The Dying Sea

Trailer Description: The Dying Sea is inspired by the personal experience of the creator Ray Chan. After ten years away from home, Ray discovered many negative impacts to the place he grew up. These changes are the direct result of man’s action. The story of The Dying Sea tells a similar story. The main character Jaden discovers changes in his hometown and later found out that his family is also responsible for the damage done to the sea.

Vision Statement

Plot summary: The Dying Sea is about an international student name Jaden who returned to his hometown after ten years and discovered a series of changes to the place he grew up in. To make the situation worse he also found out that his family business is involving in this scandal.   Jaden lives in New York city attending college. He was born and raised in a coastal city close to the Pacific Ocean. Jaden’s family owned a company which operates serval chemical factories in the city. In the summer of 2020, he returns to his hometown for vacation. It has been 10 years since the left this city.  During his time at the town, he discovers massive changes to the surrounding environment. He later found out that the chemical factories his family-owned is engaging in dumping chemical waste into the ocean. He brings this issue to his father, the CEO of the company. His father admits the fact that the company is involved but told him that other factories are also doing the same thing and there is no reason they should stop. After the research, he found out that his father is right. A lot of other factories also disposal of their waste this way. He warms his father to stop but his father calls his idea childish and decides to ignore him. After several days of struggle, he decided that he could not watch his home slowly being destroyed. Then he went to the media to expose these factories which lead to the downfall of his family business. 

Research elements: The Dying Sea revels the real crisis the ocean is facing. This film will be in a similar system with a documentary and include facts and statistics. Therefore, the research will be mainly focused on the waste we added to the sea and its impact on marine animals and ecosystems.  One of the most common pollutions is plastic pollution which in this film, we will see a lot of plastic trash flowing on the sea. Many of those plastic items are purposely dump into the ocean for disposal. Howard explains in his article “Marine pollution, explained” that many of these plastic bags end up being consumed by other marine animals like sea turtles and seabirds because they look like food to them. Marine mammals are not capable of digest plastics, which they will die slowly after consuming. Howard further elaborates, “Dying marine mammals, washing up on shore, also contain plastic inside their stomachs” Another source of pollution is chemical pollution. Some of the common pollutants include “pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, detergents, oil, industrial chemicals, and sewage” (Howard) The main character Jaden’s family operates serval chemical factories which also produce fertilizers and detergents. These chemicals alter the chemistry of the ocean and stimulate the rapid growth of toxic algae which disturb the ecosystem of the ocean. In Crable’s article, she mentions “changing nutrient availability can interact to boost both the toxicity and abundance of domoic-acid producing species in the genus Pseudo-nitzschia. Domoic acid is the toxin responsible for shellfish poisoning in humans.” A chemical compound like fertilizer provides nutrient to the algae which result in repaid grow of toxic algae. Humans will eventually impact as algae being moved up in the food chain. All this information will be given in the film in the form of images or text.

Creative intentions: The film The Dying Sea is inspired by the music video and song “Earth Song” by Michael Jackson. The music video utilizes a lot of the scenes shifting from the past to the future to demonstrate the change of environment result of our action. The scene shifting will also be one of the motifs in The Dying Sea. The main character Jaden will often recall the past imagery of this town which is ten years ago from now. The difference in the scene will reveal the change of the surrounding environment with human action. The music video also includes a series of shocking images taken from newspapers and documentaries. The use of real images makes the scenes in the video realistic which allows people to make a personal connection to it. The Dying Sea will be filmed in a real coastal city that suffers from pollution issues to demonstrate the harm humans have done to the place they call home. Shocking images such as dead marine animals will be included as a device to trigger emotions like grieved and sympathy among the audience. With the intention to inform and educate the general public about the pollution issue mankind is facing. The film will have a similar style to a documentary film. The interview will be one of the tropes in this film. The main character will be doing interviews with people in this town on his journey of discovering who is responsible for the dumping waste into the ocean.  At the end of the film will provide facts and statistics on the topic.

Target audience: The target audience for The Dying Sea will be the general public. Similar to the “Earth Song” this film is trying to convey the message of environmental issues we are facing and especially the burden humankind put on the ocean. Unlike the topic of climate change, oceanic pollution is rarely mentioned in middle and high school textbooks. I think this is unfair since the issue of pollution is directly related to our human activities. It is easier for us to make changes if everyone is aware and educated on this topic. There is a scene in the music video that left a deep impression on me which is how people acknowledge what is happening in their surroundings, but they are not able to do anything about it or chose to ignore it. This is what the audience will see in the film, where the local knows that the factories are dumping waste into the ocean but chose not to do anything about it. In fact, these locals didn’t realize that they were the ones suffering from it. I want the audience to see and understand that those issues are real and exist. It is never too late to take action protecting what we have left.