Developing Carlos

    When trying to come with a name for a character that not only fit the actor that will be playing our character but also fell in line with what we wanted it was definitely a struggle. Since I will be portraying our character in the opening and I come from Mexican heritage it helped to narrow down the choices to mostly Hispanic names. At first I went through my contacts and talked to the mostly Hispanic student body at my school to try to find common names but was not happy with the most common before coming to the realization that I could just use the original name  my parents planned to give me, being Carlos. I also found this to be somewhat fitting for my character as being named Carlos is such a simple decision could've happened to me in a very not so distant timeline just as any person including me could go through the same hardships as our character through spur of the moment actions or decisions.

(Donnie Darko 2001)

    After giving Carlos a name and a face I wanted to add more to his character than just what the story would tell us about him. One element I want to show about Carlos is that even though he may be going through a rough spot in his life that he like most people in similar situations have support systems by showing picture strips of him and his friends or adding unanswered texts from friends on his phone. I also want to show that while our character is doing bad things or committing big mistakes that he's not a bad person rather a misguided one. I can make this evident by showing flashbacks or showing pictures of friends and family with the character being happy before his eventual spiral into depression and problems.

Ideas and Inspiration

    This blog is going to delve into the final idea that me and my partner have developed for our film opening and some major inspirations that contributed to our ideas. The idea that my partner and I have come up with is an opening that will focus on a teenager that has been struggling with mental health and life at home deciding to a "escape" from his problems and sneak out from home in the middle of the night and only bring what they need leaving everything else behind. The message that we wanna portray to the audience is that even though the character is going through a rough patch in his life and everything is looking down for him the answer to fixing problems isn't just abandoning your problems and rather fixing them at the root to truly find closure and grow as a person. We also felt it was appropriate to make our project based on experiences and feelings that our group and many teens are all too familiar with as not only can we provide a deeper understanding to our characters actions, but there's also a connection that many audience members can feel.

  The other significant source of inspiration to our project is the other coming of age movies that dwell on the inner battle teenagers face and the way this inner conflict contributes to their development. Most of these movies feature characters who have to grapple with a sense of isolation, disorientation, or stress in the surrounding world which is what we were hoping to capture in our story. Through these types of films we intend on inspiring to create an opening that does not only establish the character and his state but also the emotional quality of the rest of the story and give the viewer a clue as to why the character feels he even needs to get away in the first place.

Media Theory

    For my project I want to try to incorporate some theories that have already been established in the media sphere to try to give it more established concepts. One I think can definitely fit into my story as well as relate to my character is the cultivation theory from George Gerbner and how it relates to the development of common views to my advantage. The theory states that widespread views and public opinions are developed in the minds of people when exposure to media is repeated over longer periods of time. A common example that derives from this theory is the development of stereotypes or certain behaviors of different character races, genders, or cultures when specifics tropes are repeated by characters that represent these groups.

    While this building of stereotypes can create stigma and occasionally build negative views over certain groups of individuals I plan  to use already existing tropes and stereotypes to build and show the audience the character of my protagonist without using dialogue. In my project my protagonist is a troubled teenager that is struggling with both physical and mental problems causing them to leave home, as it is the source of their trouble so I can use many aspects to show the audience this without having my character speak at an inappropriate time. One element I can employ is the use of mise-en-scene by using all black colors and rugged or alternate style of clothing to dress my character as it has become a common trope to have more disturbed or depressed characters wear this in media. Additionally I could use elements of sound like emo or gothic music playing from headphones to again play on the stereotype commonly seen by these characters listening to this type of music.