Highway to Hell (but in this case hell is a town about an hour out of Orlando, Florida)

Plot

Road trip. Finally have time to write. 

The overall premise of my film, now titled either Opal or Lapidary, is about Opal, a genderfluid person, and how their relationship with their family is affected by their queerness. It is told in two time periods, Incandescent and Iridescent. Incandescent takes place in their late -teens, early twenties, and focuses on the mental and emotional struggles they encounter living with their family. At that point in the story, the character would instead be named Sam and go by he/him. Iridescent lasts throughout their adult life, telling the story of their attempts to re-connect with their family and the aftermath. 

Many elements of the plot are inspired by events of my own life, surprise surprise, so you could say it’s a story I’m rather passionate about telling. But for the sake of the film opening, that’s as much of an overall plot as I need developed. Also, pictured above is a screenshot of the notes I've jotted down that I don't want to forget; most of it is incomprehensible to another human being, but just for reference this is an idea I'd like to develop going into university.

Identifying Genre

I was initially planning for the first minute, minute-thirty to be in Iridescent; it was going to be Opal at a train station, getting ready to visit their parents after a few years of no contact. I wanted to open on Opal, extremely close to a bathroom mirror, picking something out of their teeth. I wanted to establish them as weird and eclectic, to show this was a person who embraces the strange part of themself. After they sit down to wait for the train, I would show the title and cut to Incandescent, where Sam lays in bed staring up at nothing, the colors much more muted, as some kind of audio plays off-screen.

I didn’t think it was the strongest opening, but I didn’t exactly see what else I could do with it. So I started looking elsewhere, towards genre.

There are many genres that would fit the topics I would want to explore in a feature-length version of this story, such as romance, coming-of-age, and experimental, but the main ones would be queer and drama.

The two most notable films I know of in those categories are Brokeback Mountain and Moonlight. Of the two, Moonlight seems to be a better source of inspiration for my opening, but that will be explored on a much deeper level in Sunday’s post.

Growing up during this era of Hollywood, I actually see a lot of queer representation (both good and bad), and I’ve noticed that many successful films of the genre use the queer experience to explore an environment. In the coming-of-age film Love, Simon, it’s used to explore high school social dynamics, though I feel the need to point out the level of privilege Simon has in that film. Brokeback Mountain and Moonlight also explore how being gay affects the social environment characters live in, the former being two older men in redneck Wyoming, and the latter being a young Black boy growing up in the hood in Miami.

It seems like such an obvious thing to point out, but keep in mind I’ve been struggling to figure out ways to create engagement in this opening. Now that I realize how important highlighting the character’s social environment is, in Opal’s case their home life, I can develop a more specific depiction of that and hint towards it in those two minutes. 

In terms of marketing, I know from just interacting with queer media that many queer films nowadays are advertised heavily towards teenagers and young adults, but I want to make something that will appeal to a different audience. Since this idea stems from my own life, I want to make something that my family would watch.

This means I have to appeal to a wider audience. I think using color as an intentional means of artistic expression will translate fine across different age groups; most films do so without viewers noticing. However, I do feel as though I should be less “flamboyant” with the queer aspects of it. As much as I hate saying that, I’ve noticed that many people older than my age group find the highly expressive nature of some queer people today to be uncomfortable. If I want to make something that will appeal to a wider audience, I need to make sure that viewers of all generations see Opal as a person, not as a caricature.

Because of that, making the piece a drama, as opposed to a comedy, would help exponentially with making a character that people can connect with on a serious, emotional level. I think I'm better at making comedy films than dramatic, but seeing as I only have two minutes to establish genre, drama's also the more viable route.

Conclusion

My last topic for this post; my concept for a poster. I really like how Moonlight, a movie told in three parts, has a poster that combines all three faces of Chiron into one. I want to divide the poster in half, one representing Incandescent and the other Iridescent. The representation would be done through color, age, and clothing. The left half will be much warmer in hue and show a younger, less stylized Sam. The right will be very colorful, showing an older Opal with makeup, more accessories and more stylish clothes, etc. I want to make it abundantly clear that this sample image is a very rough draft.