How does it represent social groups or issues?
Our journey started with a slow, tempting rhythm on the everlasting train of media when we were first introduced to romance. Now, at the next station, we forced ourselves to get the tickets on the social train: What will our product represent?
Come to think of it, this was a busy time but not hard to accomplish. With each member knowing their work, the progress happens smoothly without me noticing. We first talked about this in the middle of winter 2023 in the Media classroom. The class, I recalled as clear as a morning with sunshine, was empty, the light was half-off; there were four of us until Sophie followed a different path. We chatted a lot, but most of the time was about something other than the topic, maybe because 5 months before we were still clueless about how things would turn out. The social issue we first want to mention is not the femme fatale trope - but the abusive situation some might face when they return home. In the first draft, we mention Emma (our female lead) being traumatized by her successful but stone-cold-hearted dad.
You can still find this in my blog.
However, later on, when I was skimming through articles online, I found a very interesting website named “TV Trope” - to be specific, two articles named **Fille Fatale and Femme Fatale,** and suddenly a connection was made. Since 2023, when abortion and femininity suddenly rose like a title washed over social media, the content of sexualized women has been a hot potato. Realizing this very well be a good topic to discuss, I asked my friend how about making a movie that goes against that trope.
Photo by https://www.thecandlelightclub.com/
And the answer was clear. On our final page of social issues, Femme Falate appears like a true queen. But what we did was more than that: we added feminine into the male lead by showing his submissive side like a soft, touching boy to push away the toxic masculinity. I do believe I did research on both topics in a more detailed post rather than the social issues page and once again, they can be found on my Blog.
On the “suicide” aspect, I was very worried as this is a very sensitive topic. However, it is still worth mentioning because there are an estimated 703,000 people who die by suicide worldwide each year. Originally, suicide was not in the script for the opening scene, but the more I researched, the more I felt the urge to note it down. So I did, along with the grief of losing a loved one but unable to let go of the emotions until that negativity ate one’s heart, leaving them to die slowly until their soul rots and a bag of body is left.
Not all stories will have a happy ending, and we understand that. So that’s why we would love to be, or try to be, a representative of the group of people that are struggling in grief, and past trauma, and are unable to let it go. More than that, we took on the challenge to drive the opposite path of how men and women were usually portrayed - with the hope to show the world that not only females can be feminine, and not always men are the only ones who can be tough and strong.
To achieve that, I specifically asked my friend to seriously consider how to build up the characters’ appearance, personality, and name. First, with Emma, I imagine her to have high self-esteem and a sharp mind - so I was desperately looking for such a figure in school to accomplish the look. High nose with hunter’s eyes, fit with dark makeup, and know how to act will live out my dream. However, since everyone around me was either a student or too busy with life, I got in trouble to keep the standard high. Later on, we met Amy - who will be picked to be the female lead, who does not tick a box in my checklist. Even though she is very photogenic, I believe what I tried to convey failed which I believe is one of the main reasons why the opening scene did not come out as depressing and sad as we expected. But we still tried to make it work by encouraging her to put on a white T-shirt, and more proper clothes, coordinate her on how to act, etc. The result is not the best, but shout out to Amy for being very cooperative. Without her understanding, it could have gone worse.
The same thing happens to Kreachers as Kevin - the actor, did not have the characteristics I was looking for. No feminine traits can be found in Kevin, and his English is not perfect for conveying the dialog - it took us tons of time to get him to pronounce things perfectly. Also, according to my imagination, Kreachers should have a calm, breathing voice while Kevin’s is strong. This did not do any good to the intensity that I have set up for the social group: but legends say, that working with what you have and making it perfect is better than having something good but no attempt to try. Other than that, I don’t think there will be anyone who understands the storyline better but Kevin.
(Left) our main character, Amy, who played Emma. (Right) Male protagonist - Kevin, played Kreachers.