Build a film genre study

 Genre: Drama

Subgenre: Romance (?)/ coming-of-age

• The film follows a sophomore in high school as they struggle with adapting to school and dealing with the weight of questioning their sexuality. Because they are questioning, they feel isolated— especially because they wonder if they might be asexual. It mirrors some retellings of Dionysus where it is implied that he is apathetic towards any attraction towards him.

Components

Setting/ period:

• The setting is mostly in a modern day school but would feature regular hang out places (coffee shop, book store, etc.)

• I do not want to bring too much attention to anything that might date the film in only a few years, so for the setting I am going to be trying to avoid things that could be considered fast fashion or microtrends.

Characters:

• Main character and supposed love interest will be of main interest, but the main character’s best friend and other supplementary characters will feature

• The supposed love interest will show limited (but growing) interest in the main character, who struggles to understand why their best friend is so insistent on the two doing what they perceive as odd encounters seeing as the two don’t know each other well. The two slowly become friends and the main character will end up confiding in the supposed love interest about their thought process.

Representative content/ subject:

• “Searching for love” and finding a more unconventional love, as well as being comfortable in one’s identity

• As the main character and the supposed love interest grow closer, the two start to feel more connected, but as the main character confides more and more in the supposed love interest, the two find that their definition of love is not romantic

• The theme of continuing to figure out who you are and exploring one’s identity also plays a big part, as the main character will show their struggles with their identity and feeling isolated because of it.

Filming techniques and format:

• POV shots, mid shots, close ups, high key lighting with low key lighting for emotional contrast. Most of the shots including the main character be solo shots to draw focus to the isolation the main character feels as they are not apart of the group shots

• Stationary filming, simple makeup, and an autumnal color scheme (browns, dark reds, pale orange, pale yellow, etc.)

• Color scheme will impact wardrobe and props

• Most of the shots will be fairly long, tracking, or still shots. Otherwise, jump shots will be used to transition between scenes

Music and audio:

• I want to source music from queer artists or music that queer people have historically identified with. Music will play a big part in my film, as it will bridge the gap between the main character and the supposed love interest

• Otherwise, the background music will be fairly lighthearted. Some more emotional music will play in the background as the main character confides in the supposed love interest, but otherwise the music choice will most likely be outsourced and diegetic.