Establishing who my protagonist is: Mariposa

 With the couple of pages that i have of my draft, I decided to break down my protagonist in a more detailed post. I want t o be able to know exactly what kind of person i want her to be and look, to be able to edit my script to fit into those expectations, but also to help me how to indicate the actress how to work on her character and what kind of outfits and any extra props she may need. There are various aspects that i want to touch on, these are the pillars and parts of her character that would be more noticeable and important during the film:

Name:                                                                                                                                              Mariposa, female name, meaning "butterfly" in Spanish. Signifies her delicacy and sensitive nature, physically and mentally. It indicates her family's ancestry, of Hispanic origin, as well as an added layer of how her family perceives her.       

Age:                                                                                                                                               At first i expected for her to be in her mid-20s, since that could indicate how she is living alone and working an office job. But, because of the pandemic and external circumstances, i will be unable to find someone who could portray that age realistically, so i decided to change it to 18 to early 20s, more of college age, living alone as they are trying to liberate herself of her illness. With this new age range, it can also explain her naivetes and kind of rejection of continuing with treatment, since at that age one thinks they are "old enough" to know better, find their place in the world as new adults.

Outfits:                                                               I find this aspect of my script important, through her type of dressing, the mise-en scene, see how her mental state is declining as well. At the beginning it will a bright floral dress, similar to the one on the right. Yellow is sued to indicate her happy demeanor and bright exterior to the world, as well as having a juvenile look, almost like a child. But, yellow can also be somewhat "too" happy, almost like trying to hide something inside. As she is trying to battle through without any support, her type of clothing slowly progresses, form this to a more tuned dress, to a simple grey blouse, when having her lowest point, this is

the type of look i want to give her. Though the idea of the style, i don't want to fail into the stereotype of how a "depressed" person should look like, but for my character, it fits into her, since she does not feel her best while trying to battle her disease. The muted colors represented that emotional stage, jeans with how it is mostly something that she grabbed at last minute, not regarding herself. 

Relationship with others:                                                   There are not much other characters in my story, only two more major ones, such as her Dad and a friend, The relationship with her Dad is not necessarily stranded, but her father does not completely understand her disease and thinks is as easy as "just eating", indirectly pushing her to disease to drop treatment. Her friend tries to contact her after her birthday, she isolating herself not to be faced with how to explain to her friend how she is doing. 

Personal problems:                                                                The main point of the film, her battle against ARFID. Based on personal experiences and anecdotes by real-life Arfid patients, they claim that most of the foods that they can process are "bland" foods- white bread, crackers, plain pasta, etc. I will visualize that with the mise-en-scene, showing her fridge and cabinets containing mostly these foods, a couple of foods that she is challenging herself. Most people battle with the texture in foods, using a scene to show how she went and grab all of the foods that could be consider "not safe", such as chicken, vegetables, etc. This is the main point of my film, as well as accepting how help is not something to ask for and the process takes time. 

Some of this aspects to her character, as explained above, are done due to what i have available. For example, the outfits are easy to find within my clothes, not having to buy anything new, and, because of the pandemic, limiting the amount of actors to the people that i am staying with at my house. The adaptations may feel like limiting my options, but I like working my creativity within these constrains and be able to create new things.

Citations:                                                                                                                                        Elliot, Stephanie, and Kim DiRé. “What Exactly Is ARFID?” National Eating Disorders Association, 20 Feb. 2018, www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/blog/what-exactly-arfid#:~:text=Most%20people%20with%20ARFID%20have,noodles%2C%20crackers%2C%20and%20cereal.

“Tinfoil Kevin's Hobo Outfit With Conspiracy Cap. ... Memorabilia: Lot #82109.” Heritage Auctions, comics.ha.com/itm/memorabilia/movie-tv-props/tinfoil-kevin-s-hobo-outfit-with-conspiracy-cap/a/40154-82109.s.

“In the Spring of Things Midi Dress in M.” ModCloth, 2016, www.modcloth.com/shop/dresses/gilli-in-the-spring-of-things-midi-dress-in-yellow-floral/100000371550.html#product-thumbnail-4.