Writing the Script

PICKING UP THE PEN

February 13th. Today was the day. After utilizing my research on movie introductions and the Comedy/Coming of Age genre, I decided to officially write the screenplay for my film opening. Going into this, I fully prepared myself to be up for hours on end, staring at my monitor for hours, and become homies with that backspace button. I've written far less complex stories before and said stories have taken me days to develop and plan out. But when I actually began working on Trey's Split? I wrote everything with ease as if I had memorized every word on that document beforehand. That screenplay felt less like a movie and more like a personal diary, as I directly put myself in Trey's position. The jokes he would make, his apathy towards society, and his unwavering desire to belong to it... It felt raw. Personal, even.

WHO IS TREY?

Trey is a Black teen from the suburbs who loves everything geek-related like video games, comic books, anime, street art, and biking. He has a very apathetic outlook on life due to not being able to conform to the people around him, and constantly compares others who are high in social status to himself. Due to his lack of confidence, he doesn't say much out loud, leaving most of his rude comments and bold statements to be said within his own head.

Despite his negativity, Trey is actually a lot more intelligent than he thinks. Due to his grey lens on the world, he's developed a somewhat pragmatic line of thinking. He's aware that he's different. He's aware that it's all superficial. And a part of him already knows that it doesn't make sense that he can't fit in. But due to his insecurity, he doesn't want to embrace his non-conformity but instead yearns to be in the same league as those who ostracize him to designate himself and find a connection. 

Trey can be funny, intuitive, and resourceful when the time calls for it. The irony of his character is that he has all of the qualities of a likable person yet Trey himself is unable to recognize that.