Reflection :)

Hi my name is Alexis Laurens and I am both the film maker and co-director in the two minute drama film opening titled “Resonance”. My film tells the story of a girl who aspires to become a musician but is held back due to the fact that she just went deaf. There came a point in which the protagonist decides to try to overcome this struggle and pursue her passion. Not only is the film meant to empower those who believe they can’t follow their dreams due to a setback in their life, but the main idea is to show how many hearing people take their ability for granted. The reason I chose the title “Resonance” is because it means “the quality in a sound of being deep, full, and reverberating”, and the protagonist is not able to appreciate or experience this anymore. This struggle hits close to home because I have been taking sign language for the past two years and it has help me build a relationship with the deaf community itself. My intended target audience is young adults from ages 15-25, since the main character is around that age as well, it would be easier for men and women between this age gap to relate.

My product uses several drama conventions. Some including realistic setting, realistic characters, moving the audience emotionally, realistic struggles, etc. My realistic setting is in a house, a typical teenage girl is the protagonist, and the realistic struggle is deafness, which prevents the protagonist from pursuing her passion and moves the audience emotionally. My product doesn’t necessarily challenge any of the typical drama conventions.

The film itself represents deaf teens. It portrays the disadvantage that deaf teenagers have in their everyday life, not able to match the abilities of hearing people. On the other hand, the film also shows how the deaf teenagers are able to overcome these struggles. That side of representation wasn’t necessarily portrayed in the film opening, but it is intended to be elaborated upon in the rest of the film and can be inferred by the audience.

My product engages with audiences due to the inclusion of a plot twist and a realistic struggle that some viewers may be able to relate to. Also, majority of the film opening is shot in a bedroom which makes it more personal between the protagonist and the audience. As a real media text, I would distribute my product through netflix and other streaming services. I feel that this allows me to have more of a connection to my young target audience.

My production skills advanced tremendously throughout the making of the project, considering the fact that I only have experience with photography, and absolutely no experience with film making or editing. I was able to apply new editing and film techniques that I learned in class recently. I advanced my knowledge of planning a production and combining a variety of shots and angles to reach the final product. I also was able to take part in the directive process which was something I never got to experience before.

Besides the small, portable Samsung camera used to shoot the film, my integration of technologies was mainly used in editing and researching. IMovie on my macbook air was my main source of editing. This editing software was very efficient for my type of production. I also used the internet for my blog posts of my journey and research on the conventions of drama.

Overall, my partner Rachel, the main character, and I worked very hard throughout the making of this production to make our message as meaningful as possible. We went through a lot of struggles along the way but we were able to overcome all of them in order to create the best film opening we could. The making of this two minute film opening made us appreciate the art of filmmaking a lot more than we did before. We thank Cambridge for providing us to with this eye opening opportunity that allowed us to try new things and develop life skills such as leadership, teamwork, and problem solving. I hope everyone was able to enjoy our film opening and take away an important message from it.