Rochester Institute of Technology RIT Scholar Works Theses 5-12-2021 Half a Heart Maria Gesek [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.rit.edu/theses Recommended Citation Gesek, Maria, "Half a Heart" (2021). Thesis. Rochester Institute of Technology. Accessed from This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by RIT Scholar Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of RIT Scholar Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Half a Heart By Maria Gesek A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Film and Animation School of Film and Animation College of Art and Design Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, NY May 12, 2021 1 Committee Approval: Franklin Deese Thesis Chair Brian Coughlin Committee Member 2 3 Table of Contents Abstract 5 Introduction 6 Research 8 Real Life 8 Movies 9 Poetry & Books 14 Music 19 Process 25 Parameters 25 Proposal 26 Proposal Feedback 27 Writing the Step Outline 28 Writing the Screenplay 30 Adding the Song 31 Creating the Visual 32 Evaluation 34 Conclusion 36 Appendix 37 Proposal 37 Artist Statement 46 Screenplay 50 Works Cited 155 4 Abstract: Half a Heart is a screenplay that follows a character’s journey to find happiness in her life and learn to be strong enough to stand on her own. Cara has spent a significant portion of her life in a relationship with Sal, and while this relationship has made her happy and could be considered true love, it is something she must learn to walk away from as it is not moving forward. Cara must learn to find other forms of happiness while also learning to stick up for herself. One of the most difficult struggles she needs to overcome is her overbearing family beliefs, that lead her to fall back into old habits and stunt herself discovery. This screenplay follows Cara’s journey as she finds the strength to say goodbye to her long-term relationship, stick up for herself when it comes to her family, looks for a career that drives her, and finally be happy in what she is doing in her life. 5 Introduction: Writing has always been an escape for me and allows me to live out stories that I find in my imagination. It allows me to take my experiences and relationships and create a story for others to enjoy. My goal whenever I write is to relate to the audience. I try to find common ground that others might experience and find a way to connect with them. I have always been writing these stories since I was young; it is writing that initially led me into filmmaking. That is when I discovered how powerful filmmaking can truly be. The idea for Half a Heart was a culmination of multiple real experiences I’ve had in my life. It was formed by real people I’ve met, relationships I’ve formed, and moments I’ve lived through. I’ve always written about things I’ve dealt with, so when it came to writing a full-length screenplay, I knew that wasn’t something I wanted to stray from. I knew I wanted to write about what I know and what happened to me. However, it took more than just the truth, I needed to find that idea and create something new. Before I left to start graduate school at RIT, I was in a completely different place then I find myself in now. I was working late nights and forming strong relationships with people I never expected to become friends with. While I was happy where I was, I knew there was more that I was looking for, and unfortunately, this was only temporary. As much as it hurt to say goodbye, it was something I had to do in order to find what was going to make me happy. The relationship this story is based on came from someone I knew during this time. Someone who loved me enough to let me go, even if it meant saying goodbye basically permanently. The truth is, it wasn’t as methodic and simple as it is portrayed in 6 this story. That is because real life doesn’t happen like in the movies. However, I was able to create a bridge between the two and create a story that tells a “somewhat” true story of love and life. In a way, this story shows what I wish could’ve happened. Sometimes that’s a privilege we are giving in writing and creating, we can change the story and we can make it whatever we want it to be. Sometimes it’s the simplest moments that stick with us. For me, that simple moment was sitting in a car with a person I loved, telling me we had to say goodbye. That moment, while painful, created self-discovery and allowed me to find what I wanted to write about. So, while it was a low point of my life, it also allowed me to find something beautiful. However, I wouldn’t say my inspiration for this story comes from a singular place. It comes from multiple mediums, books, music, movies, poetry, and television. All these taught me something different and allowed me to discover my own vision. 7 Research: Many different means of inspiration helped me create this story. It ranges from hearing a lyric in a song to a book I have read years ago. All of these mediums had a specific influence on me and how I created this story. A lot of the time we don’t realize how important something is until we look back on it. That can be true for these motivations. I wrote them down because it sparked something in me. It’s not until I started looking back that I realized how important they were to my development. Real Life This story comes from many different aspects of my life. I took real events and people in my life and created a story with characters and a journey. The relationship portrayed by Cara and Sal in my script are not completely fictional, but they are also not completely real. I took from past relationships and created a story related to mine, without making it what actually happened. I wanted to be able to portray the struggles and emotions I felt through the character of Cara. I hoped others would be able to relate to what she felt and what she was going through, not only with Sal and their relationship but also with her family struggles and job aspirations. Sometimes things seem a little easier when we know someone else is dealing with the same mountains to overcome, which is why I take from these experiences I've faced. These memories I’ve lived through helped me to shape this storyline. Movies 8 There are certain movies that really shaped how I came up with the story and helped me envision what I wanted to show with these characters. These films are what I aspire to create myself. There are certain scenes that sparks my imagination and inspires me to start writing. While we all know movies aren’t “real life”, sometimes it’s comforting to see a scene that you connect with. These are the movies I’m drawn to and helped me to shape this story, all in different ways. 500 Days of Summer A movie that I felt proved that sometimes relationships are not exactly how we make them out to be in our heads is 500 Days of Summer. The movie shows the 500 days that the main character of Tom becomes entangled with Summer. There are good days, bad days, terrible days, and finally days of acceptance. Tom has a picture he creates in his head of what his relationship with Summer is, even though it’s not exactly what is actually happening. He creates this belief that Summer is everything to him and everything that he was looking for in a person, when it turns out he wasn’t seeing the whole picture. One of my favorite lines of this movie occurs when Tom’s sister, Rachel, tries to give him some advice on the situation. “Look, I know you think she was the one, but I don’t. Now I think you’re just remembering the good stuff. Next time you look back, I really think you should look again.” 9 She is trying to prove to Tom that he is overlooking some of the things he shouldn’t be. Instead of seeing the good and bad, he is only looking at the good. This is where he is going wrong and that is where he is turning the blind eye. Sometimes it is not until another person points out these things that we are able to put them into focus. Cara doesn’t realize that she was always changing everything in her life until Amy points it out for her. It is then that she realizes that when she met Sal she stopped changing. Everything else in her life remained stagnant except for her relationship. This is a turning point for the character, similar to how it is for Tom in this movie. Love has a way of narrowing our view and creating a different world than our reality. This is what Cara finally admits at the end. She tells Sal she stopped finding other things that made her happy and just relied on her relationship.