R + P Post 7: Our film's title and plot outline

Title

Surrealist Artwork

We have had two strong working titles with one having a particularly strong concept behind it, which we are hoping to reuse in our final choice of title. Our first idea for a title was Surreal, as originally we planned to add a more fantasy or "trippy" feel to our film, which would hopefully connote a sense of isolation and lack of a "homebase" in terms of his emotions and friendships, that our protagonist would feel. This would also have posed interesting technical and creative challenges to the group, however we eventually felt this would detract too much from the story and particularly from the realism of the story and therefore decided against it.

The second idea we had for our film title was Aglet, which we have now chosen to use as our film's title. An aglet is the small plastic tube found on the end of a shoelace that prevents it from fraying. Its something that is completely irrelevant and few people know the name of, yet it is still needed as it prevents our shoes from falling apart. The idea was connote the characters feelings that he is kind of irrelevant, yet he needs to keep hanging in there for the prospect of finally being able to come out of the closet to his love interest. However, I was against the name as it was just not a very "nice sounding" word that sounds suitable for our film title, that said I really like the concept and thus now think it makes a good film title.

Plot

Todorov's Narrative Theory

Our story follows Todorov's narrative theory with an equilibrium upset by the arrival of David in Craig's life and eventually reaches an equilibrium again when Craig gathers the courage to ask David out and come out of the closet in doing so. We thought it was very important the story portrayed a true to life image of what being gay and closeted and facing an unrequited love is, yet at the same time the story needed to be simple enough to be easy to follow for an audience and relatable to our target audiences. We felt the story was typical enough of the Coming of Age genre that it would be easy to follow, yet not so simple that it would not be entertaining to watch either.

Our story follows the growing up and discovery of the world from the perspective of a teenage closeted gay called Craig. Craig is an artistic and introvert child who falls in love with an openly gay and slightly effeminate male character called David. Craig's love for David causes him to have to overcome his quiet and awkward personality, as well as come out of the closet in the name of love and whilst doing so learns alot about himself. Eventually he has the courage to do so and David and Craig become a couple.