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Senior Book Jacket: A Senior Narrative Book Jacket by Thuy-Tien Le (2015)

The story that I wrote is about a 23-year-old, self-proclaimed nice guy, Michael. He is, and has been, in love with his best friend, Emily, since high school. Despite his ongoing attempts to show her that he likes her, she does not see or reciprocate his affections. Even worse for Michael, Emily has been dating her college boyfriend, Brandon, for five years now and he has just proposed to her. Upon hearing the news of their engagement, Michael is conflicted between his role of being her best friend and his fantasies of her falling for him. He finally decides that Emily is happy with Brandon and gradually accepts that Emily has chosen Brandon. The story has the ongoing theme of dismantling the ideology that nice guys always deserve the girl just because they're nice.

For my mise en scene, I wanted to capture one of the most pivotal scene in the whole story: when Michael tells Emily that he is happy for her. The scene is very intense because Michael finally admits to Emily that he has liked her for a while and explains his lack of excitement and harsh actions towards her earlier on in the story. In this scene, Michael and Emily talk about where they go from here and they both decide that they need some time to come to terms with their emotions towards each other. I composed the shot by placing the girl, Emily, on one side of the tree and the boy, Michael, on the other side to represent that they are not seeing eye-to-eye. The tree also represents the break that they eventually decide to go on. The subjects are on the rules of thirds and the picture is slightly warm because I thought it looked nice and love is warm.
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