Questions

With that idea we started going more in-depth,  asking questions to each other and talking to evolve the story more, Questions like Why would he turn into a bug, what kind of bug, is the change only physical does it affect his brain? answering helped to define the themes of our film. And conversations about what type of story we wanted to tell and why we wanted to make this film helped the group be at a similar place of understanding,

In the end we chose the theme of obsession and how it takes over someone's life. And the transformation into a bug was a physical depiction  which would truly show how bad an obsession can get to the audience. It also wouldn't just physical but his brain would also be affected as the film would show that the character has problems being part of the real world instead of thinking about the bugs.And that specific bug would be a Cicadas!

Why Cicadas?

Cicada from brood XIX.A brood that takes 13 years to emerge.

Our director pointed out that this year two Cicadas brood will emerge after 13 and 17 years of waiting. This is very special as the University of Connecticut  periodical cicada information page explains the uniqueness of this year. So it felt right for a character to be interested with bugs to become obsessed with such a special event.

The university of Connecticut's periodical information pages: The 2024 periodical cicada emergence.

https://cicadas.uconn.edu/
 

We also decided that the main character would be a guy to show male mental health which is highly underrepresented in media. Specifically a man who is not an antagonist or morally evil that still has mental health problems, we wanted to represent how most time men's mental health are more dangerous to themselves than to the public.

With the power of Passion

We decided on this theme and central idea even before starting to talk in class about the film. Our excitement and the sense of passion we have to make this film made it that we got ahead and started planning it without even thinking about it as an assignment. This film doesn’t feel like an obligation or an assignment but a project between friends who want to make something they’ll be proud of. And there is no greater motivation to make something good than to have a passion for it. There will definitely be hurdles and bad moments in the production process but remembering the fact that this film is something we care about will help us jump those hurdles.

All about me!

Hello! I'm Yheketen

Im working on 2 min introduction of a film. This is the 2nd production I'm going to be part of. I really enjoy every part of the film making process, even the editing, but sound has always been one of the things that makes me intrigued about media. One of my top music genres is soundtracks, as my favorite movies, shows and video games must have beautiful sound design as a complete package. 

Arcane,2021 is so unique in everything it does, form the animation to its story telling and its sound design is no exception. Hearing the specific ques of Jinx's psyche deteriorating to the sounds of fume coming out of the inventions. Truly a master piece.
God of war Ragnarök,2022 This was my top listened album last year. Every time I listened to the music I think of all the amazing epic moments in the game which wouldn't be the same without the sound design

I have varied liked in all types of medias. I enjoy watching all types of things, but my favorite medium of storytelling is animation. There is just something how animation gives full control and creative freedom over what happens. And though some people see animation as a kid thing, I believe it's very backwards to think of the medium that way. It blocks all the possibilities that it has.

In terms of genre, I like something from every genre but there are some I gravitate more to, compared to others. For example, I'm not the biggest fan of romance, especially if the genre of the media is only romance, but there are some in the romance genre that I will like, for example pride and prejudice. It's just harder for me to like more romance-oriented media. On the other hand, I really like the superhero genre, it's a combination of fantasy, science fiction and action but it's a genre that is known for being more bad than good. The genre is known for its complicated storylines that are mostly dumb, overhyped blockbuster movies made to create money but it's something so endearing about the creative bankruptcy of the industry. Endearing in the way of ill find out everything about it and I'll make a PowerPoint presentation about it.

I like things that I can talk about, that I can say specifically why I love, or I hate it. So, I really dislike things that are boring and so I want to create films that I would enjoy. That are stylized, that have interesting things to talk about.