Reflection Questions

1. Reflection Questions By: Stephanie Burgos AICE Media Studies

2. How does you’re product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups issues? • Part 1: Our film is a thriller genre, which means that it will give the audience a felling of suspense, surprise and anticipation which is what the film will do. The quick cuts of different clips will have the audience wonder what is going on, and then the sudden cut from light to darkness will draw up suspense that the audience would have never seen coming. • Part 2 The film represents social issues, like kidnapping and keeping people hostage. Many cases nowadays have involved kidnappings from people who appear to be the “normal, harmless,” but sadly turn out to be people with mental issues and seek to kidnap and torture others, which is not morally correct. For example, the Ariel Castro kidnappings of three women for eleven years. No one suspected him because he seemed like a “regular, normal,” person.

3. How does your project engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text? • Part 1: Audiences will be engaged throughout the opening film because it does not give too much away. The audience will only know what the main character does to appear normal, which will make the audience pay attention since it’s a set of clips that get faster as time goes on. But near the end of the opening film, it proceeds to take a turn of events as someone is held captive. The audience will begin to wonder, “how did she get there? Why is he doing this? How will she get out?” This will all keep the audience engaged and wanting more. Also the sudden ending of the blindfold covering the screen will have the audience engaged to the point that they will be upset that its over because it makes it seem like the audience is being blindfolded. • Part 2: The film would make it to the movie theaters by first starting off with the production, having filming scripts and actors with directors to get the movie rolling. It would be distributed by having advertisements on television displaying the trailer, also playing the audio of the trailer on radio stations and having a picture of the movie title on magazines and newspapers would get the word out that the movie is coming out. It would be marketed by having the movie as a video game or also as a ride at a theme park like Universal Studios. People would be able to watch the movie in theaters, or after some time on Netflix or on DVD at stores like Walmart and Target.

4. How did your production skills develop throughout this project? • Since the beginning of the research, planning and editing I have grown to be an innovative filmmaker. In the beginning, I had a shaky hand while filming. Since I cannot change the way that my hands move, I have learned to come up with ways to film without the camera shaking. For example, using an electronic wheelchair so that everything would run smoothly. I have also learned how to work the zooming options and controlling the auto-focus that can easily ruin a good clip. I know that throughout this whole process I liked being able to be in charge of the camera and having control of when a person begins acting. But what I do dislike is the scheduling of when filming would take place. Some days people had other things to do and some days no one felt like filming at all which can get frustrating when one wants to get things done. But that is the reality of working with others. I know for a fact that this is not a career that I would want to pursue but maybe as a hobby. I feel as though that this career choice would take a lot of start-up money and time that many people do not have nowadays. I know that it has been a long journey for me as a filmmaker from knowing nothing about a filming camera to now being able to film an opening sequence for a film. I never thought that I would be able to do it, but it turns out that I can, and anyone can.

5. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project? • Many forms of technology was used to make the film. I used a filming camera to get the actual footage that we needed. There was also the use of Pinnacle editing software to edit the clips so that everything would flow together. If there was no editing software, the film would not be two minutes, clips would be in random order and overall the video would look a mess. I know that the use of editing, which is a form of technology, helped greatly with the project like learning about the different transitions. Also with the knowledge of cutting out certain audio and adding in new audio helped with audio that did not make the cut or needed to be altered. Something as miniature as a USB cable also came in handy with the project because it helped get the clips that we needed for the film onto the computer so that we were able to edit. Without technology, none of this would have been possible.