PROJECT INSPIRATION

 INSPIRING STAR

In this post I'll be discussing some of our inspirations for the film, coming from both specific movies and just genre conventions we wanted to grab from.

I, TONYA dir. CRAIG GILLESPIE

To be quite honest with you, I've never seen the movie I, Tonya, but this scene got a lot of attention, and therefore I saw it. With my brief knowledge of Tonya Harding's life, my understanding is that she is preparing for a figure skating competition, but something else is on her mind that is plaguing her emotions as she tries to get ready, and so she tries desperately not to cry.

We do something similar in our film: Juliet preparing for her big rockstar debut, but her emotions run wild and she's left to pick up the pieces and become presentable all on her own. This is more of a convention for drama films I feel, but there is definite overlapping in all genres and it does not become exclusive to drama. I think a scene like this really serves the purpose of background into the mental state of a character as pop culture has come to understand it.

SIXTEEN WISHES dir. PETER DeLUISE

This is the classic waking up scene from a coming of age movie. Sarah was the one who brought this film specifically up for reference when she was trying to explain how she wanted the getting ready scene in Star to go. Obviously the camerawork here is very fancy, but the vibe of the clip with its pop song and teenage girl protagonist are what we hoped to focus on.

For our film, we go a little further than just rising from bed, and focus more on the actions of our protagonist rather than the items around her bedroom (though I do think that is a good way to get a sense of the character). We really were just aiming for the coming of age feeling that radiates from the Sixteen Wishes opening scene. Our song is a little less pop and a little more rock, but we all have to make creative choices to fit our film, this one being appropriate for us since our main character is moving towards rockstardom.

MOVIE FAMILIES ALWAYS SKIP BREAKFAST - COLLEGEHUMOR

As for this skit, it's less of a specific incident and more of a commonly portrayed moment in family-centric films (namely coming of age movies). I can't name any movies off the top of my head, but you and I both know that it's true. There will be a full seven course meal in front of a character and they will take a single bite, say they are going to be late, and leave. It's absolutely crazy! We as a group thought this was a really funny occurrence in film, and therefore decided to recreate it.

Here we see Juliet placing her fork down, preparing to announce that she is done eating breakfast. The funny part, though, is that she has only eaten a blueberry from this large arrangement of food that her mother prepared for her. It's quite similar to what the skit above dramatizes for comedic purposes. For the film, it's more funny as an inside joke of sorts, and just serves as adding to the genre convention for those outside of our inner loop.