Idea for movie about autistic mother: Made of Iron

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Ganondox
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21 Feb 2015, 6:07 pm

I have an idea for a movie about an autistic single mother, and I looking to see what people think of the idea and any other input. The title is Made of Iron, referring to two things: the main character, Sarah's, unfaulting resilience, and her apparent lack of emotion. Both of course are completely false as she isn't made of iron, she's made of flesh. I'd like for it to be an animated film, preferably in a styled approach akin to color pencil drawing and while the detailed parts are very detailed, it's overall minimalistic. There would probably be some symbolic stuff as well, but not to the extent it would be confusing literally, for example clothing reflecting personality like Sarah normally wearing a grey hoody, but in one passionate scene she wears a red dress and has her hair done, and the level of detail on faces varies depending on her awareness of them. The narrative is quasi-linear: there is no mindscrewing like Memento, but there is numerous narratives exploring a secondary narrative, and for dramatic effect not all of the scenes are chronological order. For example, there is a scene where she attempts suicide, but the suicide attempt is shown after she is discovered.

As for the actual plotline, the main narrative shows her raising her young daughter and following her usual routine. After getting into a conflict with an ableist neighbor she calls the child protection services on her and manages to make her lose custody. Afterwards she attempts suicide through pill overdose, but is saved by an acquaintance who comes to her home after noticing she didn't show up when always does. After she recovers stuff happens, there is this romantic subplot, and eventually she manages to win custody back and maybe marries, I dunno. Flashbacks tell a side plot were she centered around her sexuality and want for but fear of intimacy. One part is her seeing a gynecologist and getting traumatized by the experience, and later she is diagnosed with an ASD. She gets a relationship with some man which eventually results in her pregnancy, after having sex for the first time she has to see a gynecologist again and her anxiety. Her fear of being seen naked is both literal and symbolic: Just as you can't have sex without taking your pants off, you can't reach emotional intimacy without leaving yourself vulnerable. Anyway, something happens with the relationship, which leaves Sarah as a single mother in the present and even more guarded than before, trying to heal by metaphorically turning to steel. This ties into the main plot where she starts a relationship with a new man and must learn to trust again. Not sure how exactly to make it all work as I'm trying to avoid some unfortunate implications, for example how did Sarah end up allowing sex in the first place, if it was rape it could explain that and while he isn't there, but there is lots of unfortunate implications for her relationship with her daughter and whatnot. Her getting together with the other guy later may make people think that a girl's need a man, which is not what I'm saying at all. So I'm still fleshing things out.


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TheAP
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21 Feb 2015, 7:10 pm

That sounds like a really interesting idea. I love books and movies with autistic main characters. Are you a filmmaker?



Ganondox
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22 Feb 2015, 2:47 am

TheAP wrote:
That sounds like a really interesting idea. I love books and movies with autistic main characters. Are you a filmmaker?


I came up with the idea while studying in a college film class, but aside from a highschool film class, I haven't actually made any movies. I have no animating skill, so I can't make this myself.


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ominous
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22 Feb 2015, 3:09 am

Ganondox wrote:
I came up with the idea while studying in a college film class, but aside from a highschool film class, I haven't actually made any movies. I have no animating skill, so I can't make this myself.


The idea is really cool. If you have access to a camera you can learn how to do stop motion animation. It's very time consuming but generally easy and inexpensive.



Ganondox
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22 Feb 2015, 2:45 pm

ominous wrote:
Ganondox wrote:
I came up with the idea while studying in a college film class, but aside from a highschool film class, I haven't actually made any movies. I have no animating skill, so I can't make this myself.


The idea is really cool. If you have access to a camera you can learn how to do stop motion animation. It's very time consuming but generally easy and inexpensive.


I don't want to do stop motion animation, it's not the style I'm looking for, I want it to be hand drawn. I want this to be professional, so for the planning phase money and difficulty are not an object.


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ominous
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22 Feb 2015, 3:29 pm

Ganondox wrote:
ominous wrote:
Ganondox wrote:
I came up with the idea while studying in a college film class, but aside from a highschool film class, I haven't actually made any movies. I have no animating skill, so I can't make this myself.


The idea is really cool. If you have access to a camera you can learn how to do stop motion animation. It's very time consuming but generally easy and inexpensive.


I don't want to do stop motion animation, it's not the style I'm looking for, I want it to be hand drawn. I want this to be professional, so for the planning phase money and difficulty are not an object.


Ah ok, cool.



Ganondox
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23 Feb 2015, 1:52 am

Should have mentioned it in the first post, but one thing I'm wondering if there is any autistic women who have had similar experiences to this.


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