Title: The Never-ending Path to Self-Improvement
Theme/Concept: A man who is obsessed with self-improvement sits down anyone from acquaintances to his closest friends and asks that they tell him their least favorite thing (biggest flaw) about him.
Genre: Non-fiction
Synopsis: Since my obsession is basically impossible to receive ultimate satisfaction from, it is an important one nonetheless. There are a couple of traits that I pride myself on: the ability to make analytical decisions, the ability to be myself whole-heartedly, the fact that I am not afraid of what anyone has to say to or about me, and the fact that I am constantly striving to be the best person I can be. I have the belief that while I don’t necessarily care what other people say of me, it is important to be able to self-evaluate and self-assess oneself if the self is ever going to improve. Like most people, I eventually become trapped in the mindsets that I have created for myself. By gaining outsider’s perspectives about myself, I believe it will allow me to see myself in a new light, one that could potentially show me enlightenment about the ways in which I have been carrying myself. It is such an important concept that, although it can be extremely tiring mentally, should be taken seriously.
Video Style: The video will be filmed in hopefully one location. There will be a series of shots showing me at a table, waiting, and the people telling me my flaws seating across from the table, getting ready to share with me their least favorite parts. As the project goes on, I will appear to get more and more tearing of hearing the flaws of myself. The people sharing these flaws with me though will have their words come through as brash, bold, assertive, and unapologetic. There could also be very different approaches towards how people tell me my flaws as well. I am unsure whether I want people to be unapologetic, bold, brash, or if I should have them let their personalities leak through...
Breakdown: Beginning with one of my best friends, and then progress through the relationships of me and several others as they all tell me my flaws. At times, I may try and interject, only to be told that I asked and I should listen if I really want to improve.
Target Audience: Anyone with the interest of improving themselves, or anyone in general, because the concept is one that may cause some amount of people to be happily uncomfortable (because of course, this isn’t happening to them) The hope is that the audience will have a “schadenfreude”-esque attitude towards the entire situation, and will leaving the video laughing
Objective: Show people that the path towards self-improvement is often never able to be completely fulfilled, but also that it shouldn’t stop you form attempting to better yourself if you ave a yearning to do so.
Setting: The video will take place in ideally one location, switching between shots of me and the others telling me my flaws.
Length: approximately 7-8 minutes.
Dear Nic,
ReplyDeleteI am so happy that you're going to pursue this idea--I really like the concept. I like too that you've figured out a way to illustrate this by using a series of friends (?) telling you what's wrong wiht you. One suggestion I have is that you might use this as a framing device (beginning and ending with this), and have a portion in the center where you look more closely at this need for self improvement. This is where the writing will come in. I want you to spend some time writing about this idea--where it came from, and what moments in your life you can pinpoint it happening most obviously. As you begin to understand why you feel this very human need to constantly be improving, you may be able to offer some insight to the viewer--your journey will illuminate for us that perhaps striving to be better is part of the problem (or not, that's up to you). We'll have a writing exercise in class for this, so that you can give yourself time to explore this topic more deeply and see what emerges.