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THE CUSP Web Series ProductionA Capstone Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of theRequirements of the Renée Crown University Honors Program atSyracuse UniversityCaroline MaguireCandidate for Bachelor of Artsand Renée Crown University HonorsMay 2020Honors Capstone Project in Television, Radio & FilmCapstone Project Advisor:Tula Goenka, ProfessorCapstone Project Reader:Shaina Holmes, ProfessorHonors Director: Dr. Danielle Taana SmithAbstractThe Cusp is a three-episode comedy web series that explores identity in young adulthood. Specifically, generational identity for people who lack a generation known as Cuspers, considered too young for Millennial status but too old for Gen Z. Told through the narrative of two best friends in their senior year of college, main characters Pat and Chris find themselves in an especially confusing place as their doubt and fear about their impending adulthood is compounded by their confusion over which generation they should align with. The Cusp aims to be a voice for the nonexistent generation. Logline: Idealistic but lazy college seniors Pat and Chris grapple with their impending doom (adulthood) by desperately clinging to youth and tormenting acquaintances as they try to convince themselves they’re still hip, cool, and young.Executive SummaryThe Cusp is a comedic narrative web series which explores the identities of people born within the gap between Millennials and Gen Z known as Cuspers (1993-1998). Insecure in their identity and uncertain of generational allegiances, main characters and best friends Pat and Chris leech off the cultural impact Gen Z has had on popular culture to avoid their impending adulthood. The series addresses themes like fear of ageing and failure, feelings of missing one’s prime, and insecurity about the future through the eyes of the woefully unprepared Pat and Chris as they grapple with their identity.I chose to produce the web series on top of writing the scripts because people are more likely to watch a web series than to read the scripts. I wanted to make something I could share with others and to showcase to future employers and collaborators. Additionally, I needed to push my own boundaries as a filmmaker, so I used the opportunity to take on the role of writer, producer, director, and editor. I had the resources and passion for the web series, so it was time to take a chance on myself.The state of the entertainment industry is constantly evolving. Amateur creators on digital platforms like YouTube and TikTok often have a greater impact on audiences than many television shows produced with massive budgets and big name stars. People have a greater chance than ever to ‘make it’ in Hollywood because of the accessibility of video sharing services like YouTube and Vimeo. Consequently, filmmakers no longer need permission to tell and share stories. With accessibility and opportunity there has not been a better time to create and share digital content like The Cusp.AcknowledgmentsThe Cusp owes its existence to the guidance and support of many people. First, my screenwriting professors, Julie and David Chambers, for helping me shape the series. My advisor Professor Tula Goenka for trusting my vision and providing the constant support, confidence, and push I needed to get the project done. Professor Shaina Holmes for leading an inspiring trip to Sundance Film Festival and lending her post production expertise as the Reader on my thesis. The Renée Crowne University Honors program and all its staff for giving me the opportunity, support, and education to pursue a passion project of mine. S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications for the skills and experiences necessary to complete a student film project. The College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University for expanding my knowledge and making me a more well-rounded student and person. My parents for giving me the opportunity to have this education.Additionally, the support of my peers who helped me enormously throughout production all of whom I’ve credited after each episode of the series. Filmmaking is a collaborative process and I am grateful my talented friends gave their time and effort to The Cusp production. Finally, to my dear friends who inspired the inane adventures of Pat and Chris. To Adam, Darlene, Kayla, Rebecca, and my star Daniel. Table of ContentsAbstract2Executive Summary3Acknowledgements4Chapter One: Introduction6Chapter Two: Generational Identity7Chapter Three: Web Series9Chapter Four: Process10Writing10Producing11Directing 12Editing12Chapter Five: Inspiration14Chapter Six: Takeaways16Works Cited17Chapter One: IntroductionThe comedic narrative web series The Cusp presents an opportunity for people born on the cusp of Millennial and Gen Z to recognize their specific generational anxieties in media. Each episode of the web series forces main characters Pat and Chris to interact with the Gen Z community, and while Pat and Chris deny Millennials, they cannot relate to Gen Z no matter how desperately they try. Cuspers are a tiny generation, born between 1993 and 1998, which causes the stories of Cuspers to go untold. Consequently, Cusper identity is laced with confusion due to the lack of recognition of Cusper status on the generational spectrum. The Cusp expresses a voice for Cuspers and attempts to absolve some confusion by presenting recognizable representatives for the unique Cusper generation. Ideally, the web series will prompt other Cuspers to tell more stories while will continue to solidify the Cusper identity.Creating The Cusp needed to be an immersive experience to properly tell the a story for the Cusper ‘generation’. I first had to understand the nuances of the Cusper Identity to create characters and conflicts, so I drew from my own experiences and research in psychology. I then determined a web series was the best vehicle to deliver the story because the intersection of Millennials, Cuspers, and Gen Z exists on video sharing platforms. From there, creating the project pushed my skillset in writing, producing, directing, and editing. The encompassing experience in production allowed me to incorporate the ethos of the Cusper generation I aimed to represent into every aspect of the filmmaking process. In my pursuit to be a voice for the Cusper generation, I created a web series which also improved my skills as a filmmaker and set me up for my ideal future in comedy screenwriting.Chapter Two: Generational IdentityBefore I could write about Cuspers, I had to understand how generational allegiance affects behavior, so I assessed the concept of Identity. My major at Syracuse University besides Television, Radio & Film is Psychology. Within the study of Psychology, I am most interested in the concept of Personality and Identity. Psychology Today explains “Identity relates to our basic values that dictate the choices we make. These choices reflect who we are and what we value.” Therefore, Identity plays a crucial role in how people relate to the world and a “lack of a coherent sense of identity will lead to uncertainty about what one wants to do in life.” The web series explores generational identity, or lack thereof. While generational identity does not dictate one’s entire being, finding community within a generation is still influential on personality. Groups of generations have experienced major world events together and can generally relate to one another through the common popular culture they share. The comradery within generations can be seen through the jokes and memes shared online such as the trope Millennials spend so much money on avocado toast they cannot buy homes. Or the popular “okay Boomer” trend which makes fun of the supposedly technologically and culturally out of touch Baby Boomer generation. People find meaning and relatability within their peer group which explains the pride and defensive tendencies displayed in the criticism of other generations. So, what happens to those without a generation? Cuspers were born between Millennials and Gen Z and cannot relate entirely to either generation, so they have a psyche of their own. As Psychology Today stated, a lack of identity leads to uncertainty in life and decisions. Since lack of a generation does not qualify someone as identity-less, I took an exaggerated and comical look at generational identity for the web series. To double down on the crisis of Cuspers, people on this cusp are also in their early twenties on the cusp of adulthood. A stressful transition in life, the added uncertainty of where to align generation-wise doubles down on the confusion. In The Cusp, I wrote a story about two Cuspers who are terrified of growing up, and therefore try to stay young by rejecting Millennial culture and aligning with Gen Z culture, which rejects them. The scenarios in The Cusp are dramatized and absurd, but the assessment of Identity through creative arts reflects my outlook on how my non-generation generation relates to the world.Chapter Three: Web SeriesA digital format supports the themes of The Cusp as the internet is the defining commonality between Millennials, Cuspers, and Gen Z. Additionally, digital is the only accessible platform for new filmmakers with no reputation in the entertainment industry. The most common options for creative narrative digital content are short films or a web series. A short film would not have encapsulated the stories I wanted to tell with The Cusp. Additionally, my favorite pieces of content in recent years have been web series including Eighty-Sixed created by Cazzie David and Elisa Kalani and 555 by Andrew DeYoung which both capture the essence of their millennial generations in smart and comical ways. I wanted to represent my generation, but when choosing a Capstone class there were no courses specifically focused on creating content for digital release. Consequently, I turned to an independent study to pursue web series production. Web series are now considered “the new TV Pilot”, or a way for creators to prove their content is worthy of support from entertainment companies. The practice has worked for many web series turned television series like Broad City by Abby Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, Insecure by Issa Rae, and High Maintenance by Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld. Launching a web series allows audiences to learn a creator’s voice and style and enables creators to show potential buyers a preview of the content they could create on a greater scale. A web series was not only the best format for The Cusp, but a format with the greatest potential to launch myself into a television career. After settling on a topic and format for The Cusp I finally had to make the project. Chapter Four: ProcessThe process of creating The Cusp broadened my abilities as a filmmaker, solidified my desire to pursue comedy writing, and allowed me to create a narrative based on the behavior of Cuspers. The process included writing, production, directing, and post-production.WritingThe Cusp’s three episodes follow the days of Pat and Chris. The Cusp’s episode premises seem typical on the surface, but they explore deeper insecurities and themes through Pat and Chris’ interactions.The first episode of the series is called ‘Photoshoot’. The audience meets Pat and Chris in a conundrum; they have no good pictures together to post on their Instagram pages. To amend the situation, Chris recruits his Instagram Influencer cousin Bryce to take their pictures – his twelve-year-old cousin. Desperate to impress, Pat and Chris take Bryce down memory lane of their college adventures through the photoshoot. Bryce tells the pair she will not be attending college because she already has a career as an influencer, especially after seeing how little Pat and Chris learned at school. Placing Pat and Chris in direct contact with a quintessential Gen Z person was a fun way to express their admiration of Gen Z and a representative of Gen Z’s disdain for them. Additionally, showcasing the confidence and security of Bryce juxtaposed with Pat and Chris’ desperation and insecurity highlights how the character’s generational security affects their personalities. In the second episode, ‘Birthday’, Pat and Chris go to what they thought was a twenty-first birthday party for their obnoxiously successful classmate Sophie, however Sophie is only turning twenty years old. The minor age gap sends Pat and Chris into a downward spiral about their age and lack of success comparatively. Any semblance of confidence Pat and Chris had crumbles when they realize their peers are moving on with their lives while Pat and Chris are stuck in limbo.In the third and final episode, ‘Viral’, Pat and Chris decide to become TikTok famous. They end up arguing over the choreography of a TikTok dance, but they reconcile over their fear of being considered millennials if they do not impress Gen Z kids. Their TikTok flops and they get bullied on the site, but they won’t give up and explore other avenues to fame. This episode most explicitly talks about the generational allegiance struggle of Pat and Chris. Pat and Chris reject Millennials but then get rejected by Gen Z, in the end they question if “the teens are still on Tumblr?” signifying their quest for belonging and acceptance continues. The three episodes are stand-alone stories with no concrete over-arching conclusion because the series is not done. I hope to create more episodes with these characters, and while three episodes was the maximum I could produce in a year as a student, the characters of Pat and Chris are more expansive. I need more time to explicitly address Pat and Chris’ reckoning with their generational identity in which the pair will eventually wake up to their adulthood and take ownership of their own place in the generational spectrum. Pat and Chris will finally move forward with a mission (surely misguided and selfish, but a mission nonetheless) to leave their own mark on the world as Cuspers. Three episodes felt too soon for Pat and Chris to reach their ultimate crisis of identity, but three episodes is also not enough for the audience to recognize the unique conundrum of the Cusper entering adulthood.ProducingProducing a web series widened my skillsets as a filmmaker and I learned to operate in a state of organized chaos. I had to think creatively as well as logistically, which was a difficult task but I balanced the scheduling, casting, food services, assembling a crew, and more by myself because I ran a small set with limited locations. This allowed me to accomplish my production goals while maintaining a safe and healthy set. My main takeaway from producing The Cusp was respect for the craft of producing. Producing requires a creative outlook in every decision to fulfill the project’s goals, no matter how miniscule or logistical the task may seem. For example, when selecting a crew, I chose my main collaborator Saachi Jain who served as my cinematographer because she has an aesthetic and artistic style perfect for The Cusp and a digital format. Every decision was assessed with the purpose of the web series in mind to create the best possible project. Production vastly improved my skills and has made me a better filmmaker.Directing Director felt like an intimidating position, so I got as prepared as I could by enrolling in a directing seminar at the Syracuse University Los Angeles semester with television director Rachel Raimist. She taught us how to compile a shot list, design a scene, block actors and cameras, and pitch a directorial vision. As valuable as the class was, the most critical lessons I learned on directing were not until I got on set. I had to learn to move on the fly and compensate for the unexpected. I learned to trust my collaborators, generate a positive atmosphere, and focus on what I could control. Directing was the hardest job I did on the project, but also the one I learned the most from. I improved my delegation skills, practiced communicating my vision with actors and crew, and proved my ability to run a set which will enable me to make more content in the future on larger and more complex scales. Editing Editing The Cusp made me more savvy with Adobe Premiere, the editing software, but more importantly the experience gave me a greater understanding of the work included in post-production. I will carry this empathy to future projects to make any future editor’s life I work with easy as possible. Wearing many hats on The Cusp including writer, director, producer, and editor was extremely daunting, but ultimately gave me a greater understanding of filmmaking. I proved to myself and others I am a versatile creator and moving forward I can be a better collaborator because I can empathize with different positions on a production.Chapter Five: InspirationI would not have had the confidence to pursue a passion project like The Cusp without the women comedians I grew up watching. Thankfully, I grew up in a culture where women comedians were not only present, but forces in the entertainment industry. Since middle school I have religiously followed their careers. I noticed how my favorite comedians created their own opportunities. Tina Fey and 30 Rock, Issa Rae and Insecure, Mindy Kaling and The Mindy Project, Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson and Broad City, and more have inspired women like me to not only pursue careers in comedy, but to embrace power and defy a society which constantly tries to control women’s actions. I want to be a comedy writer, and my mission is possible due to the masterful way women comedians before me created their own opportunities. While women comedians piqued my interest in comedy, my experiences studying Television, Radio & Film at Syracuse University pushed me to pursue the craft. I often attended guest speaker events Newhouse offered to media students. The main piece of advice successful professionals in the entertainment industry always gave boiled down to; “just do it”, and this sentiment has followed me. I worked on my first feature film set the summer after my Sophomore year called Selah and the Spades. The director, Tayarisha Poe, wrote the script for her film over five years. Without a promise of production or sale, Poe did not wait for permission, she just did it. In my final semester, I went to the Sundance Film Festival on a sponsored trip by Syracuse University. Most film screenings I attended had the same writer and director, so I gathered the best way to get a film made was to do it yourself. Finally, last month, I watched an Instagram Live with director Andrew DeYoung whose advice to young filmmakers was the same I heard a million times before; just do it. DeYoung recalled times when the crew for his short comedy videos consisted of himself and an actor. He hustled to create the content he wanted. Time and again creators tell young people if they want to create then they should stop looking for permission and start creating. A seemingly obvious sentiment is crucial to succeed. My aspirations lie in screenwriting, so I wrote a web series. However, if I wanted people to experience the work, I had to make it. So, I just did it. From sophomore year on, I collected experiences, jokes, and observations which eventually accumulated into the characters of Pat and Chris and the web series The Cusp. From there, I dove into unfamiliar waters and figured out producing, directing, and editing as I went along. I had the resources and support, so there were no excuses. To keep the tradition going; my advice to aspirational writers, directors, actors, etc.; do not wait for permission and just do it. Chapter Six: Takeaways In the future, I want to work in comedy writer’s rooms and eventually create my own comedy television show. A piece of advice I found particularly impactful about working in entertainment came from the showrunner of the hit television show Modern Family, Danny Zuker. He spoke to my television development class and said that becoming a writer in Hollywood is like hacking your way through a jungle with a machete, but with each step you take forward the path behind you closes. Everyone must hack their own route through the jungle. A terrifying and exciting analogy, I know my future career path will not be easy, but the production of The Cusp has taught me that creating comedy content in the only future I want and I am willing to brave the jungle for it. I hope the stories told in The Cusp ease the tension for Cuspers entering adulthood and allow a group of people to recognize a struggle they identify with and can grow from.Works Cited“Cuspers: Creative, Stressed, Impulsive --- Fullscreen Generational Study Shines Light on the Unique Life Stage Between Millennials and Gen Z.”?Business Wire, Businesswire, 17 June 2019. news/home/20190617005597/en/Cuspers-Creative-Stressed-Impulsive-----Fullscreen-Generational.David, Cazzie. Kalani, Elisa. “Eighty Sixed.” YouTube. , Andrew. “Rachel.” Vimeo. , Jill. “Marketers Eye a Fringe Generation in Youngest Millennials.”?Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 17 June 2019. sites/jillgoldsmith/2019/06/17/marketers-eye-a-fringe-generation-in-youngest-millennials/#2ba98c7758fa.Heshmat, Shahram. “Basics of Identity.”?Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 8 Dec. 2014. us/blog/science-choice/201412/basics-identity.“How Gen Z Is Shaping the Future of Media and Entertainment.”?Cognizant, Cognizant Corporation, 31 May 2019. perspectives/how-gen-z-is-shaping-the-future-of-media-and-entertainment.Judkis, Maura. “Perspective | Don't Mess with Millennials' Avocado Toast: The Internet Fires Back at a Millionaire.”?The Washington Post, WP Company, 15 May 2017. news/food/wp/2017/05/15/dont-mess-with-millennials-avocado-toast-the-internet-fires-back-at-a-millionaire/.Liao, Shannon. “Web Series Becoming TV Pilots Is the New Normal.”?The Verge, Vox Media, 27 Oct. 2017, 2017/10/27/16145498/insecure-broad-city-high-maintenance-web-series-hbo-comedy-central.Romano, Aja. “‘OK Boomer’ Isn't Just about the Past. It's about Our Apocalyptic Future.”?Vox, Vox, 19 Nov. 2019. 2019/11/19/20963757/what-is-ok-boomer-meme-about-meaning-gen-z-millennials.Schocket, Ryan. “16 Things People Don't Realize Are Millennial/Gen Z Cusp Culture.”?BuzzFeed, BuzzFeed, 27 July 2019. ryanschocket2/millennial-gen-z-cusp-culture.Smit, Deon. “Do you have enough “Generational Glue” in your organization?” HR Future. Dec 2017. . ................
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