Chris Chan

 

Hey blog
After you read this, you will feel a little weird. If you are over the age of 23, then you probably have never heard of Chritine Weston Chandler, formerly known as Christian Weston Chandler.
Chris Chan is an autistic man that began posting on the internet in the late 90s. 
He would post his character he created "Sonichu", but I will like to focus on his romantic endeavours. 
Having struggled to create relationships in his life, Chris always promoted himself as a single man looking for an available girl. 
Trolls very quickly found him, and now he has become one of the biggest tragedies of the internet. 
The story of Chris Chan is a basis for our character, a man who became so entranced with the internet, that it became the biggest and only part of his life. 
In late 2007, he became internet-famous when images of him at a tabletop gaming store leaked out to the "Something Awful" message boards. Upon discovery, Chris was mocked for his odd fashion sense and odd appearance and images of Chris at the store soon spread to places like 4chan and Encyclopedia Dramatica and in the process, many trolls became exposed to his webcomic for the first time, propelling Chris to stardom. Initial fascination was spurred on by his childlike artwork, his signature homemade Sonichu medallion that he wore in public, and his history of loitering in public places while literally holding up a sign asking women to talk to him. His reaction to the mockery led to a cycle of him revealing more disturbing fcts about himsef and trolls going to greater lenghths to uncover info.  Thus, Chris's life began to spiral out of control with the advent of organized trolling, armchair psychological analysis from bewildered onlookers, and some truly bizarre antics from Chandler that continue to this day.

https://sonichu.com/cwcki/Christian_Weston_Chandler

Let me tell you about Jack Sussman

 Hey blog,

 Let's talk about Jack,

When Martina was filming another media project, she was paired with Jack Sussman. 

Now, I knew him from before, and I had asked him to be in a project of mine, yet I was very hesitant on having theater actors in my films. Jack does musical theater. 

I thought his potrayal of my character would be too dramatized, and he would not know how to adapt to the closeness of camera acting, the nuances in acting. 

However, I was convinced after watching him act in Martina's project that he was perfect for the role. 

Jack is conventionally attractive, as one would say, which I was not planning on having Diego be. However, after thought, I realized it was perfect. Once again, we are juxtaposing everything in this film. A lot of incels I see online, are not ugly, they are just extremely misogynistic, socially awkward, and especially delusional. 

The truth is, once you leave adolescence, looks have a much smaller impact on one's ability to find love. Sure, a one night stand is one thing, but a relationship goes much beyond that, it extends to a point where looks have almost no play. 

So to have a conventionally attractive actor, play an extremely awkward incel is perfect. Someone so unkept and so disconnected from others and himself, that he thinks his problems stem from his looks.

My concerns

 Hey blog, 

Let's talk issues, 

I have yet to write the script for the film, yet I will be meeting on Tuesday with my group after school to solidify a structure and write it through the week. 

Still, I have concerns about the film. 

TIME

This is a slow movie, with character development. I am scared that out 10 minute limit, which is already a huge stretch, will not be fit to portray everything we want to show. 

This brings us to PACE

I have made shorts before, and around 99% of the time, these were fast paced, and the editing style included a lot of montages and jumpcuts, which facilitates our time limits. 

However, I am really passionate about making the pace of this film slow. I think it needs to be slow to truly depict the depressing undertones of the film. I am scared that the long scenes I have planned, will have to be cut, which will compromise the film's contents and pacing. 

Additionally, I am not used to editing slow paced films. I feel like whenever I make something more simple, the film becomes very evidently amateur. White noise is heard. Audio isn't clear. Cuts are weird. It is not my natural pace. It is not the pace I insitncitvely edit in. So this will be a challenge.

To prepare, I am changing my viewings a bit from very campy, fast movies, to more slow paced ones. 

I have been watching more old films, which allow me to see how filmmakers would present information in wide shots, rather than tights, which im more used to, and how these shots come together. 

Additionally, I am thinking highly of chaning the structure of the film. Rather than the story being fully chronological, I think snippets that come together to form a character will make more sense with the time alloted, and will feel more like a short film, rather than an extremely compressed version of a feauture. 

I am very excited for this, I think it could change how I make shorts. 

I watched the short "The Big Shave," one of Martin's Scorsese's first shorts. It is 5 minutes, has no dialogue, takes place all in a bathroom, and has one character. Yet it manages to express a lot in very minimal terms. I think that's my goal with this film, express ideas in simple and minimalistic ways. 

(Minimalism, yuck.)

Genre Conventions.

 Hey blog, 

Let's talk genre, 

For our film, we will be making a dark comedy. This is a genre I have attempted before, yet the result ended up being too abstract and not necessarily an accurate representation of the genre. 

So I am trying it again. Let's do it. 

DARK COMEDY

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-black-comedy-definition/

Dark comedies are comedies that joke on extremely dark, and heavy topics. It makes fun of ordinarily taboo subjects. The goal is to amuse by presenting something shocking and unexpected. Sometimes dark comedy is used for shock value, it can also provoke serious thought and make people discuss topics they wouldn't have otherwise. 

These topics include- 

-Murder, violence, death, corruption, sex, poverty, disease, and racial or sexual stereotypes. 

However, this list extends to whatever the imagination and obscurity can think. At the end of the day, the point is to talk about topics that most films don't. 

Although some of these comedies like to just play on the absurdity of life, others want to provoke deep thought. 

A great example are the films of Quentin Tarantino. Extreme violence is always present in his films, yet the gore is hilarious because of the characters almost bothersome attitude towards it, like when Robert de Niro's character in Jackie Brown nonchalantly shoots Melanie, simply because she was being bothersome. 

Characters- 

https://sites.google.com/education.nsw.gov.au/black-comedy/home/the-lieutenant-of-inishmore/techniques-conventions-and-characters

The characters will be flawed. What's the point otherwise? They lack moral values or have them twisted, and they look at life in terms of adolescent absolutes, with innocence and stupidity.

Characters in these films are commonly charicatures of a stereotype,

Tropes-

-Comic strip violence

-Dialogue that is musical in its delivery

-Dramatic exageration

-farce

-Casualness in violence

-Slapstick

So how will we be adapting these tropes and changing them?

To begin with, the comedy aspect of this film comes from the absurdity of the situation. You will not necessarily laugh, but you might grin at the stupidity of the character and the ridiculousness of the situation.

We do not want to make this mega campy(shocker I know). We want to keep a more realistic, and less formalist style. Very bleak, and not theatrical at all, which is a trope of dark comedy.

This will provide for a more intense juxtaposition. Something as absurd as a teen going famous online for wanting to F@ck a monkey, while everything else is boring and depressing, is funny in itself.

Additionally, it would create an audience connection that other big campy dark comedies, like Nowhere by Greg Araki, lack. Although the film makes excellent points, and takes you through a trip, the characters are hard to relate to since they are so stylized.

Instead, take the film The Banshees of Inishiren. At first sight, you assume this film is serious. Yet, you quickly learn the premise of the movie is absurd and childish, and it creates a beautiful contrast.

The girl

 Hey blog, 

LET'S TALK ABOUT ME!!!

No but seriously. There is a female supporting role in this film- the ex. A character which we will keep nameless, to represent Diego's lack of understanding of women. 

We want the film to begin with a harsh breakup scene. In a public space, Diego and the ex have an intense conversation, that is quiet and reserved. In it, she expresses that although they have only been in two dates, she understands enough about him to know that she hates him. 

It is imperative that in this scene, she wins. I want her to make a point that the reason she is breaking up with him is NOT because of looks, but because of his entitlement and lack of empathy. This is important, because Diego uses his looks as an excuse for how bad he is with women, when in reality he is fairly attractive.

 It is important that the ex wins, because this jumpstarts Diego's disdain for women in general. Although she gives him clear reasons for the breakup, or I guess we can call it "stop seeing each other," Diego feels like she was cruel, and unreasonable. It also sets up greatly who this character is, it immediately tells the audience how this man behaves around women, and how he sees himself. 

I will be playing this character. Not to toot my own horn, but I have acted before, and I love thick dialogue. Additionally, I will be writing the script, so I will understand best how the cadence of the conversation should go. 

I was greatly inspired by the breakup scene in The Social Network. The characters are in a fairly similar situation, and Mark Zuckerberg's ex (see I don't even remember her name) makes very bold statements. 

I also like the look of the scene. It is in a crowded space. When I was recalling the scene, I remembered them being in a much fancier place, which is what I am basing the scene on. Again, I'm playing greatly with juxtaposition. The contrast of having these two young adults in a nice restaurant, while one of them is incredibly childish. 

I also want to represent this with the food they are eating. While the ex is eating a proper adult meal, Diego has chicken nuggets, the classic dish all children order at fancy restaurants. 

Overall, Diego feels like he won against his ex, but in the truth, nobody won. The ex's ego is not inflated in the way where she sees it as losing or winning, and at some points shows geniune concern for Diego. 

My big concern with this scene is that it will take up half of the film. That's why I had the idea of spreading the scenes throghout the film ,and instead of making the scene at the beginning, it will connect with all of the aspects of Diego's downfall, and will be help move along the story, and develop Diego's character. 

I think I will write both versions, and see in editing what fits best. 

The internet aspect

 Hey blog, 

Let's keep going. 

Alright, so you read the premise of the film, "A young teen boy decides he will F$ck a monkey, and become famous on the internet."

You immediately assume the main themes of the film will surround the inhumanity of the act. Yet, it is NOT a movie about bestiality. We're in school god darn, let's keep it classy. 

The film would mostly surround our protagonist, who posts a video of him saying he wants to eff a monkey, and what the internet does with that. 

He becomes a micro celebrity in a niche of bullies, an incel that people can make fun of, without his being aware that he is being made fun of. 

He receives the attention that he sought from people his whole life. And people are laughing, just not with him. This film is about how this character becomes completely entranced with social media, and feels the need to share so much with it, that it becomes its sole source for validation and socialization. 

I took inspiration from both real life people and the film Spree. 

I already spoke about Chris Chan, so let's talk about Spree.

The poster of the film depicts a young guy, covered in blood, livestreaming himself and laughing. This is the absurdity we want to depict. 

The film shows the extremes people will go to to feel validated, even if it is from people online, and people who are seeing him in a negative light. 

The protagonist in this film is sort of a psychopath. That's not what our protagonist is. He is simply a young adult who gets lost in the attention he receives. 

We want to depict the social media aspect of the film by using tiktok and discord. Discord, is where he interacts with people more directly. It is commonly known to be an app for geeks to play videogames together, and for people to get together and chat(sometimes about odd things.)

Tiktok, is extremely popular these days. Everyday someone knew becomes popular there. The videos are short enough where they keep the attention of viewers, but long enough where people can develop themselves as characters and celebrities. 

Also-tiktok is brutal. 50% of the enjoyment of tiktok is reading comments. And people are brutal. 

Mise en Scene- Set

 Hey blog, 

Let's talk about something very near and dear to my heart. MISCE EN SCENE. 

At the beginning, I had a vision for his room. I envisioned it like a stereotypical lazy teenage boy room, with posters everywhere, and mostly trash. 

My ideal room would be inspired by Sid from Skins. 

Although he does not necessarily represent the character we're portraying, his room perfectly encapsulated a lazy and unkept teen boy.

However, after giving it extra thought, I want to do something very different with the bedroom. I want the walls to be white. And have very few decorations, to show his lack of care for the way he presents himself. I still want it to be messy, but I think a room with long white walls will provide a very cool way of showing the slow progression of the character. 

Almost like he just moved in and has not had the time to put things together, although he has probably been living there his whole life. 

Progressively, I want the room to get filled with monkey paraphernalia( I know I never thought I would ever be typing that either.)

The pictures would serve as a visual representation of the absurdity of our protagonists' situation. It would be funny, but ultimately very dark, and would represent how slowly this is becoming his life, and literally nothing else is on his mind. (Not the sex with the monkey itself, but the idea of effing a monkey. The attention he gets.)

However, an issue arises. 

Last year, I wanted my set to be fully white, a white void. This was not a succesfull idea, I did not have the funds to rent a room, and practically no one has a white room laying around. 

So I think our safest bet is to use Martina's brother's room. It is not perfectly white, but it is empty in a way, and the effect of the emptiness would still be prevalent. 

I do not have any pictures right now but will update this post once I get some. 

I also think I want to see Jack's room, and maybe some other friend's rooms to see if something else arises. 

Our Main Character

 
Hey lovely blog, 
Let me tell you what Martina, Clara and I have been brewing. 
We have an idea and we are pretty solid on it. We want to create a short on an involuntary celibate, or incel for short, a phenomenon that although has existed for long, has evolved due to the internet and the ability to find partners on it, and to market ourselves. 
Our idea would surround a man, who after experiencing a very harsh rejection from a woman, has a spontaneous idea to...um...mate with a monkey. 
I know it sounds crazy, but listen, it makes sense to us. 
After having the idea, he posts himself saying he will have sex with the monkey, he finds that his video has gone pretty viral, and the audience is encouraging him to commit the act of bestiality. He believes he is becoming some sort of idol for men who hate women, by introducing a new idea on how to experience sexual pleasure without having to interact with women, when in reality the people watching are people mocking his lack of tact, people interested to watch because of the shock. Some believe he is some sort of publicity stunt, some truly want to peer pressure him till he has sex with the monkey, and others are just watching, because that's simply what we do. 
We do not want our character to be a full villain. He is an extremely unlikable person, with poor social cues, and absolutely no idea how to talk to women, but he's ignorant and in the core, a man begging for help. His disconnectivity with women comes from a bad upbringing, and a lack of female role models. He is so seperated from women, that he does not acknowledge them as an equal to him, no necessarily inferior, just so different yhat it would be impossible for him to have a simple conversation. 
We have drafted a list of attributes our protagonist Diego would have. We based this on research we've done (which will be in the following blogs), and on who we generally believe Diego is, and what drove him to commit his actions. 

Diego 
-Puerto Rican/American
-Conventionally attractive
-Unhigienic and doesn’t care for his looks. Unkept
-greasy hair. Ugly fits. 
-hispanic- rejects his culture and is a bit racist. 
-Insecure 
-Avid discord/reddit/4chan user. 
-listens to old music
-never had a strong female or male role model, made him insecure in his masculinity, and have a bad relationship with women 
-disgustingly unkept room. Food everywhere. But there are still posters on the wall that reflects his change as a character, and his progress. 
-misguided sexual energy. 
-desensitized to pornography, but still addicted, so he has to reach obscure places. 
-Marihuana smoker.
-Never a partier.
-College aged. 
-He doesn’t necessarily hate women, but he’s been so removed from women, that he sees them as objects, and cannot understand or sympathize with them a lot.
-never had female friends
-includes a scene of him crying; he’s not genuinely sociopathic, but really feels remorse for his actions but can’t express it
-hashtag fuck the monkey

His physical looks are an imperative aspect of his character. We have already casted Jack Sussman to play him. The reason we chose him was because he is an excellent actor, who will be able to elevate our character. We knew we needed a proper actor to play our character, since it is an acting heavy film, and if we were to have used someone who would not be able to fully understand a character, and use that understanding in his acting, the film will not work. 

Additionally, he is pretty, he's a pretty boy. He's conventionally attractive, and we absolutely wanted that. We want our character to be attractive because it is the belief that he isn't what drives him away from women, and what he believes is the reason for his rejection. When in reality, it is not, he is the issue, because at the end of the day, looks are seldom the issue in a relationship, but a lot of men believe it is, which disconnects them from women even more. 

Schedule

 

Hey there blog, 

Alright, so Martina and I came up with our idea a bit ago, and decided right away we needed to aloud ourselves more time in production, than in pre-production. We do not want to run out of time, or having to compromise the quality of our scenes. This film will be too experimental and odd, we need to at least sell it well. Martina and I came up with a schedule that will allow us. This is not a final decision, specially because the actor playing our protagonist, Jack Sussman, is in another group and we will most likely have to work around his schedule. But it is a good idea of how our following weeks will look like. 

Week One

• Choose project genre
• Begin developing idea and plot
• Research genre and story ideas

Week Two

• Continue to research and develop the story
• Begin writing script
• Post to blog about planning (outlines, storyboards, moodboards, schedules, etc.)
• 4 blog postings

Week Three

• Finalize script
• Create a shot list/storyboard
• Create a filming schedule
• Create a social media account
• Continue to research and plan (digital and print components)
• 4 blog postings reflecting research and planning

Week Four

• Begin video production
• Document the production process (for the blog and social media page)
• Curate a posting schedule for the social media
• 4 postings to the blog - reflecting on research and planning, production process, filming, major changes to production and why

Week Five

• Continue production
• Begin planning ideas for the postcard
• Begin posting to social media
• 4 postings to blog reflecting production process, etc.

Week Six

• Continue production
• Continue planning of postcard
• Post to social media
• 4 blog postings reflecting on the entire process

Week Seven (Spring Break)

• Begin editing
• Work on print/digital components
• Post to social media
• 3 blog postings

Week Eight

• Begin research for the Critical Reflection
• Finish finalizing video
• Work on print/digital
• Post to social media
• 3 postings reflecting production process

Week Nine

• Finalize editing the video
• Finalize print component
• Post to social media
• Create Critical Reflection
• 3 blog postings

Week Ten

• Finalize Creative Reflection
• Upload all components to blog

So, let's begin

 Hello blog, 

It has been a bit. It has been I think, a whole year. I am now an A level student, and I absolutely love it so far. I find it so much more interesting and exciting, and I am ay lso very excited for this year's portfolio.

This year I will be working with Martina and Clara to make a short film.

Stay tuned and subscribe