Project Idea

Final Decision for "The Seventh Lie"

    I am excited to share this idea because there are a lot of deep meanings behind this 2 minute film opening, that my partner and I came up with.

    Our plot revolves around the 7 stages of grief, beginning with denial. However, since our genre is thriller we thought it would be a great idea to throw in a twist. This film is about a family who went through the death of their son, but after some time has passed they seemed to grow numb to the sensation and randomly started accepting this random stranger in their home as their "son," serving as a replacement for their real son Janus. This family is unaware that they are doing this because their grief is so deep and strong, that they feel some sort of comfort with this boy who is pretending to be Janus. Our film will begin with Verena (the protagonist/sister) noticing something is off with Janus before dinner and during dinner at their house but her parents dismiss this.

    Eventually, Verena would be the only one coming to a realization but we will not see the complete reaction from her when she realizes this isn't her brother since that would be developed later on. The reason we wouldn't show this from the beginning is because from what I've learned about thrillers in my research there is a plot twist around the middle of the film so it wouldn't make sense to start it off like that. However, if we were to film the end, the family's issues to accept their son is dead would be resolved as they find out the boy that has been living with them isn't their real son Janus. This would then reflect the seventh stage of grief: acceptance

We even gave them names that have special meanings behind them:
- Verena (main character/sister) is depicted as "true"
Since Verena would be the one to find out, we decided her name should represent truth, as she is staying true to herself and family. 
- Janus (character/"brother) is "depicted as having two faces looking in opposite directions"
Janus's "two faces" would be represented as the original brother and the replacement one.

    This protagonist in our film, Verena, will ultimately deal with person vs. self conflict because she will begin to struggle with the feeling of not being seen or heard by her own family as she discovers Janus isn't her real brother and her parents don't believe her at first since they are still grieving him subconsciously. 

    As you will see in my script, later on the dialogue is an important part of the plot, showing the beginning of conflict within the characters in our film!

    

Campbell, M. (n.d.). Verena. Behind the Name.
Campbell, M. (n.d.). Janus. Behind the Name.