Important Elements

Background Information + Costumes!

Ayami

    She is the main character of the story, and also the person with ADHD. She has been struggling with ADHD since she was in elementary school, but was not diagnosed with it until the end of middle school. Once she was diagnosed, everything in her life made sense. She finally realized why she did certain things, such as always moving her feet, pace around, have a million thoughts in her head, never being able to concentrate, rambling and having a hard time talking, overthinking, and much more. Once she got diagnosed, she was given Adderall, a medicine to help make her life a little easier. However, the school that she goes to will not provide her with a 504 plan to give her extra time on assignments and tests, just because they see that she is not failing most of her classes. However, they do not see that she actually struggles so much when it comes to trying to focus while doing things. 

    She is part of a family of four, who are all Sri Lankan. Her parents are very strict, and care a lot of her grades. She also has an older sister in college, that is very successful and has always gotten all As and never really struggles in both making friends and doing good in school. Her parents do not really "believe in" ADHD, and usually just tell her to focus. Multiple people have tried to tell them that it is a real mental disability, but they still do not understand. Not only does Ayami struggle so much with her ADHD, but she is also under a lot of pressure from her parents in order to try and live up to the expectations set by her older sister. 

    Her costume while talking to her friend will be pretty simple and bland, in order to represent her not really being there in the conversation. This will include of a plain gray shirt and black jeans. However, during her thinking sequence, she will be in multiple colorful outfits, in order to represent her "colorful" mind. This will include of colors such as blue, yellow, and red, which are all primary colors. 

    I think Ayami shows good representation in my film opening. This is because not only is she a neurodivergent person, but she is also brown. I feel like there are not a lot of south Asian people shown on film, especially neurodivergent brown people. When they are shown on the big screen, they are often put into the stereotype of being the "super smart" person.

    The person that will be cast for this role will be my sister. I chose her, because she is also of south asian descent, which is a very important part of the character. Also, since there will be a lot of filming with the main character, I wanted to use a person that would be easy to reach, which is why I chose her.

Barbara

    She is the friend of Ayami, that is trying to talk to her about the homework assignment. She is not really a best friend of Ayami, and really only just met her. Since they just met, Barbara does not really know that Ayami has ADHD, which is why she is not really considerate in understanding why she does not listen to her. Barbara is the type of person that is very hardworking, and cares a lot about school. This is also why she does not understands why Ayami did not do the homework, since that is such as important part of her life. 

    For her costume, she will also be wearing a dull and simple outfit. Her outfit will have a brown color scheme. It will be included of neutral colors to show how Ayami is not really interested in Barbara, and rather tunes her out, even though she does not mean to. 

    The person that I will cast for this role will be my friend who I know from theater. I chose her because I know that she is an amazing actor, and she is a very reliable friend that I can count on for filming. 

Other Characters

    Some of the other characters that will be included at the end of the film opening will be Ayami's parents, some of her teachers, and also a few of her friends.

    The people that I will cast for these characters include of my parents, some of my teachers (Mr. McKnight and Ms. Van Buren, if they agree to be in it), and a few of my friends. 

Set Design + Props

Locations

    For the part of the opening where Barbara is talking to Ayami about the homework, they will be at the library. 

    Props for this part of the scene would be various supplies needed for studying, such as books, pencils, papers, etc. 

    For the various clips of Ayami's thoughts in her head, most of them will be filmed outdoors, such as locations like my backyard, Markham Park, Savanna Commons, etc. This is because I want it to be more colorful, and the nature will be able to do this. 

    For the flashback part for when Ayami was trying to do her homework, that will be filmed at my house at our dining room table. 

    One of the most important props that I will need is a large white cloth. This is because at the end of the opening, I want all the characters talking to have the same plain white background, in order to be uniform. This means that I do not want anything else in the background to be showing.