The First Meeting

The producer, director and cinematographer had an initial meeting in order to share ideas and get everyone on the same page with the plot, and what we wanted to do with the film. We had spoken to Connor about the idea here and there but had not yet had the chance to sit down together and go through everything.

This was incredibly helpful, as everybody had different ideas and points of view about how we should express things on screen. We talked about the main character a lot, and her motivations. It was really important to us that she be as realistic as possible, so we discussed personal experiences and drew from those as much as possible.

Film name: I’m Uncomfortable

The party is taking place in the main character’s house. She’s not the type of girl who is into parties; they make her nervous. She made friends in first year and didn’t really get to know them properly before signing for a house with them. They’re quite different people from her. She is unsettled from the beginning of the film, when she’s getting ready for the party. She’s unhappy with her appearance, and can’t decide what to wear. She doesn’t like having this many people in the house.

Important story points

• Anxiety Triggers

A safe space needs to be established that she can’t access - instigating the panic attack. This is her house - the initial trigger for the anxiety, her private place of living is transformed into a public space, which puts her on edge.

More importantly, her friends are not there to help her when she needs them. We establish at the beginning that they should be looking out for her, but are not completely reliable. Perhaps a friend is in her room with her, and she says something like “please don’t leave this time” - implying a history. When she’s panicking later on in the film, she goes to her friend for help, asking her to come outside, but the friend is busy dancing/necking some lad. She doesn’t have time for her, communicates this possibly just with a look. She doesn’t care. Our character is alone.

• Alcohol

Not a specified amount of alcohol because drinking could go either way if someone’s feeling nervous, and also we don’t want it to appear like it’s her fault because she’s too drunk. Could show her being plied with alcohol by guys though as a tool of harassment.

• Unsettling Interactions

Could be different types guys approaching her in different ways - some staring too much, non consensual touching, murmuring weird compliments and things, touching her face. Others more intimidating - physically blocking off space, holding onto her, grabbing her, plying with drink etc.

We also touched on some of the creative choices that would bring the story to life. We wanted every choice that we made to be relevant to the character and the story, and put a lot of thought into how the audio and visuals would make the audience feel.

Visual & Audio Ideas

• Tight, intimate shots - to make the audience feel uncomfortable. The audience is invading the character’s personal space just as the boys at the party are.
• Feet moving around outside the gap under her door, the sound of feet morphing into drumming and getting increasingly overwhelming.
• Possible last shot of her scrubbing herself really hard in the shower, trying to wash the places people were touching her last night. Close up on her face in the mirror, she touches her lips, someone kissed her against her will last night. A tear falls down her face. Why me?
• Audio similar to Hannibal - trying to make the audience uncomfortable.

There is certainly still a lot more work to be done to develop this, but we are off to a great start.

-Hannah Bowler