Video Essay Script

Hi, I’m Rachel and let’s talk about Production context. {INSERT CLIPS OF DIFFERENT FILMS
THROUGH HISTORY} It’s obvious that films change over time, because the things happening
during those years are going to influence the creator and their work. {INSERT CLIPS OF THE
DIFFERENT JOCKERS} That’s why the joker’s behaviour changes in each film he’s in. But this
video isn’t about the Joker and how this character has been represented over the years. No,
{INSERT CLIPS OF THE TWO FILM} this video is about the representation shown in Beautiful
Thing and Love Simon and how production context makes these films different from each
other.
In both films being gay is normal, now that doesn’t mean the characters don’t experiences
negative things because of their sexualities, because that’s not true in love Simon, Simon is
publicly humiliated, blackmailed and outed while in beautiful thing Ste’s already abusive
brother becomes more violent after he sleeps over at Jamie’s, and there both terrified of
what others will say and do if they find out their dating, until the final scene.
Now Ste and Jamie’s reactions are completely normal for two gay teen in 1996, because
though England was becoming more progressive with gay bars and safe places opening, the
first pride being held in northern Ireland and with homosexuality being legalised in that
decade, 1994 to be exact, it didn’t mean they were completely safe because there was still a
high chances for them to be killed. In the 1990’s alone 11 gay people died, 5 of they died at
the hands of Colin Ireland a serial killer who only killed gay men and became known as the
gay slayer, 3 died in the Admiral Duncan booming where David Copeland a British National
party member tried to kill many LGBTQ+ people by attack this gay bar (however this
situation in 1999 so after the film was released but I believe that this fact is important to
include) .
For Simon’s situation its slightly more dramatized because being blackmailed isn’t that
common but his fear of being outed is very real. Because though gay marriage was legalised
in 2015 some American states are still trying to fight against the LGBTQ+ community,
{INSERT MAP OF HOMOPHOBIC STATES} especially religious areas like Texas. In areas like
Texas and Ohio they still have laws against the gay community for example in Ohio’s hate
crime law doesn’t cover sexuality and gender identity only their federal law does. This mean
the state has slight protection for LGBTQ+ people, plus conversion therapy is still legal in
many counties like America and the UK. However, Love Simon is set in Georgia were
discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity has been outlawed since
2014 however it still has some homophobic laws. But there are more states supporting the
LGBTQ+ community instead of discriminating against it and every state has a supportive
centre, church’s or just general resource’s that you can find on websites like, gaychurch.org
and lgbtcenters.org. So, when I say these film’s present being gay as normal, I mean they
just show that gay people are like everyone else except they have to deal with things like
this. This fact is even highlighted in Simon’s opening monolog where he talks about how
normal he is except he must hide a massive part of himself. {INSERT PART OF MONOLOGE
HERE}.
 Video Essay Script
Another theme both these film’s share is single parenting. Now this theme is a lot more
prominent in Beautiful thing because all the parents we see are single parents while in Love
Simon we see a wide range of families, from traditional 4 people families to single parents.
Both of these films have divorced single parent family’s because the divorce rate peek in the
1980’s and has stayed quite high since then, so because the films are showing diversity in
sexuality they are also going to show diverse families to show that not every family or
relationship is the same. However Beautiful thing runs into a problem by having both Ste
and Jamie come from broken homes, it suggests that their family problems turned them
gay. Now anyone with common cense would know this isn’t how it works however most
conversion therapist and religious groups believe that gay people are only queer because
they have negative relationships with their parents {INSERT CLIP FROM CONVERSION
TEORIPY DOCUMENTARY}, so because both of the boys come from broken and abusive
families, it suggests that this homophobic point is correct even though the film is trying to
portray the opposite.
Now a topic that is only brought up in beautiful thing is aids. {Insert clip here}. Now though
it was only briefly mentioned the reason it was mentioned is very important. So though the
cure for aid’s was discovered in the same year as the film’s release it was still a very
terrifying topic, the disease had coursed mass panic in the gay community and no one knew
how it came about, this hysteria led to a lot of propaganda and many religious groups said it
was the work of god and nature getting back at the gays for being unnatural, and people
would refuse to touch people with aids because they were confused on how aid’s spread.
Surprisingly though there was some content that didn’t spread hate like the captain planet
episode {INSERT CLIP HEAR). Though a cure was found the fear was still there and that’s why
when Jamie comes out he mentions it because he’s scared, he’s scared of what his mum will
say and he’s scared of the disease and he sees it as a negative of being gay. Now the reason
Love Simon doesn’t mention it is because its no longer a scary subject well at least it’s not as
scary as it was before, since 1996 less people have died from the illness and are now able to
live with it. Plus, there is more understanding about the condition as well as support/help
groups for people with it and charities like CAF, National aids trust and many more. Now
that doesn’t mean people don’t die from aids at all, sadly that’s not true, but we are getting
more control over the disease. So, because Aid’s is less of a threat to people it wasn’t
mentioned in the film.