Finally getting down to business...
My group and I sat down and discussed about our research and tried to finalize what type of drama we wanted to film and the ideas we had. We came to the conclusion that we wanted our film opening to have a message about problems in society, either political or minorities.
As we were discussing, I decided to take notes on some of our ideas:
Court scene? Trial?
Shows representation
Mystery
Suspense
Displays a message (a paper doesn't define who I am, messed up system)
Symbols to showcase thoughts and representation
Character
Strong mentally but looked as weak
Cuban immigrant? Pedophile? Sex offender?
Not a bad person but accused for things he didn't do so he's judged b/c of that
In other words, we were flirting with the idea of a court scene on the day of someones trial, we felt that this was we could leave a little mystery if we didn't state exactly what the person was in for. At the same time we wanted to tell a message, either that a paper doesn't define someones character, or how a trial system could be messed up (we all know people are said to be guilty but are actually innocent or vice versa) or even address both.
After we discussed this in class, I decided to look up how many people are wrongfully convicted. I found out that "Innocent defendants are far more likley to have their sentenced changed to life in prison than to be executed. Still, with an error rate of 4 percent, the researchers write, “it is all but certain that several of the 1,320 defendants executed since 1977 were innocent.” (Hughes)
We even briefly talked about the character and how we wanted him or her to be developed. We felt that the character should have been convicted for something he or she didn't do, and that ended up ruining his or her life. As we talked about this character, we pictured a guy but come on we can't be sexist now can we?
References:
Hughes. "How Many People Are Wrongly Convicted? Researchers Do the Math."
Phenomena. National Geographic I Phenomena, 25 Sept. 2015. Web. 16 Mar. 2017.
Phenomena. National Geographic I Phenomena, 25 Sept. 2015. Web. 16 Mar. 2017.
