Now that I’ve finalized my film openings plot and familiarized myself with the main character I am now able to finally write my script.
CONSUMED
Script by Veronica Castillo
EXT. HOUSE – EARLY MORNING / DAWN
Darkness. Stillness.
A phone alarm suddenly blares from inside, too loud in the silence.
“The early vision I have for my filming opening is the story of a hard working young girl who since childhood has understood the importance of getting into a good college. She values her school work more than anything in life and those values reflect on her friendships, her relationships and her overall lifestyle. Throughout the film opening the audience gets a glimpse of her work ethics as well as her overall mindset towards her work and how seriously she takes her work. Due to her family’s financial situation she understands she must get a scholarship in order to continue her academic career. The film opening will take the viewer on the girl's journey of being the most hardworking version of herself that she is required to be in order to get a scholarship which has a great effect on how she views herself, her relationships, a letter grade and life in general. To emphasize how different and difficult her life has become, I want to showcase the life of a regular student who still receives good grades, but has a healthy balance between life and school. I really want the ending of the opening to be a cliffhanger where the main character gets a college letter in the main and as she’s about to open it the opening ends. I want the audience to leave with those haunting questions of if she got into a good school or not and if she got a scholarship or not.”
Looking back at the very first version of my film opening idea that I wrote about in my “ Genre Decision (Blog #8)” is the equivalent of reading one of my old papers from 4th grade. I say this because of how much I think my idea has developed, similar to how peoples writing develops from 4th grade to 10th as it has for me. So what exactly do I want my film opening to look like now? After conducting much research on many elements of coming-of-age dramas and gathering my own thoughts on what I want to showcase in my film I’ve been able to write another version of the first idea,
I’ve come to develop a new vision for my film opening, an intimate portrait of a high school student consumed by perfection. The opening draws the audience into the rhythm of her everyday life, early alarms, stacks of papers, constantly studying, and the suffocating pressure she places on herself. Due to her family’s financial situation she understands she must get a scholarship in order to continue her academic career. She lives in a world where perfection is not just a goal but a requirement. A B is not simply a grade but a failure she refuses to accept. She pushes herself further and further, convinced that every additional hour of work guarantees better results. This obsession comes at
a devastating cost as her relationships, friendships and even her sense of self all begin to crumble. The few people who truly care about her become background noise, pushed to the sidelines while she continues her relentless pursuit of academic excellence. The film centers on the emotional toll this mindset takes on her, highlighting how her toxic expectations and unhealthy attachment to her schoolwork consume her from the inside out. As the story unfolds, her mental health begins to fall apart. Depression creeps in as she isolates herself from the world to make more time for her schoolwork. Days quickly begin to blur together, and the loneliness chips away at her until she feels trapped in her own mind. Anxiety builds with every assignment and every test, hours of preparation all falling into a single letter grade she ultimately has no control over. Her addictive tendencies become unmistakable, no matter how exhausted, overwhelmed or broken she becomes, she simply can’t stop. She keeps pushing, despite the journey toward her goal slowly destroying her. The opening builds towards the final few moments, her receiving a letter from college. The audience doesn’t know what the letter says but the weight of everything she’s sacrificed hangs in the air, making the moment feel monumental, bittersweet, and full of tension making the audience question “At what cost?”
“Nina from Black Swan and Andrew from Whiplash both share the same driven and perfectionist mindset as my main character. All three of these characters are fueled by ambition and the belief that their value comes from how much they achieve. They’re willing to push themselves beyond their limits, giving up rest, happiness, and even personal connections just to reach their goals. What ties them together is the emotional toll that obsession takes, the pressure, the fear of not being good enough, and the loneliness that comes from constantly striving for perfection. In the end, each of them faces the realization that achieving greatness can come at the expense of losing themselves, which makes their journeys both intense and deeply human.” (Character Analysis (The perfectionist mindset)(Black Swan and Whiplash) (Blog #16)
I’ve been heavily influenced by films like I, Tonya, Whiplash, and Black Swan, and that influence truly shows in the new direction I want my film opening to take. The “perfectionist mindset” has always been so intriguing to me, how someone can push themselves to the edge, almost to the point of losing control, all in pursuit of excellence. That’s what I want to explore, just with a different “craft”. In Whiplash, the main character’s breaking point comes from his obsession with drumming while in my film, it will be the main character’s fixation on her academics. To really understand who she is, I asked ChatGPT for some character questions, and answering them helped me paint a picture of her personality for the audience. Similar to the game "20 Question" one plays when wanting to get to know someone, I answered 20 questions about my main character.
20 Questions
1. Why is she obsessed with perfection?
Perfection to the main character feels like the only way out of her family's financial situation. She believes getting a full ride scholarship has become her responsibility. She believes that if she is not anything but perfect, she won’t have a future and she can’t stomach the idea of disappointing the people who have sacrificed so much for her, her parents.
2. What is she most afraid will happen if she stops pushing herself?
She fears everything will fall apart. She believes she’ll lose her scholarship chances, she’ll stay stuck in the same cycle her family is currently trapped in, and she’ll let down the people she loves.
3. What early signs of anxiety or depression appear?
She pulls all-nighters even when she doesn’t need to, simply to study more. She isolates herself from everyone in her life, she cries silently at night, then forces herself to keep studying.
4. What lie does she believe about herself?
She believes her worth is measured solely by her performance. If she fails, even slightly, she believes she is failing as a daughter, a student, and a student.
5. What was her life like before high school?
Before the pressure intensified, she was bright, carefree and lively. She loved reading, drawing and hanging out with friends and family but as her family’s financial challenges worsened, she felt forced to mature quickly. The hobbies all slipped away one by one as she focused entirely on school now.
6. What’s her home environment like?
Her parents work long hours trying to keep up with the constant bills coming their way. They’re loving, but they’re exhausted and worried about bills. They don’t pressure her directly but their stress hangs heavy in the house, loud even in complete silence.
7. What expectations does her family have?
They tell her to “do her best,” but she interprets this as “be perfect.” They believe in her so much that she feels that she cannot fail them, and that pressure is heavier than any criticism.
8. Who does she push away and how do they react?
Her best friend tries repeatedly to stay connected, sending texts, inviting her out, checking on her but she eventually slowly fades away. First she cancels plans, then she stops replying. Her friend gives up, heartbroken but unable to reach her anymore.
9. How does she interpret moments of rest or failure?
She sees rest as a weakness, a betrayal of her goals, and a waste of time she could be using to study. Sleeping, eating, or taking a break triggers guilt and anxiety. Failure feels catastrophic, she interprets it as proof that she might ruin her chances at a scholarship.
10. What does she notice in others that she envies or fears she lacks?
She notices how effortlessly her peers socialize and laugh without guilt. She envies their freedom and fears she’ll never be able to experience that kind of ease again because she’s trapped by her need for perfection.
11. What does an average day look like?
Every day feels identical, like she’s stuck in a loop she can’t seem to escape.
12. What unhealthy habits does she develop?
Her exhaustion becomes a normal part of her life.
13. How does she react to minor failures?
A small mistake feels catastrophic. A B on an assignment sends her spiraling, shaking hands, rapid breathing, and hours of overthinking as well as studying more to “make up for it.”
14. What moment makes the audience realize her perfectionism is dangerous?
She falls asleep at her desk in the middle of the night, surrounded by highlighted textbooks and unfinished assignments. She wakes up hours later and goes to the bathroom to wash the sleep away from her eyes. In the bathroom, she looks at herself and sees her reflection looking back at her, her hair a mess, her eyes red, and her eyebags visible. She starts crying but quickly starts wiping the tears away and goes back to her desk to continue studying (Like the scenes from Black Swan and I, Tonya where both women break down and try to hide their pain with makeup). This is when the audience understands, she won’t stop despite her body telling her.
15. What is the first moment she realizes she’s losing control?
She doesn’t realize, she thinks her habits and work ethic is the only way she’ll get somewhere in the future despite her body giving her many warning signs.
16. Does she ever question her own behavior?
Late at night, the few hours she awards herself with sleep, despite them being sleepless, she realizes she doesn’t recognize the person she’s become. With flashbacks of who she once was and who she is now this realization is highlighted. She quickly pushed the thoughts aside, convinced she doesn’t have a choice.
17. What did she sacrifice to get to the moment of the college letter?
Every sacrifice is embedded in the envelope she’s holding.
18. What is she hoping the letter will say?
She’s hoping that she earned the scholarship, that all her suffering mattered. That she can save her family and escape the life she fears being stuck in.
19. How does she see herself versus how others see her?
She sees herself as disciplined but never enough, always behind, always failing behind to reach her impossible standards. Others see a hardworking, high-achieving student. The audience feels the gap between her internal struggle and external perfection.
20. What is one moment when her obsession interferes with something she once loved or cared about?
She used to draw in a sketchbook every evening. Drawing every day to her was one of the many ways she expressed herself and was something she loved to do. Now, the sketchbook sits under a pile of papers, untouched.
After answering these questions I’ve come to better understand my character and have even been able to come up with a few more ideas to include into my film opening. I hope they can help the audience understand my character as well.
All pictures included were found on Pinterest
To-do list update
I’ve been wanting to strengthen my editing skills for a while now. I can handle quick, simple edits like the ones I did for the interviews in a recent blog. I know there’s still a lot of room for improvement. In one of my other AICE classes, my group was assigned the task of creating a commercial promoting a solution to the global issue that is an organ shortage. I was lucky enough to write the story, act in it, and do all the editing. That project taught me a lot, not only because I edited the entire video, but also because I helped film scenes for my friends’ projects, which gave me extra practice with camera work.
The real challenge came during the editing process for our commercial. For some reason, the microphones didn’t record any audio whatsoever, my guess is that they disconnected for the phone being used to record and none of us noticed. That simple mistake made my role as editor ten times harder. I ended up having to edit the full three-minute commercial as I normally would, with sound effects, graphics but now having to record voiceovers for a large portion of it.
That’s exactly why I wanted to take the time to analyze editing in coming-of-age dramas. Understanding how professionals shape pacing, emotion, and clarity through editing will help me grow and avoid repeating the same mistakes in my own work.
Continuity editing
Coming-of-age dramas usually rely on soft, seamless continuity editing because it helps the story feel natural and real. Instead of drawing attention to the cuts, the editor lets scenes flow gently from one moment to the next, making it easy for the viewer to stay focused on the character’s emotions. Since this genre is all about personal growth and relatable, everyday experiences, the editing leans into simplicity. It creates a sense of authenticity, making the world feel like one we’ve lived in ourselves.
Cross-Cutting
These films often switch back and forth between a character’s emotional struggles and the real-life situations that trigger them, like family conflict or school pressure. This kind of cross-cutting shows how the character’s inner world and outer world constantly collide. It highlights the idea that growing up is not simply something that happens quietly inside but it's shaped by the messy, overwhelming environment around us.
Montage
Montages show up often because they’re a great way to capture change over time, whether a character is settling into a new routine, building a connection with someone, or slowly losing control. Instead of lingering on every small moment, a montage strings together quick glimpses that add up to something emotional and meaningful.
Match Cuts and Symbolic Transitions
Editors in this genre love using match cuts or symbolic transitions to link different stages of the character's life. Maybe a shot from childhood lines up perfectly with a shot from the present, or a sound in one scene carries into another. These visual connections quietly remind us that the past never really leaves us, our memories, habits, and fears all shape who we’re becoming. It’s a subtle way of showing that growth is not linear, it’s layered.
Long Takes
When characters hit emotional breaking points, editors often use long, uninterrupted shots. These moments feel raw because the audience is forced to sit in the scene without any quick cuts to break the tension. Long takes make the moments feel more honest and vulnerable, almost like we’re sharing the space with the character. Since coming-of-age stories, especially dramas, often explore deep insecurities and personal truth, this technique helps the audience truly feel the weight of what the character is going through.
Jump Cuts
Jump cuts pop up when filmmakers want to show a character’s anxiety or emotional chaos. These sharp, jarring edits intentionally break the smooth flow of a scenes, making the viewer feel just as unsettled as the character. It’s a visual way of showing that their thoughts are racing, or that they’re struggling to keep everything under control. In a genre filled with pressure, confusion, and self-doubt, jump cuts help bring the character’s mental state to life.
Slow Motion
Slow motion is often used to highlight big emotional moments such as first loves, embarrassing incidents, or personal victories. By slowing down the moment, the film draws attention to how important the moment feels to the character. For my opening specially, it could highlight the grade the character received on an assignment and how that might make or break her. What might seem small on the outside becomes huge emotionally. In coming-of-age films, where life-changing lessons often come from tiny experiences, slow motion helps turn those moments into something unforgettable.
Editing Pace and Rhythm
The overall rhythm of the editing often shifts to match the character’s emotional state. When they’re overwhelmed or spiraling, the cuts might speed up. When they’re isolated, reflective or even heartbroken, the editing becomes slower and more still. This pacing helps the audience feel connected to the character’s mindset. It’s almost like the editing becomes another way to hear their thoughts.
Freeze Frame
Occasionally, a film will freeze the frame on a specific moment such as an expression, a realization, a split-second of embarrassment or clarity. These freeze frames draw attention to experiences that shape the character’s identity. By pausing time, the film is making sure the audience knows that this matters and to remember it. Since coming-of-age stories revolve around defining moments, freeze frames help highlight turning points that stick with the character.
Diegetic Cuts
In modern coming-of-age dramas, editors often cut to the text messages, phone screens, or social media posts to show how characters actually communicate. These moments make the story feel current and realistic while also revealing parts of the character’s emotional journey that is not always spoken out loud. They show the digital side of growing up, the pressure, the misunderstanding, and the constant connection, which plays a huge role in shaping who the characters are.
Working on editing projects this year, especially the organ-shortage commercial, really showed me how editing can shape the feel and impact of a story. Dealing with challenges like missing audio have taught me to slow down, pay close attention to details, and problem-solve in ways I hadn’t before. Watching other students' work and my own also made me notice how small editing choices can completely change how a viewer experiences a video. Studying techniques in coming-of-age dramas like smooth continuity cuts, montages, and slow motion , really helped me see how editors guide emotion and storytelling. Overall, this experience has made me more confident in my editing and more aware of how it can bring a story to life. Despite the editing not being the best, it still taught me so much that a simple video wouldn't have taught me, putting the skill to practice really helped in this situation.
I went ahead and included my rehearsals for SharkPac, the days I want to get each blog done, Thanksgiving, my birthday as it happens to fall near the deadline, the soft deadline, and of course the hard deadline. SharkPac at my school is our theater club, we’re doing a show of A Christmas Carol, and I unfortunately and fortunately happen to be a stagehand and stage manager for the club… I say "unfortunately" because of how much work and effort the job requires as the calendar shows, fortunately I do love it and have been doing it for two years now. I included it as it is ultimately a big part of my schedule. Thankfully next week Thanksgiving break is upon us, and I will make it my goal to work on as many planning blogs as possible even if it means not eating turkey but getting my blogs done. I know where my priorities lie, and it is getting the blogs done. I included a slot for 5-10 blogs and ideally when I would want to get them done. I left some room to actually enjoy my break since the new season of Stranger Things is coming out that week, and I’m a big fan of the show.
I hope to knock most of them out by the end of Thanksgiving break and only have two left when we come back to school. I left the week of December 7th completely free as it is show week and we have two rehearsals from 3pm which is when we end school all the way until 8pm…… I value my 8 hours of sleep, so I realistically don’t think I’ll be doing much writing that week. It also happens to be my birthday that weekend and I respectfully will not be writing on my birthday as I will be having a party and would prefer not to have my friends singing "Happy Birthday" while I’m on my computer working on a blog. That’s why I decided to plan my last blog for the Tuesday before the deadline, so I still have time to finalize a few things.
To do list
