Needless to say, I'm a little terrified; but I'm excited, too.
When I first elected to take Media Studies, it was under the influence of my friend and mentor Sabrina. I have looked up to her since we first met. (Which is ironic, since she's 4'9" and the shortest person I know.) When she first convinced me that this class would be a good fit, she told me that she had faith that I would love creating my portfolio project. Now, as February trickles by and April looms, I, too, have faith that I will.
In honor of Sabrina, my two-minute film opening is (tentatively) an exploration of the modern teenage queer experience. When I met Sabrina, I was going through one of the hardest times of my life; with the world of film and media that I now find myself following her footsteps in, the story that I want to tell is at my fingertips, and it looks somewhat like my own.
This week, I'm planning to do research into the coming-of-age and teen drama genres. Films I plan to watch are The Half of It (2020), and Ladybird (2017), both coming-of-age films that deal with topics of romance, sex, friendship, and connection. I'll write up my analyses and what I glean from them.
I also want to do research on statistics of Asian-American representation in LGBTQ+ issues in film, as well as female and female-presenting leads versus male and male-presenting leads; more on that in a separate post about representation.
In the coming weeks, I also want to conduct interviews of local LGBTQ+ youth and their stories, specifically any stories about housing insecurity or a lack of parental acceptance. My personal experiences will inform the script and storyboard as much as any other; but as my representation research has only confirmed, stories about queer teenagers are not as common. So, I aim to consolidate those portions of my experience that others can find meaning in.
On a lighter note, I'm really looking forward to developing a main character idea, script, storyboard, and especially the mise-en-scene elements of this film. I personally know so many queer people with wonderfully memorable aesthetics, and wonderfully memorable personalities; and I'm excited for this main character (post coming soon) to take shape fully in my head. And as soon as I know, you will too.
Yours always,
Clover (Fields)
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