Yesterday’s lectorial consisted of working on our Group Projects, with the objective of pitching an idea to the class for a possible direction you could take for the project.
Our group devised  a singular short film idea, that we could possibly go forward into a production-planning stage in the future.

Here is a basic film plan of what we came up with.

“The Social Justice Warrior”

A short film

Context: Since the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011, it has become clear that social media is beginning to play a major role in online activism. Yet the question arises, does social media actually facilitate change and progress in activism? Or, is it simply a way for people to rid themselves of a guilty conscience without leaving their seat.

Characters:

The characters involve 2 main characters, who at this point we will simply title “Person 1” and “Person 2”.

Person 1 is the typical online “Tumblr” social justice warrior. When we see them on their computer, they are shown to be (from their perspective” the Jesus of the internet. They truly believe they are changing the world from a few kind comments and Facebook likes online. To them, it doesn’t matter if they are truly making any change happen, as long as their friends think they are trying, they are satisfied.

Person 2 is the contrasting “old-school” activist. They are untrained in social media, and do all of their activism work physically. Yet despite their true philanthropic intent and moral righteousness, they don’t feel like they are making any change. They send out emails and letters, and they put up flyers, yet the number of people attending their protests and rallies is sadly dwindling.

Story:

The plot of the film will basically follow both Person 1 and Person 2 as they struggle to make a real difference to the world of activism. Person 1 is eventually found out by her friends to not be the real “activist” that she claims to be. Person 2 is instead forced to accept technology, and adopt social media into their lives whilst also never losing their physical presence in activism and their passion. It is the combination of both technology as well as true human passion that allows Person 2 to emerge successful in their endeavors in the end, as they fine the true balance between the online and the real world.

 

Whether our group decides to proceed with this idea, I still think it is a good one with a lot of depth that we can lean back on if we run out of time.