(#7) Meet the graduating class of Stok High School 2020!

These are the in-depth developments of the characters!! We focused on creating relatable characters that were very distinct from each other. Let me introduce you to our nine characters who all want to become the Valedictorian.



The Athlete: Isabella

The varsity girls soccer team captain worked extremely hard to make it to The Valedictorian Competition. As she practices every day after school, Isabella takes it upon herself to be a meticulous planner, scheduling her time as efficiently as she can. When things don't go as planned, her peers see her short temper. Otherwise, her teammates describe her as smart, fit, and social. Besides her signature ponytail, Isabella's compassion and cooperativeness are what she's known for.

The Politician: Bryce

As expected, the Student Government President himself, Bryce, is in The Valedictorian Competition.  From practically the time he born, he has been an established politician and activist. As a senior, he starts huge campaigns and other projects for his election cycles. What voters don't see is his obsession to be at the top: politically, socially, and academically. He is meticulous, ambitious, entitled and power-hungry, all dressed up in a suit and tie.

The Influencer: Riley

If you did not see on her Instagram, YouTube, or Twitter account, Riley is a competitor in The Valedictorian Competition. However challenged she may be in face to face conversation, she is not only outgoing but LOUD on camera.  Riley's extreme differences in personality parallel to her classmate's perception of her: they either love her or they're annoyed by her.  She is always wearing the trendiest outfits, always ready for a photo. Riley aims to be the next big social media influencer; her current claim to fame is one viral TikTok.

The Teacher's Pet: Andrew

Andrew, Stok High's human calculator, is also in The Valedictorian Competition. He is nothing but a gentleman to his teachers, but other students see right through this facade. When Andrew doesn't have his nose in a book, he socializes with his small friend group in the Mu Alpha Theta club at school. It is concerning to students how much of a kiss-ass Andrew is to his teachers; however, everyone knows that he earns his straight A's fair and square.

The Thespian: Charlie

This teen, Charlie, has been singing for as long as they can remember. They have a huge stage presence and is a great entertainer, both on and off the stage. Dramatic arts arent the only extracurricular Charlie is involved in; they also take time to draw and sing with Stok High's Chorus group. They have bright colored hair, indicative of their larger than life personality. Charlie, as they are a mentor amongst their younger castmates, is a respectful listener and gives great advice!

The Brat: Courtney

Yeah, its that chick. Courtney is stuck up, entitled, and everything in between. The Valedictorian Competition's "favorite" is this apex-predator at Stok High. Not only do her parents buy her the newest tech gadgets, but she flaunts them to all the students on campus. She knows everything about everyone as she is the social nucleus of her class. She tries to pull an act where she is ditzy and unaware of her current situation but within seconds can become a gossip-consumed loud mouth.

The Stoner: Z

The surprise candidate, Z is not what one would picture when thinking of students for The Valedictorian Competiton. Z is an enigma — no one really knows what "Z" even stands for. Zeke? Zach?  Who knows except for Z, who looks like he hasn't showered since freshman year (maybe that's why he never takes his beanie off). He is also a big advocate for legalizing marijuana. No particular reason. Rumor says that he has been held back a grade level, explaining how he has accumulated such a high GPA.

The Independent: Miles

Students describe Miles as considerate, kind, and thought-provoking. Everyone was thrilled that he made it into The Valedictorian Competition. A positive person like him deserves a shot at the recognition one receives with this title. Miles went out of his way to create a motivational club at Stok High. Miles is very honest about this process; thanks to the generosity of his peers and faculty at school, he wouldn't be able to host a safe place on campus for students to express themselves, free of judgment.

The Outsider: Garrett

This Valedictorian Competition competitor is a relative unknown amongst the other students. Garrett is hardly seen at school, instead, he rehearses with his band GLOWE as he's their lead singer. When he does make it to school he is relatively unnoticed, causing no problems with his teachers or peers around him. It is unclear how he qualified for the competition, but because of the popularity of the other candidates, no one is concerned with Garrett's inclusion. People who have talked to him say he's very purpose-driven.

 The basic information was listed on mine and Luis's shared Google Slides document (indicated by the pictures posted). I made sure to flesh out how the students relate to the actual competition because it would guide how the character feels about winning and ultimately how they should develop throughout the competition. Luis and I have already cast some of the roles, but I will make a specific blog about casting in the future. Otherwise, I can't say it enough, but I'm really excited about this film. It's gonna be bad ass.

Till next time, Have a great day!

(#6) the competition

Alrighty, folks!! 

Luis and I have made advances in structuring our narrative. During a brainstorming session at one of our favorite local restaurants, we constructed an enticing structure for the valedictorian competition as well as some key narrative points we aim to hit. I also came up with the idea that there is a glitch in the system that some students can take advantage of. I'll elaborate at the end of this post!!








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Challenge #1 (Mental) - Scavenger Hunt

[The film opens in the middle of this challenge. Participants are split into pairs. SETTING: House (not explained to the audience that it is a virtual house, but the characters are aware). GOAL: search for the hidden item.]

- The scene opens in a panic as The Outsider is shown being kicked out of the simulation after touching the water.

- An ominous voice alerts the students that the simulation can not replicate the touch of water and that if they were to engage in touching it, the system would crash and kick them out.  

- As the scene progresses, The Brat and The Celebrity are also kicked out respectively.

Challenge #2 (Physical) - Obstacle Course 

[The participants work on this challenge independently inside a VR park. GOAL: Have more endurance than other competitions.]

- The same ominous voice briefly explains the challenge.

- The participants being the obstacle course 

- The participants all run from the start line except The Stoner, who appears to be extremely clueless as to what was going on. Shot counter shot of the participants in the challenge and The Stoner chilling out in the starting line (with reggae music accompanying his shots) is shown. Eventually, the first participant to be eliminated is The Stoner. 

- The Thespian is also shown being eliminated, as they struggle with one of the physical challenges and fall out of the game. 

Challenge #2 (Emotional) - Moral Challenge 

[The participants work on this challenge independently on a VR beach. The participants are presented with a screen that has their names a timer running and the instructions to “Press one to eliminate”. This is a moral challenge.]

- The participants appear around a table where there is an iPad that has their names on it. The iPad reads “Press one to eliminate” with a timer and the participants look to each other as they become aware of what they must do. 

- The Activist is the first to speak up, who suggests they eliminate The Teacher's Pet

- The Independent defends Teacher's Pet and tells Activist to back off

- Athlete tells them all to stop arguing, they have to “figure it out together”

- Activist tells Athlete to drop the team captain act, that “There is only one valedictorian and that’s me [him]”. 

- Athlete confronts Activist revealing that he is “fake” and that his achievements are empty. Getting worked up as Activist attempts to calm Athlete down with petty arguments, she blows up and presses his name. 

- Athlete is then eliminated. (Because the challenge was a moral challenge meaning the only way they all moved onto the next challenge was to let the timer run out). 

Challenge #2 (CONTINUED) Emotional - Social Vote (2 Finalists) 

- Angry that Activist pushed Athlete to the limit, Academic charges at Activist.

- Independent stops Academic but he is also visually angry and slowly they both begin to back Bryce up into the shoreline of the beach. 

- Activist stumbles and falls into the water, getting eliminated by the system.

- The Activist can be seen pissed off taking off his VR glasses back at the real school and angrily walking past the rest of the eliminated participants who appear to be watching the competition on a screen (or projection). 

- Back in the simulation, the ominous voice explains that the final challenge is a vote of the student population. 

- Students inside a classroom are seen watching the competition, shots of their phones show them voting between Academic and Independent

- Back in the simulation, Academic and Independent are talking.

- Shots of the students voting on their phone show that Academic has a significant advantage over Independent.

- The scene ends with a two-shot close up of Andrew and Miles as the ominous voice says “The next Stok High valedictorian is…” then the screen goes black. And the title appears.

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As one of my favorite childhood book characters would say: Zoo Wee Mama! this is a lot to unravel. First off, we determined the film would set the stakes early on with the quick elimination of one of the characters by interacting with water. This was my ingenious idea to create a kink in the system, alluding to how many students do take advantage of the schooling system to rank higher among their peers. This element works well because I wanted to have a scene on the beach (because it looks very pretty and would make for some great key art for our website), and it would be karma for the Activist character who lied to become an officer in his school's Student Government. 

I have some additional ideas for how to show these elements, but a huge weight has been lifted off of Luis and my shoulders as we have the outline for our film. 

During lunch today Luis and I are going to dive deeper into developing our characters, there will be a posting about it tomorrow (I'm unsure when because I have a rehearsal for my school show, but I will find the time and work around it!)!!

Have a Great Day! Till next time, 

(#5) - our class of 2020

Good Evenin'!

After another brainstorming session, the character stereotypes have been determined...!

There will be nine characters (I know that's allot, but we developed a sneaky plan to develop all nine characters in some way, shape, or form.)

1. The Athlete (f)

2. The Politician (m)

3. The Teacher's Pet (m)

4. The Celebrity (f)

5. The Thespian (n/a) or (f)

6. The Privileged (f)

7. The Stoner (m)

8. The Outsider (m)

9. The Independent (m)

These characters were selected based on the typical representation tropes associated with Gen Z students:

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"The Druggie": Indicated by the surplus of Anti-Smoking commercials that occupy the internet, these teens are heavy drug users (of nicotine and other illegal substances). Additionally, they are frequently viewed as lazy and sometimes sexually promiscuous. 

"The Unmotivated": Searches for the easy way out of their responsibilities. Cheats, pays for someone else do their homework and skips their classes. 

"The Emotional Trainwreck": Frequently struggles with mental health issues; these are related to either academics or social situations. 

"The Activist": Courageous, independent, makes their opinions heard, inspiring to their peers.

"The Techie": Computers aren't just at their fingertips, they're in their hands at all times. Social Media is a second language for these individuals. Social interaction, however, is not their strong suit. 

"The Entitled:" Crave supremacy over their peers — extremely competitive. Any attention they receive is desired by these individuals (adult acknowledgment is the most significant).  

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Some of these traits directly correlate to a character, such as the stoner to the druggie, the activist to the politician, the techie to the celebrity, and the entitled to the privileged. Others are personal traits Luis and I wanted to include. As musical theatre has become mainstream thanks to social media platforms such as TikTok, a thespian character was integral to ensure this representation was, well, represented (not to mention my experiences as a thespian will benefit this character's development). "The Independent" character is intended to be our well-rounded student, opposing the teacher's pet who is very academically driven. The relationship between these two characters, due to their identifications, is integral to the purpose and theme of the film. "The Athlete" is not intended to be the cliche female dominant role, but she will certainly be a leader amongst her peers. "The Outsider" could literally be called just that: he is an easter egg character of Luis and myself. Last year we did a marketing project starring Garrett, a teen who was performing his first single with his band GLOWE. Luis and I thought it would be fun to develop this character more using this film.

Later this week, I'll post a more in-depth background to the characters Luis and I have made. We plan on making a Google Slides document so we can easily identify all of the characters. It will be shared here once it's complete!!

Till next time,

Have a great day,

(#4) a story about us, but bigger than us

I mean, when Luis pitched the competition for valedictorian, we both knew we had a great story on our hands.

As high school seniors in the largest high school in Florida, we constantly find ourselves in a competitive environment where hundreds of students aim for the highest GPAs, most difficult classes, and higher class rank. The metanarrative society has imposed on students tells us we need these high scores in order to attend prestigious universities, receive a degree for a well-paying job, and make allot money in order to happily retire. Constricting young people with developing brains to adopt this mentality when approaching their education has ultimately lead to the prominence of depression and other mental health issues among youth. This film will question why society places pressure (or students perceive pressure) on young people to be top of their class.

Additionally, as members of Generation Z, Luis and I want to showcase representation of the new teenage stereotypes. Traditionally, jocks and cheerleaders have been the conventional stereotypes of pop culture. Luis and I aim to re-evaluate the prominence of different social groups and how they are represented in the media.

So, onto the actual storyline. The competition (as it would be unethical to actually have students fight for their lives like in Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire) would take place in a virtual reality game, where the students would compete in competitions about anything but academics. This would allude to how one's academic prowess alone doesn't guarantee success in life. The competing students (all from various social groups/backgrounds) would compete in these competitions; upon elimination, they would simply be kicked from the simulation. Luis pitched that the winner would be determined by a student body vote, which would be cool, but we still don't know if we'd want the academic character to succeed or a more well-rounded character. We will save that for a future brainstorming session that I'll blog about.

For the upcoming week, here's what my next blog posts will be like:

(#5) —> character selection (brainstorming 2) / gen Z case study

(#6) —> the valedictorian competition (brainstorming 3)

(#7) —> full character breakdown (I hope)

(#8) —>  my conflicts (part 2)

That's all for now. I's stoked for this project: Luis and I plan on making a more concrete schedule which I will post once it is made.

Have a great day,

(#3) A Personality

I came up with the idea of split personalities while in the car going to an NBA basketball game.

Why is that information relevant? I couldn't tell you. I can tell you it makes a convincing hook though!

The short film A Personality (a prospective title) would follow a social media figure filming their daily internet vlog to upload. They are larger than life on screen: all of the shots are exactly what one would watch in the internet video.  After the initial prank is complete, there is a midshot of the cinematographer putting down the camera to show the influencer the clip that was just recorded. Moments like this continue as the video progresses. Throughout the recording process, the influencer progressively partakes in more dangerous activities. These moments would be paired with close-ups of the screen of the camera recording the influencer and of the cinematographer's expression, distraught. The climax of the film would have the cinematographer interject into the activities of the influencer, asking them why they desire to do these crazy stunts. The social media personality finds themselves in an outburst, expressing that nobody cares about how they feel or what their opinions are. All that matters is what the person in front of the camera does. Hell, the influencer is paid to be the personality, not for their own self-worth. 

This was as far as my brainstorming went. I'm unsure what the ending would be, perhaps the cinematographer would ultimately soothe the influencer, or conversely, confirm the influencer's suspicion and prohibit them from escaping the fake personality they present on camera.

The inspiration for this came from two primary sources, both deriving from YouTube. Logan Paul, the ex-Vine star now YouTube legend draws unfortunate inspiration due to his "dead body in a suicide forest video". This moment in his career symbolized the most extreme action that one could take for the sake of "entertainment". Based on his comments after the fact, he is distraught and disappointed in himself that his ego outweighed his morality in regards to what situations he would put himself into. This is where I derived the primary storyline. 

The tone is another essential aspect of this film. In my mind, I envision a dark environment indicative of the influencer's intrinsic sadness not only affecting themself but their environment. Shane Dawson (YouTube) has a YouTube series exploring the sociopathic nature of another social media influencer (ironically about Logan's brother, Jake (lol that's my name!)). The animations that he adds are obscure and eerie, which would fit the depressing tone of this piece incredibly well.

Jake Paul Sociopath (Shane Dawson) (Part 1)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bpkr91p2xY

In my next posting, I'll elaborate on the story Luis and I are deciding to run with!! We are super excited to put it together!! I'm particularly excited to work on developing the characters, as that is one of my favorite things to do in theatre!!

Have a great day,

(#2) a phone call

As you already know, this year I am not alone in my endeavors. My best friend Luis and I are a team this time, and I trust we will find success when producing our short film.

We recently had our first phone call. For about three hours, my parents watched me saunter around my backyard swimming pool brainstorming storylines for our short film. Numerous thoughts came to mind. I had previously pitched him an idea two months prior about a social media influencer going through a breakdown, taking influence from celebrities like Logan Paul and Britany Spears. I'll delve more in-depth about this idea in the next blog post, as I fully conceived the narrative for this film.
(DISCLAIMER: Despite the inclusion of this photo, depicting a sensitive moment in Logan's life, I have the utmost respect for him and the life choices he has made since his incident in 2018.  I'm citing the fallout of this event as inspiration for the social media influencer story.)

After analyzing this idea with depth, viewing it from different angles, Luis and I pondered more about what film we wanted to create. When we initially decided to work together, we established that this film was to be something we were proud of. Not for a letter grade or a college credit, but to be insightful and entertaining for viewers. This guided us as we brainstormed three more storylines, ensuring we wrote down these ideas on a Google Document (cited at the bottom of this posting) for future reference.

Luis and I had pitched two ideas each; I gave the ideas for the influencer film and another about a taxi driver. The arrival of the taxi driver at one's house would be a metaphor for death arriving to transport you into the afterlife, wherever that may be. A Christmas Story-esc narrative would ensue, with the driver guiding the victim through their life to determine what their purpose on Earth was in order to peacefully pass on. Luis was immediately reminded of a poem by Emily Dickerson called "Because I could not stop for death". Themes for this film would include the grapple with themes like mortality, and what intent one should have throughout their life. We determined that without an actual taxi, this film would lose its legitimacy. Luis nor I know anyone who owns a taxi, making this idea unappealing, but intriguing.

Pondering on the color yellow, Luis and I were reminded of a past media project we worked on and the character we had created for it, Garrett. He is the lead singer for a band called GLOWE and is very urban, insightful, and perceptive of himself and his future. Luis suggested a story following Garrett as he dreams, and my mind started running a mile a minute. I suggested that Garrett could experience an Alice in Wonderland story where he interacts with fantastical creatures. This would be a character study into Garrett's life, describing his past and what lead him to create his band and start singing. For the music video we had created for GLOWE, Luis and I created props out of cardboard, creating a "home-made" aesthetic for his environment: this element could be extrapolated in the Wonderland Dream World he'd explore.


We agreed this would be an awesome continuation and exploration for Garrett, most importantly that we would have fun putting on this production. Not to mention, I would be playing the featured role of Garrett, putting the glasses and yellow turtleneck back on, bringing my theatre skills to the screen once more as this character. Luis and I shelved this idea.

Suddenly, Luis proposed that we should discuss something that we were knowledgeable of. I chuckled, as the only thing we fully understood was a school: it's the only activity we've endured for over a decade at a time. My phone mumbled, "Well, what if we made a film about students competing for valedictorian?" "Like The Goblet of Fire?" I asked. Luis, understanding my Harry Potter reference, excitedly replied, "Yeah. A commentary on students competing for valedictorian at their school".




I'm pretty confident this is one of, if not the longest blog post I've ever written. That goes to show how Luis and I work together. One of us has an outrageous idea, and the other runs with it, creating a whacky and insightful story with a powerful message tying it together. With four very appealing ideas, we knew there was a lot of thought that needed to decide which avenue we would pursue: exploring the mask celebrities put on for their fans, the purpose of life, the fantastical telling of someone's life, or the competitive nature of the modern schooling system.


Damn, I'm excited for what comes next.

Here is the link for our notes:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CdJdWqn1D5eeyklJ5VVW9gQ5h8E0KFXL4s1DQFID82k/edit?usp=sharing

Till next time,

(#1) Fretwell Blog 2.0

I'm so happy with the new branding of my website. The Superheros were fun and unique, but I always knew I wanted my blog to have a transparent background to create a fun, creative, eclectic aura for my blog. Utilizing my favorite colors and a gradient I found incredibly pleasing, allow me to present Jake Fretwell's blog 2.0!

I opted for multiple colors to display my multiple interests and used various shapes to express them. I really wanted to incorporate a star into the wallpaper but the simplicity of the shapes here makes the background larger than life. The very clear downside is that the triangles are yellow, which clashes with the white letters. As much as I'd like to scapegoat that problem and say it is a stylistic choice, the jarring similarity of the colors is uncomfortable to the eye.

I might fix that issue by making the yellow darker to resemble gold, but I've fallen in love with this design. I even made it my computer background :)

Don't worry, I'm aware this isn't related to my short film in the slightest, but this agenda for the posts coming this week definitely is:

(#2) — the phone call (Friday)

(#3) — split personalities (Saturday)

(#4) — the big idea (Sunday)


These are just the titles: Stay tuned to see what they actually mean!

Until then,
Have a great day,