Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-12736261-20140708180230/@comment-10734109-20150314223207

I personally think that everyone should be currently living in the U.S.A. That way the school wouldn't seem super prestegious or highly ranking, and the community would be a bit closer. However, we could have it so that some characters may have parents who'd moved from another country, or even so that some of the characters moved to the U.S. when they were really young (I have two friends who were born in India). And there is, of course, the idea that everyone would be coming from different areas of the country. And if we want it to be more realistic, we might want to look at these maps and stuff to see which states have higher concentrations of certain races/ethnicities: http://www.businessinsider.com/maps-of-ancestry-groups-in-america-2013-9?op=1

That doesn't necessarily mean that EVERYONE of ethnicity "x" comes from a certain region, but it would be more likely. So basically it would make more sense to situate Janika in Washington rather than, say, Montana.

Story wise, we will (of course) be starting with one of the main four (Kaitlin, Kim, Andrew, Farid). Personally, I think that Kaitlin should be our establishing character for a couple different reasons. First of all, she's fairly talkative. She's outgoing and is an extrovert, so she'd be more likely to speak her mind without needing to really get used to other people like some of the other characters may have to. We'd need a lot less thought bubbles/narration boxes to establish the scene, and we could easily begin interraction with other characters. Secondly, she doesn't really seem to have anything significant that she'd keep private. Though Andrew is also pretty outgoing and likes conversating with others, he also has the quirk of being gay. Though this will not come into the story immediately, it is something that will be kept from the audience. I feel as though people may not be quite as interested in Kaitlin if we introduce her later because she doesn't really have that extra oddity that sets her apart from everyone else, and she just seems like the kind of person who could easily assymilate into any group. However, this wouldn't really be a problem if she were the first to be introduced, and it could easily enhance different aspects of other characters' personalities.

Plus, I had the idea that she could be good friends with Camilla before coming to this school. If she was introduced first, this idea would become apparent, and it wouldn't be like every "new school" story where the new kid comes in to the school without knowing anyone and is left to their own devices until someone says hello. We could replace some of the narration boxes relating to the school with an active conversation between the two as they're traversing the hallways and entering the assembly. On the other hand, if she wasn't introduced first it would just seem as though she and Camilla had met in the school during one of their classes and hit it off really well, unless we were to explain it. Naturally, though, that would take away from the experience with the characters. Either way, Kaitlin will still get her moment to be placed in a situation with people who she doesn't know too well (a.k.a. her roomates). What will happen when the talkative popular girl is placed in the same room as the smart kid (Brooklyn), the weeaboo (Janika), and (of course) the intimidating one (Kim)? Certainly, it'll be interesting to say the least. We'll still need to work out how to involve the boys, though.