Interviewer: Thank you for coming in!
Me: Thank you for having me.
Interviewer: So, why don’t you tell us a little about False Indignation? What conventions did you want to challenge and what social issues did you want to tackle?
Me: Well, my film is a coming of age movie, depicting the topic of toxic friendship in high school. From my research, according to The Princeton Buffer, I found that coming of age movies are directed toward all genders, typically from ages 12-18, falling in the current Gen Z age range. The most important characteristic of this genre is personal growth and change, which relies on dialogue and emotional responses, rather than action. I chose to stick with this convention, which is why my opening is an emotional exchange between my two main characters. Their most negative traits (Ethan not sticking up for himself and Celia being a bully) are clearly on display from the beginning, as portrayed via body language and dialogue. This was to set up for their journey of betterment that lasts throughout the film. Actually, even before I started the planning for this film, I knew I wanted to portray a toxic friendship instead of a toxic relationship, as this topic of conversation is often overlooked in favor of romance. I also knew that I wanted the two characters to be of opposite genders, with the girl actually being the aggressor in the situation. In many, many coming of age films, the main characters are usually romantic interests if they are of opposite genders. In my experience, especially in the newer generation of Gen Z, friendships are much more intermixed, and I wanted for these younger teens to be able to relate. Challenging gender roles by swapping expected personalities for the characters is something I wanted to achieve as well. Additionally, my characters are both minorities, with Celia being Latina, and Ethan being African American, Indigenous, and Hispanic. Oftentimes, especially in coming of age movies, these groups of individuals are overlooked or made to fit stereotypical ideologies, and I wanted to make a film that veered from that.
Interviewer: Hm, you said that your target audience is younger teens. How did you ensure that your film would reach them, and that they would enjoy it?
Me: Well, the target audience of my film is Gen Z, specifically teenagers of all genders that struggle with mental health issues. According to APA.org, more than 9 in 10 Gen Z adults (91 percent) said they have experienced at least one physical or emotional symptom because of stress, such as feeling depressed or sad or lacking interest, motivation or energy. In one study, Gen Z was 1.4 to 2.3 times more likely to report that they had been diagnosed with a mental-health condition than both Gen Xers and baby boomers.You see, Ethan is a character that struggles with the stress of social anxiety, depression, and bullying. He tends to just take abuse, even from people close to him. I knew that he would be a very relatable character to many Gen Z; someone that is shy and likes to play computer games by himself. He is awkward and, honestly, a total loser - and that’s okay! I wanted the younger generation, especially those that deal with similar issues, to learn throughout the movie that they can be much happier if they learn to value themselves, and that being a loser is a rite of passage into adulthood. Oh, sorry, I got really distracted; I am passionate about this subject.
Interviewer: It’s okay, this is an interview after all.
Me: Haha, thank you. Anyway, in terms of keeping my audience engaged, I know that Gen Z struggles a Lot with focusing. All of our attention spans are like, literally nonexistent, and unless things are filled with drama and are visually appealing, Gen Z loses interest very fast. Because of this, I decided to play a lot with the color of my film, using different blue and red filters to signify the mood of a scene. I also used a lot of quick paced shots, especially during the intro of the film, and included shaky camera work during tense moments and high/low angle over the shoulder shots to display the power dynamic in an interesting way. Also, there’s a lot of swearing, which Gen Z loves haha. Oh, there’s also not that much camera movement because I felt that if the audience was tense and uncomfortable, they would be more invested. In terms of actually getting the product to my target audience, I plan to submit my work to a number of amatuer film festivals in South Florida, including ones like SSOF and the Wellington Film Festival, since this is my first film after all. I have also uploaded my film onto Youtube and Vimeo, as these are free websites used by my target audience.
Interviewer: Well…thank you for answering that so extensively. You said this is your first film. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
Me: Oh my God, this was literally the hardest project I’ve ever done. I could cry just remembering the struggle of trying to come up with a good idea that I could fit into 2 minutes. You see, I’m a writer, so I kept trying to cram entire stories into what little plot an opening has. I also have no experience with editing or film at all. Honestly, I find it quite difficult to sit through entire movies without getting distracted. It annoys my family to heck and back. Fun fact, I only took my media studies class because someone told me we would be working with books and literature. I can’t remember who told me that, but I’m going to find them and send them my therapy bill. I loved this project, but it was so freaking stressful. At first, actually, I wanted to make my film about something else entirely, and the current idea was more or less a frantic last minute change that I made when someone in my class gave me the suggestion to change Celia finding poetry to Celia finding a suicide note. Since I literally had no idea what I was doing, I made sure that my first steps were research and planning. I got a bit distracted and researched a lot about color and building good characters, but when it came to actual research on shot types and camera movement, I mainly just used my media studies class notes. I am really happy with my progress though, personally, as now I have a newfound interest in movies and creating film. I also can finally relate to my friends, who are all really into this sort of stuff.
Interviewer: Wow.
Me: I know.
Interviewer: I wonder: if you didn't have any familiarity with the film experience, how did you integrate technologies – such as software, hardware, and online – in this project?
Me: Okay, well, lucky for me I had a basic understanding of how film worked, mostly from scraping together my other skills. I talked a bit about this in my blog, but I knew some skills in editing and writing that I used to build upon to complete this project. Like every single teenager, I knew how to use a laptop and type, so blog posts were the obvious option in terms of keeping track of my progress. I also have a folder on my desktop that I used to organize all of my documents and photos for this project. I relied heavily on Google Docs and editing apps like Over during my project as well. Oh, and I can’t forget the Internet, because without that I definitely would’ve failed this project; I mean, I did all of my research on there. My hardware wasn’t anything crazy, I just filmed on my phone, used my phone’s mic, and edited on my laptop. I made sure to go out and get a tripod, though, because I didn’t want my shots to be shaky. For my lighting, I originally had a color changing light bulb, but it made the film too dark, so I just edited the lighting in post production, which I had to teach myself, thank you very much. Luckily, my decent knowledge of editing on IMovie helped me to understand the basics of Premiere Pro, and thank God that I got it free from the school. This one is gonna sound weird but, honestly, the notes app was a life saver; I organized all of my blog posts on there. The only obstacles that I really ran into, surprisingly, was that rendering took like 50 years, and uploading took even longer. I wish someone had told me that before I sat there and waited like a fool, because-
Interviewer: Sadly, our time is up. And we only got through four questions.
Me: Haha, yeah…sorry.
Interviewer: No, no, it’s okay. Are there any final thoughts you want to share?
Me: Yes, actually. I am so grateful to have learned so much from this project, mainly that things in my head never are going to come out the same way in real life. Truly humbling. If I were to redo this project, I would probably include more mid shots and less long shots, and I would maybe choose an easier topic to tackle than teenage mental health. Regardless, I’m proud of what I created, and I would like to give a special thanks to my actors, Santi and Nat, for helping me every step of the way.
Interviewer: Oh my God, please just stop talking already!
https://princetonbuffer.princeton.edu/2014/06/12/the-coming-of-age-of-coming-of-age-films/
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/01/gen-z#:~:text=More%20than%20nine%20in%2010,enough%20to%20manage%20their%20stress.
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/addressing-the-unprecedented-behavioral-health-challenges-facing-generation-z
https://www.pbfilm.com/film-festival-in-palm-beach-county
https://www.incredibleart.org/lessons/middle/color2.htm
https://media.codes/colour-symbolic-code-c1af9a09fde8
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/coming-of-age-movies#a-brief-history-of-comingofage-movies
https://study.com/academy/lesson/coming-of-age-novel-definition-examples-quiz.html
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/05/14/on-the-cusp-of-adulthood-and-facing-an-uncertain-future-what-we-know-about-gen-z-so-far-2/
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