At the very beginning of this project, I had but two ideas. Cats and disorders. My two absolute favorite things to research. All I needed was a way to combine them, which, honestly wasn’t that hard. Sensory issues, repetitive self soothing behavior, trouble with socializing with people, problems with being misunderstood, issues with broken scheduling, all of these can technically be classified as common autistic behavior, as well as the behavior of your typical house cat. Now, I find much pride in seeing myself in my furry friends, but lots of other people with ASD struggle with feeling inhuman, feeling that they are less than everyone else around them. I wanted to make a story about that.
Looking into it, for years people have classified neurodivergence as “inhuman” behavior, too the point where mothers would literally burn their children alive for the purpose of eliminating the fae that apparently stole their perfectly neurotypical child away from them. While this practice is now rightfully extremely frowned upon by society, neurodivergent people still struggle with feeling as if they can’t fit in, since they are still often met with backlash for things out of their control. Im only one person, and the autistic experience is very different from person to person. ASD is full of extremes, which is why it is a spectrum disorder. A spectrum disorder doesn’t mean “everyone has a little bit of autism,” it means that the person who hasn’t been able to look into your eyes once, and the person who hasn’t broke eye contact in the past 15 minutes are both displaying autistic behavior. Yes, this is an oversimplification, but the idea is there. Im only one person, and can’t speak for everyones experience, which is why very early on I created a survey for my autistic friends, who also just so happen to double as my target audience of neurodivergent teenagers, to explain how symptoms work for them. Using these results, I created Kylie and Charlotte.
Kylie is our character with the identity issue, feeling like she needs to conform to whatever her friends are doing until she snaps, because she can’t stand the idea that she’ll be rejected for being herself. Her cat Oreo, is used as symbolism for her identity problem. She sees herself in her cat’s behavior, and she both finds comfort in it, as well as despises. She doesn’t want to relate to a cat more than her actual human friends, but its all she has at the beginning. Its shown in the film when as the intro, she talks to Oreo in her head while petting her as a source of comfort, yet at the end, before she explains her feelings to Charlotte, she stares at her cat with an unreadable expression, struggling with her sense of identity, that the being that brings her comfort, also represents whats wrong with her.
Charlotte was made as a friend purely to foil her. While Kylie overanalyzes everything she said, Charlotte just lets her mouth roll, Kylie thinks more emotionally, Charlotte thinks more matter-of-factly, Kylie has a harder time expressing herself through facial expressions and body language, Charlotte talks with her hands and makes a face for every statement, and so on. I did this to both show how different opposite ends of the spectrum can be, but also to give Kylie a friend who is unapologetically herself. Someone she can manage to unmask a little around.
Kylie-Cat, the title of my film, was also chosen with target audience input, as well as the path my film went, and the first announcement image. Getting input from your target audience is very important, as they will be the ones watching your film, so you need to make sure you give something they’ll enjoy. Another way people could insert their own input was through the Fluffles Productions Instagram page, an Instagram page centered around my production studio that I used both last year and this year.
People were able to comment on it and share what they were excited about, providing me with ideas on what to continue with.
A logo for the production company itself was redesigned from last year’s original one, and was then used in all aspects of my project. From minor tasks in social media profile pictures and being featured on promotional material posts and the post card, to being in my final project. Ten posts were made in total on the Instagram, from announcements, to interviews with people who worked on the production. In order to make my Instagram’s branding professional, I did research on what big film companies, manly Disney, were doing for their own films. I got information on how to structure announcement images, how to keep interviews inserting, that behind the scenes content was relatively liked and more. This research also helped me better brand my products, as I learned how to make eye-catching fonts for my film title graphic, which I could then use constantly in my promotional material, post card, and even my final film.
Speaking about my post card, I did research into both the conventions/requirements of a general post card, as well as what exactly post cards are used for at film festivals. I even went into film festival research to figure out what exactly they do there, as well as what information is necessary to properly build my brand on it, since they are typically used in the film industry to get your name and production company out there, as well as make some connections.
Some of my planning
Awards were made up in order to build ethos for my movie, showcasing that it was good enough to win in categories, and persuading people at the film festival to go give it a watch. The contact information of my two Fluffles Productions social medias were displayed, as well as the Fluffles Productions business email. That Youtube I created was another way audiences could interact through comments and likes, just like the Instagram page. Unlike the Instagram, it also held my project from last year, creating further branding but connecting it to other content under the same company.
Kylie-Cat ended up being in the drama genre of films. Dramas in film are centered on realistic people dealing with realistic problems. This is in line with my story, as all prominent characters are simply teenage girls, and Kylie is dealing with a very realistic, and honestly common, problem with her self worth and sense of identity. Dramas also focus on showing off characters in both their highest, and lowest moments, which is where the ending scene comes in, in which Kylie is able to properly express to Charlotte her issues, and is able to feel a bit more fulfilled in the end. In the survey, I found that most people had one sensory issue they just could not stand. I decided to give the girls a main sensory issue of their own. Kylie can’t stand noise, and Charlotte can’t stand touch. Yet at the end, Kylie is just fine with Charlotte’s overall loud demeanor, and Charlotte can grab her friend’s hand to help cheer her up. Sensory issues don’t exactly just disappear when in a more comfortable environment, but they can be easier to manage, especially when it counts for someone you really care about. In the end, maybe that’s all that matters. Being yourself, and caring for those you love.
Comments
Post a Comment