The now-named main character of the as-yet-untitled project- or, meet Charlie

 

Friends, Readers, here it is: the premise.

What a tentative thing a premise is. What a canvas of possibility. I'm a little giddy from the idea having popped into my head. In the next week, I'll take you on the journey of storyboarding (on paper) and scripting (in Celtx) this premise. But, without further ado:

My main character's name is Charlie. This name means a lot to me: it's short for Charlotte and Charles, and its gender-neutrality is important to perhaps the central conflict of the film: Charlie is in love with their best friend, Christine. Charlie also does not have anywhere else to live except her spare room. The tension between Charlie's gender identity, and Christine's religious parents, is one of the limiting factors preventing Charlie from confessing their feelings to Christine.

I think this has plenty of the hallmarks of a dramatic teen movie. 

Again, I'll elaborate more upon this when I post about the storyboarding and scripting process, but the idea that popped into my head was this: a car with Charlie in the backseat, a hopeful quiet stilted conversation with Christine and her parents, an entryway and a bag, stairs, and finally- Charlie, alone, in a room that is not theirs but maybe could be. Then, the title. (Which is still yet to formulate in the noggin.)

This specific experience is, I admit, drawn from my own. Charlie is also a bit of a self-insert- I am, again, drawing from my own experiences. But in a way, I think Charlie should be a bit more distinct. I have not casted any actors yet, but I want to consider mostly minority actors for Charlie and mostly white actors for Christine, since a large part of the tension in the story is Christine's fairly generic Americanized upbringing, in contrast with Charlie's childhood and adolescence as a racial minority in addition to being queer. 

Yours always,

Clover Fields