Starting Over

So scratch 90% of what my blog has been about these past few weeks. We’ve been planning to have our “frozen in time” story developed in order to start our filming this Saturday, but sadly all of those ideas had to be disregarded just as we were about to finish our script. Our teacher has been meeting with all of our classmates individually to discuss our projects last week, but we were just informed yesterday that we had to change our whole story. Our film had too much of a Black Mirror vibe (which I understand) so we had to change the context of our story as a whole, not just the ending. With only three more weeks to go, we have to make up for all of the lost time we’ve devoted to an idea isn’t feasible. I’m aware that these changes are essential to develop a better story, I just wished we would’ve been informed sooner rather than have kept waisting our time.

Nonetheless, Paloma and Sofi came up with a new idea that I’m already on board with. Sofi was able to get in touch with 20 year old actors that will be able to play the parts of Simon and Penelope. The plan is to finish our script by the end of this week, and then pick up any missing pieces of information we need. This is our new idea:

We start off by introducing a married couple in their twenties that are currently away at a couple’s counseling. They’ve shown no progress over the past few weeks, so their psychologist chooses to try an unconventional approach that involves using a simulator to go back in time to whatever moment they please. The couple agrees that they wish to go back to their first fight (where all problems originated), so they are hooked to machine and we see the clock rewind.

It’s late at night a few years prior, Simon and Penelope are arguing about the events that unfolded at a previous Gala that they had just attended. Simon had accepted a job to move from Florida to Oregon, which Penelope found out about from one of his co-workers that night. Immediately they start arguing over Penelope’s desire to control every situation, while Simon stubbornly makes impulsive decisions without her. Through their fight, the audience understands that neither of them had ever discussed what the other one hoped to obtain in their lives, and since then, all of their marriage has been a rough patch. Penelope storms out that night, and Simon spends the night alone in his room. 

The next morning, a montage of bad memories convinces him to go look after Penelope, so Simon goes to the only place he thinks he can find her- the coffee shop where they first met. Penelope is sitting outside and they finally have a discussion about where their marriage is heading. Eventually, they realized that they got married too quickly, and the feelings they thought were “love” weren’t really there. Both of them accept they are completely different people since they got married, and find it best to part ways. The simulation ends the second they hug and we close the scene when their psychologist asks them “How’d it go?”

I’ll meet up in class to discuss how we want to go about with this idea, hopefully we’ll get our ducks in a row on time.