As someone who has never gone through a series breakup, creating a short about a breakup is a bit of a daunting task. So to get a better idea of how a breakup would go and the aftermath of it I interviewed one of my friends who went through a bad breakup last year.
This is the story as told to be my friend Kristin. Last year Kristin broke up with her longtime girlfriend after she moved away. She told me her story starting with the decline of her previous relationship up until present day, where she is in a new relationship and is happily in love. Kristin described the feeling of being so lost after the breakup and the different ways in which she coped with the sadness associated with it. She told me of her main source of relief, music. She wrote songs upon songs as a way to get her emotions out and into the open; she used music as a release for all the conflicting emotions she felt inside. This revelation helped me realize that any creative outlet, like music, art, and writing could be useful in expressing yourself, especially when it comes to a breakup. Kristin also told me about her jam-packed work schedule following the separation. As another method to distract herself she threw herself into her work. She said that keeping busy with work was the perfect way to focus on something else besides the sadness she felt. She wanted to feel better and stop feeling sad, so instead of getting stuck in her own head, she picked herself up and tried to move on with her life. When it finally came to getting out of her post-breakup slump, she told me something extremely interesting that was a bit shocking, she looked for a rebound. I was expecting her to say that she realized she didn't need a relationship to be happy (which she later clarified that she doesn't) but ultimately she said while her intentions were never to find anything serious, she ended up falling in love. She also told me about her continuing friendship with her ex. Although Kristin is no longer in love with her ex, she didn't want to end things on bad terms. Kristin is someone who sees value in each and every relationship she is apart of, whether they end badly or not, because she feels that they were each an important part of her life at one point or another.
This interview with Kristin really opened up my eyes to the complexity of breakups and how to get over them. While "rebounds" are usually connected with a negative connotation, they can end up being something really important and not as sleazy as it first appears to be. After hearing what Kristin had to say, I now have a much clearer view on how I want to portray the characters in my short film and how they each represent certain coping methods that are unique to them.
My female character will represent a more introverted approach to a breakup. As inspirited by situations like Kristin's, she writes as a way of expressing her feelings, and after she is dumped by her boyfriends her writing takes on new meaning.
My male character takes a more active approach at dealing with his breakup. He begins in a state in denial and then traditions into distracting himself, and it that way he is similar to Kristin and the way she handled her breakup. He begins to work any times he can and exercising in any free time he has as a way to get out and forget about his anger and sadness about the situation.
I want these two characters to contrast each other, but to still be connected by their experience and the similar ways they deal with the end of a relationship.
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