This was the final for my intro to film class. The general assignment did not interest me, but the professor said that we could pitch alternate ideas to her and run with them after approval. After that class period was over, I approached her with my pitch: I want a challenge. She was excited to see that I wanted to go deeper, and told me she would come up with something and give it to me the next class period.
The assignment was one that she was assigned in grad school: Create a short film where the script is exclusively that of a children's book, but that conveys an adult narrative. A simple premise proved its self to be wildly challenging. I began with Æsop's fables, but the narratives were already 'mature' in nature. I spent a good amount of time, on multiple occasions, at the library, sitting on the floor, reading kid's books searching for the right story.
While in the brainstorming phase of this project, I was dealing with loneliness, specifically in the vein of family. I couldn't escape the feeling that we were fragmented, and pulling further apart as time goes on. In exploring this feeling, I recall scrolling through my father's Instagram, which to my surprise, went all the way back to 2011. Many of the images and captions offered trips of nostalgia and unlocked memories that had been covered in dust for years. One photo in particular broke through an emotional threshold. An image of my older sibling me, while I was holding my younger sibling, while my younger sibling held the star which was to be placed on top of the Christmas tree. Growing up, they were my teammates and best friends. We started out homeschooled, so we really just had each other, and a few friends from the local homeschool community. I caught myself remembering times of aimless imagination exploration with those two. The backyard went from a magical forest to the moon to a fortress and more. We went from heroes to villains and everything in between. We were a team.
Unfortunately, as we grow we have grown apart in multiple ways. My younger sibling moved to California for school, and my older sibling moved to Ohio to live with an online friend. Both of them have transitioned, and changed their names and identities. One of them has cut off the other, and villainizes our parents. I tend to exist in the middle.
This film explores the inner child, and our societal relationship with 'play' as an escape. I would like to eventually revisit this film, as there are aspects that could be polished, but I am proud of the concept and many aspects of its execution.