Meet Veronica (character establisment)

In film, and in storytelling as a whole, beginnings are always connected to endings. When I started writing my blog, I introduced my initial ideas with a quote by poet Jane Kenyon. Now that my creative point is coming closer to its end, I realize that I have been saving the post about my main character for last. I think I have always known who Veronica is. I take that back I don't know who she is, I probably will never know. However when writing a screenplay there needs to be some sort of character written down. And I guess I simply was not ready to put it down on paper. Talking candidly about oneself is probably one of the biggest challenges encountered in writing. Dani Shapiro, the author of my favorite book Still Writing, mentions the Ayurveda in a chapter about storytelling:

According to Ayurveda, we become what we surround ourselves with. And so it stands to reason that we have to be discerning about what we surround ourselves with.

At a first glance, this phrase refers to the people we surround ourselves with, but I think that it can also refer to objects. In film, when we tell stories through images, objects are a great tool to instantly perceive a character. Thus, to establish Veronica I utilized many objects on camera that are representative of who she is. The two maps, the Surrealism and Bossa Nova books in her room, the lonely lighthouse, the red velvet dress, and the bright yellow raincoat were all chosen with a purpose. If I were to produce the complete film, I would make sure these objects appear along with many others perhaps to signal clues, or signal development and change.  

As I mentioned in my first post, the main purpose in this film, besides passing the AICE Exam, is to create a self portrait. Since the beginning I thought that through self portraiture, I could effectively create a significant and substantial piece. Considering that two minutes is not enough to tell who someone really is (not even a lifetime), I've always wanted to be insightful and explore the hidden world inside "self," along with one's personal dreams and desires.

Not only inspired by myself, Veronica is also inspired by other characters in film, characters that I have felt related to. There is nothing more touching than experiencing connections with fictional personas. To be mirrored by someone on a screen is truly a especial moment. Im not necessarily talking about the obvious matters like a short temper, or bad habits like smoking cigarettes and biting your nails. Im talking abut the less obvious, the hidden, the all-embracing essence of a character that one feels strongly linked to.

The characters of Jordana and Oliver, from Submarine, for example are two characters that inspired me to create Veronica. These two characters are so unconventional, Richard purposely accentuates their flaws. The movie definiatley underlines Oliver's mean and selfish personality and Jordana's frigid and unemotional persona, along with her skin eczema. The fact that Ayodae is able to make audiences fall in love with these two pretty unlikeable characters is very interesting to me, not only because it creates a bigger sense of reality within the story, but it also brakes conventions. I am used to watch sainted and misunderstood protagonists in coming-of-age films, but Submarine is remarkably especial because of its eccentric characters, who tell each other romantic phrases like this:

I could drink your blood [Jordana], you are the only person that I would allow to be shrunken down to a microscopic size and swim inside me in a tiny submersible machine. -Oliver Tate 

This phrase is that magical in the film where you find out why the title is Submarine. The idea of letting someone know you so well, that they could swim inside of you and examine every corner of your interiors is beautiful to me, and it is the biggest declaration of love that I have seen on film. Ever since I saw Jordana wearing her distinctive red coat I knew that one day I would create a character with a colorful coat as well. 

gifs from Richard Ayodae's Submarine

I have written about everything except about Veronica. So all there is to know about Veronica is that she is 17, lives in a lighthouse in Miami, and her biggest desire is to find the 95th hue of the color blue (apparently there are only 94 hues in the electromagnetic spectrum). Veronica will take on a journey to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in the quest for the mysterious color. In her journey she will encounter people and obstacles that will cause her to change and grow, and realize that the color is located back home. Ultimately she escapes to reconnect with herself back home. Some might think that Veronica is an idealized version of myself, but  I think that Veronica is actually an accentuation of my flaws, an over exaggerated version of what I believe makes me who I am, just like a cartoon. 

stills from Hues of Blue

me