The Story

We talked and took notes for an hour or maybe more, and once we were finished we both loved the concept we came up with. We decided to pitch it to our friend group of AICE Media students to get some feedback since our age group is constantly exposed to dystopian films. Thankfully, they loved the idea and the concept and immediately wanted to hear more about the characters, the plot, and the way we were planning on pulling it all together on-screen. We love our concept, we think it'll be really fun to write (because of the many opportunities for comic relief) and produce (because we'll be tackling a story we developed together so we share a vision for it). I'm excited to share it with you!

Our story takes place in Stok High, a fictional high school named after our AICE Media Instructor, Tina. The story is centered around a competition held by the school to determine the senior class valedictorian through a series of mental, physical, and emotional challenges presented in a VR simulation. The elite students from multiple social groups on campus are the competitors. Participants are sent into a VR simulation (representing how high school itself is simply a simulation of the real world) to test their skills against the other candidates (which represents and its criticism on the highly competitive nature of the school system in the US). During the competition, we explore the reasons each candidate has for wanting the valedictorian title, just to find that most of them want it as a shallow addition to their resume or because of the pressure inflicted on them by their peers or parents. Fellow students, faculty, and eliminated participants are the spectators to the competition and participate in the end in the form of a social vote. Through our production, we want to imply that the purpose of the story is to reflect on the nature of the US school system and the tolls that it can take on the mental/physical/emotional health of students. However, we also want to make something that is somewhat light-hearted, funny, and fun to make; all of which we believe we’ll get to do with this story.

Now that we have the concept and framework for our story, it's time to fill it with interesting characters and rich details!