Working on Story Concepts

For our thesis project, my group is working on three separate story concepts. At first, we switched groups every week to work with different classmates on different stories, so each idea would go through a variety of people and perspectives before we got into our final groups. My group is working on what we're calling (as shorthand for each concept) "Mothman Origins," "Alien Cafe," and "Fighter Kites."

In Mothman Origins, a portrait artist moves into an old, secluded house in the woods to work on his master piece, a self portrait. When he gets there, he finds the house is infested with moths. Eventually, after some hesitation, he gets so fed up he kills one of the moths. After that, the moths suddenly disperse, leaving the artist completely alone. As time passes and he works on his portrait, he begins to change, and the portrait he's working on reflects that until, on the night of the full moon, he finished the portrait. When it is revealed to the camera, it is a portrait of a moth. He runs out into the forest around the house, as if he is following the moonlight, and stops as he reaches a cliff. Then, he begins to transform into a moth. However, as he takes a step, it is revealed to the audience that he is still just a man, and he plummets off the cliff.

In Alien Café, a Deaf person orders themself some coffee, but is overwhelmed by the sensory overload of the busy café they are in, and retreats to the bathroom to recover. Once they step out, however, they discover that they are in an almost liminal space, a maze of hallways that is definitely not the café they were just in. After a bit of exploration, they feel the deep vibrations of something large coming up quickly behind them. They turn and see a monster chasing them, so they start running. Eventually, they come across a door very similar to the café they just left, so they run through it. Once through, though, they discover that the café is only similar in appearance, and is actually filled with strange alien beings. Suddenly, the thing that was chasing him bursts through the door, chest heaving. It hands him his coffee, and heads off.

In Fighter Kites a young boy builds a kite, then goes out to kite fight with his friends. As he's leaving, he sees his parents arguing about something, but he pays no mind to it. He still runs off to play with his friends. However, as the sunlight is dimming, he and his friends hear something overhead, and see the shadows of two jets flying past them. He realizes something is very wrong and he rushes back home, but none of the adults he tries to talk to will listen. So he formulates a plan himself, and rallies all the kids in his village. Together, they use their kites to confuse and ward off the jets, saving their village.

All three stories undoubtedly need a lot of work to get to a place where they can be used for our thesis short films. However, I disagree with many of my group members about exactly how they need work. I've always had some hesitation surrounding the Mothman story, as it falls too much into the "character was just crazy the whole time" trope, which perpetuates a lot of negative stigma surrounding mental health conditions. I don't understand why he can't be so obsessed with his art that he actually turns into a moth, or even a swarm of moths that then cycle to the next inhabitants of the house and start the cycle over again. The element of obsession/perfectionism to a fault is still there, but without the "and then he was crazy" element.

Alien Café is in a similar situation. My professor mentioned that we need a north star for this story, and that it seemed like we were struggling with it. In my opinion, the north star of the story is the bit. It wasn't created with any moral message, and the Deaf character simply enhances the horror element (and in turn makes the comedy at the end more of a relief) that I suggested because I was thinking about how terrifying that situation would be for me, as I also have hearing loss. Some of my group members, however, want the story to have a moral message, but those discussions about how we could accomplish that all seem to turn the message into "if you are different, you belong somewhere else" rather than anything about learning to fit in, or finding people who accept you.

That said, as this is a group effort, the majority of people disagree with me, and so we are going to proceed with some ideas that I believe make the Mothman and Alien Cafe stories quite problematic. I think this is one of the things I struggle with the most in group settings, is both making my opinion heard in an assertive and coherent way, and also navigating what to do when that opinion is disagreed with and discarded. It certainly sours my opinion for the stories, which is really disappointing, because I want to love the things I'm working on.

I am still working on how to deal with these things, and I'm not sure there will be any perfect solution, as every situation in which something like this comes up, you have to deal with it in a different way. However, I always try to give other people's ideas a fair chance before I say anything else, as my perspective is definitely not the only perspective, and everyone's ideas deserve to be heard and weighed with as little bias as possible.