To the best of your ability, please briefly fill out the progress report. This is a shortened version of your final paper.
1. What is the topic of your historical film? This could be a person, organization, movement, or event. It has to have happened in real life and the main characters have to be real historical figures. Include a brief summary of the actual history.
*Historical person I choose for this assignment is Dolores Huerta.
SAMPLE: I want to make a movie about Wat Misaka (1923-2019), the first non-white man to play (albeit very briefly) in the NBA. The speedy 57 guard won two college championships at the University of Utah, served his country in uniform during World War II, and was beloved by teammates and fans alike. Because of his basketball talents, he was able to attend college and play basketball as other Japanese in Utah were forced into concentration camps during the 1940s.
2. Show me your three-act structure. Include a single sentence heading and then a few more details after. Here is a sample structure below:
Act I: Wat discovers a love for basketball
Introduce the main characters and present the central problem of the story. Wat is the protagonist of the story. His younger brother Tatsumi also plays basketball, a sport they both excel at in the all-Japanese leagues they play in because the mainstream leagues wont allow nonwhites.
Act II: Wat becomes a college basketball champion
Wat and Tat dont see eye-to-eye on race relations. The older brother Wat refuses to see racism, but younger brother Tat is all too aware how white people treat Japanese who arent star athletes. Wat wins a national championship in 1944, but its his two years of service in the military that opens him up to the racism people face.
Act III: Wat becomes a champion in sports and life
Wat wins a second national championship in 1944, facing off against Kentucky, the team that defeated them in 1944 for the NIT. He also reconciles with his brother.
3. Reflection on historical accuracy: Like most historical drams, there will be some changes to the record in order to heighten drama. There is added tension between Wat and his brother. The Kentucky team will be portrayed as more hostile towards Wat. There will be added scenes of racist fans. Because of his basketball abilities, Wat faced less open racism than other Japanese Americans. For the purpose of the film, Wat must play both roles: the Japanese who can play ball and the regular Japanese. I am a big fan of main characters having a mentor, so I would likely bend the facts a little bit to include such a character.
4. Reflection on Historical Truth: Given that these events took place during World War II when the US was at war with Japan and had locked up over 100,000 Japanese Americans into concentration camps, it is conceivable that racial hostility against Japanese was at an all-time high, so the depictions of racism might not be 100% accurate, but they are realistic and plausible given the time period.
5. Reflection on Emotional Truth: We want the audience to how it felt for Wat and Tat to go through basketball to being a second-generation American to being Japanese during World War II, serving in the US Army. This experience of growing up with racism will be equally important to the basketball emotions of the film.
6. Similar films either in topic or narrative style that you want to base your film on:
Most sports films tend to focus on the coach. My favorite sports film that focuses on a player, THE NATURAL, is a fantasy story that’s not the best fit. The closest film I can think of off the top of my head is DRAGON: THE BRUCE LEE STORY because the main character (Bruce Lee) decides at the end of the film to put family ahead of his career.
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