Historical Story Artist Statement

Earthquake

           The historical event we chose for our script was the Northridge, California earthquake which occurred on January 17, 1994. We incorporated this week's reading in trying to display how this historic event would affect individuals on the family level. Just as the 1980 cultural conflict affected the girl and her family in our reading of “The Veil,” we contemplated how an earthquake, and potentially deadly situation, would affect individuals in a family. While “The Veil” presented the relationship between the cultural conflict in a comical view, from the child's perspective, we tried to explore the sentimental route of the earthquake's effect on a dysfunctional family. We took advantage of the opportunity to present a story based around the facts of when and where the earthquake hit and what could happen. In this sense, we explored the dynamic relationship between how our fictional characters acted—initially the classic angry son who learns his responsibility in the family—with the fictional, but common family situation, in the real environment that we placed them in. In other words we tried to explore how the life-threatening situation of the shattering earthquake would effect an already broken family.

            
               The initial idea for the historical script was a mom and son surviving the earthquake and becoming closer because of it. In the collaboration process we created a script that depicts a mother and son struggling to overcome the recent abandonment of the father and husband. The earthquake comes to be a metaphor for how the characters felt internally during their emotional struggle, and provides a medium for them to symbolically let go of things out of their control. Once the mother and son decide to move on and work together against the uncontrollable situation they have been placed in, they become a stronger, slightly more functional family unit.

              A movie that shares a similar theme of disaster bringing family together is the film Deep Impact produced in 1998. When news of a meteor possibly crashing into Earth hits the inhabitants of our planet, we see the "impact" it has on a father and daughter, as well as a newly married husband and wife. Each character has their internal struggles that shine through and must be resolved before their ultimate physical destruction takes place.

           The sources we drew from for this assignment helped us gather the facts regarding the earthquake. We learned the location, covering the San Fernando Valley community of Northridge, and the time it hit, around 4:31 in the morning. The Los Angeles Daily News was a close to home report on the event and the NBC timeline article also gave us a detailed timeline of the events, such as the initial quake and many of the devastating reports—including widespread fires and floods, some of which we incorporated into our story. It was a devastating event, but like all others had some positive repercussions: bringing families closer and reminding people in general how important others in their lives truly are.

Sources:http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20140111/northridge-earthquake-1994-disaster-still-fresh-in-los-angeles-minds-after-20-years, http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Timeline-The-Northridge-Earthquake-240665071.html