Story Outline

 We’ve been in McLeod Ganj for a week now and I’m getting ready to start some initial filming and a deeper search for my two main characters. I am actually pretty optimistic right now because it seems like there is enough conflict and enough success to make a good story about my topic. In this last week I heard a story about a bunch of Tibetans beating up an Indian guy, and then I heard another story about some Tibetans who take care of a crippled Indian. I hope to investigate both of these more in depth, as both would be of great value to my story.

I’ve written out a brief, possible story outline for the film. It may be subject to change of course, but it’s always good to have a direction.

This is what I’m thinking:

Exposition:

• ·         Introduce Tibetan and Indian main characters (one at a time)

o  Explain who they are and how they came to be in Dharamsala

• ·         With these introductions, introduce the area – “First Impressions” clips

• ·         Characters describe the area/situation/Indian-Tibetan population

Inciting moment/Rising Action:

• ·         Through interviews with, or observational footage of general population, start to introduce conflicts between Tibetans/Indians

• ·         Go back to the two main characters and show what they’re doing to counteract conflicts and improve relations

• ·         Show conflicts/difficulties in these character’s goals

Crisis:

• ·         Any additional big-time conflicts in the community or main character’s lives

Climax/Resolution:

• ·         Main character’s finding success

• ·         Others in the community following their example, helping others

• ·         Farewells to main characters, any final comments from them

Also I thought I might add I’ve been reading a report from a former India field study student who came a couple years ago and studied the relationship between Indians and Tibetans. She was looking at it from more of a technical and political perspective, but what she found has been a help to me in understanding the situation. Basically what she says is that the general rule for good relationships between separate communities, people, or cultures, is that the more interaction there is between the two, the better the relationship is. But what’s strange about Dharamsala and McLeod Ganj is that the Tibetans and Indians tend to keep to themselves, but somehow still manage to have a good relationship (good mainly meaning non-violent or non-problematic). In her research she came to the conclusion that the reason they have a good relationship despite their lack of interaction, is that they have found a way to benefit from each other. Tibetans benefit from India because they have been given a place to live and have been granted the ability to run their own government. In return, Indians benefit financially from the great amount of tourism that Tibetans have brought to this part of India. So because of the benefits, neither side has a lot they can complain about, because without each other, they would probably be worse off.

So that explanation could possibly come in to play somewhere in the film, but I don’t think it necessarily needs to for my purposes. Either way, this study has helped me to understand the relationship better, and I feel like it will at least guide the direction and questions of the film.