GDC, Week 8&9: Photonovel

After doing the secondary research for the topic, middle child, I wanted to get more insights on how middle children actually felt, are what the media portrays them to be, or is it all just a theory?

To conduct the primary research, I happen to have some friends that were placed in the middle of their siblings, so I've contacted them through text messages and interviewed them.

Some questions I asked:

1. If you could describe what’s it like being a middle child in one word, what would it be? And why?

2. Have you ever experienced being neglected by your family? Give a time that happened?

3. Is there someone else in your family that you think appreciated you more than your parents?

4. Do you always feel like you need to stand up for yourself during arguments with your family member?

5. Have you told your parents about the unequal treatment between your siblings?

6. The happiest moment you had with your family.

7. The most unforgettable moment you had with you've experienced with your family?

Interviewee 1:

For my first interviewee, she had experienced a struggle with understanding the unfair treatment her parents showed, but she soon let go of her fixation and moved on with her life. She said even though most of the time she still encounters such treatment, she felt that it wasn't much of a big deal.

Conversations between interviewee 1

Interviewee 2:

Interviewee 2 on the other hand says she usually does feel left out by her family. She felt neglected and compared all the time with her siblings, and so she felt like there's no use in arguing with her parents when things were unfair. She also resorts to another elderly figure which is her grandparents, she said they picked her side most of the time and gifted her with special presents only she would have.

Conversations between interviewee 2

Colour Palette

Coco, 2017

Movie scene with dark, warm tones.

After hearing their stories, I felt like the middle child is constantly living in the past, most of the time pondering about the memories that make them feel like they aren't important to their family. With that in mind, I chose a color which is brown, for my photonovel, just to symbolize, that most of the time, a middle child's life is constantly looking back, like looking at memories that they felt injustice. The brown that I thought of is like the filter Sepia, which will create a grainy effect like in the old photographs.