Film Progress for the month of May!

Since my last update.I have developed a complete story!

    The film will take place in 1954 at a little school in Maryland when a previously segregated white elementary school must now enroll black students. Enter Debra, a quiet and hopeful black student. On her first day she is bombarded by angry parents, students, and teachers. In the hallways, she is confronted by a bully who causes her to trip over herself, spilling all of her papers and books on the floor. The bully leaves laughing at Debra. Sad, Debra begins to pick up her stuff when Lewis appears and helps her gather her materials. They smile at each other giving Debra hope that  perhaps Lewis is not as cruel as everyone else and will be he friend. They seperate and go to class. Debra is feeling sad, when Lewis sits next to her in class. They have a jovial conversation, when the Bully returns but this time with a group of classmates. The group scolds Lewis for sitting next to Debra and sneer at Debra for attempting to make a friend. The bullies then force Lewis to follow them and he is taken away. Debra is now in complete depression. when she looks down at her desk she see that Lewis has left a book on her desk with a flyer in the pages for a school dance later that night. She takes this to be a sign that perhap Lewis met to ask her to the dance and wants to be her boyfriend. It is with that hope that she goes to the dance. But at the dance she is a wall flower. No one wants to dance with her or even sit by her. Solemly she looks out onto the dance floor and spots Lewis dancing with the bully that was so mean to her earlier in the day. Debra closes her eyes, sighs, and realizes they were never friends. Once she reopens her eyes she see a hand extended out towards her she looks up and see that it's  Lewis asking her to dance. Happliy she takes his hand and rushes to the dance floor. Everyone in the gym is shocked to see this happening. They dance a lovely ballroom dance when Lewis faces Debra and motions to give her a kiss. Debra does the same when all of a sudden, Lewis begins to fade and Debra realizes that it was all a fantasy. She is still sitting, alone with no one next to her, no one wanting to dance with her, and no one to be her friend.

Emotional?! Yes.

 I worked on the storyboards  and timed the animatic to the song Silly, by Deniece Williams. I love that song. It's what inspired me to created this film.  When I showed the animatic to Aubry, during the many one-on-one sessions, he liked it but said I could not use the song due to copyright laws. He suggested either getting permission to use the song or use the orchestra on campus to produce a score that fit the mood of the film. He also commented that the Silly was to light of a song for this film. "Ok" I said, but in my mind, so many questions about what to do for either musical process came to mind.

With the mind set of creating a score for my film I talked to an alumni who previous had a score for his student film. He suggest that I find a song that fits the mood of the story perfectly and time the animatic to that song so when I show it to the composer they have a beat structure to work with. So, to get a better grasp on the film I changed the song/timing to go with Etta James, Fool That I Am.

Once again I presented the revised animatic to Aubry. He loved the new song. It really does fit better with the tone, mood of the film. BUT he critqued that with the new song the film had unresolved character probelms. For example "Why is the BULLY the only person with a problem with Debra?" "What happens to Debra and the BULLY? Do they have a showdown afterwards?" To resolve this he advised me to take out the bully and replace that idea with a telling story that the school is her conflcit and Lewis is taken away by a more attrative girl who just gives a look to Lewis saying "you should NOT be with her" I sighed a little inside. Gah, a large modification to the story, but hey, I did it. Even though I felt the bully was stronger.

Tuesday, I met with my special studies class for the final time and debut my revised animatic.Hands down my classmates and Aubry love the revised animatic. Some classmates felt so bad for Debra that they urged for some happy ending for her where as others were satisfied with the ending because that was the sitauation at the time(1950's racism, etc). Aubry even commented that I should get permission to used this song (which he doesn't say often) because it fit so well with this film. I was thrilled! At my classmate reaction and at Aubry approval.

Next step: Manage to get permission to use the song, finalized character designs, begin working on layout, and create a visual development board for Final Week. I'm really loving this process.