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Creative Critical Reflection

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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.

Too Much Like a Trailer?

One of the main things we have been trying to avoid during the filming & planning process is making our film opening look too much like a trailer.

I feel like we have done a pretty good job of staying away from the conventions of a trailer, but yet again it's a huge challenge we've been facing. Our concept and plans have been repeated in this blog several times so I'm sure you already get the gist. Our main problem is that we feel like since we're including the fact that she goes deaf in the end, it'll look like a trailer but that's not the case. We plan for our film to demonstrate more then just the idea that a musician goes deaf, we want to show how she overcame the struggles that come with being deaf, but we don't know how to include that into the film opening.

Another part of our film opening that may make it look like a trailer is the flashbacks. I feel like flashbacks are typically within the movie, not the opening. But in order for us to make it clear that the dad is also deaf, we must include them. On the other hand, I've seen film openings include flashbacks and maybe that's what will make our film opening more unique from the others in our class.

Once again, this is another major challenge that we've been facing but I know we'll be able to work our way around it. Positivity is key in this process, I strongly believe in the outcome.

The Hardest Part

The whole process has been stressful but in our case, the hardest part is finding an additional actor. We need a dad but not an actual one...if that makes any sense. In the films from other students, adult figures are typically played by additional students so we figured that its fine for us to do the same. The only problem is, Rachel and I can't seem to find a friend that is cooperative and willing to help us out with this.

Rachel and I are always giving constructive criticism when we're making our projects and we don't know someone who is going to be able to take that. Also, majority of the guy friends we have are in our class and have been working on their own thing so they don't have time for us! This has been an ongoing struggle for weeks and we're just trying to work hard to come up with a solution.
We considered using an actual adult in the beginning. I feel like this would have made our film a lot more professional and understood. On the other hand, the use of a student as the adult may make it more relatable to our audience but less understood by the adults at Cambridge.

We've hit a lot of bumps in the road along this journey so I'm sure we'll be able to overcome this one. Stay updated with my blog to see our final decisions!

How Our Film Fits The Drama Conventions

Before we develop our whole film intro, we need to make sure that our concept fits the conventions of drama.

First off, drama films are typically in a realistic setting with realistic characters. Our film fits this category because we’re shooting it in a park which is a very realistic setting and our main character is Rachel, an average highschool girl.

Dramas main purpose is to move the audience emotionally. Our way of achieving this is by building up the characters passion towards music and imputing a plot twist that doesn’t allow her to pursue this passion as easily anymore.

The conflicts within drama include realistic struggles depicting difficulty. Our main conflict is a very realistic struggle, deafness, and clearly depicts difficulty because now the protagonist can no longer do what she loves as well as she used to.

Dramas typically end in a happy way. The film we intend to create starts with a struggle, but then portrays how the protagonist was able to overcome it and continue living a successful life, doing what she loves.

As far as production goes, production techniques in drama are based on the concept of the film. Since our film starts out with the protagonist expressing her passion for music, we’re shooting it in a park where life is peaceful, there’s bright lighting, and happy people all around. Then when things start getting worse for her, the lighting will most likely dim down and we’ll change locations.

Every convention has been checked off the list, so it looks like this film will for sure be put under the drama category!

Main Message Of Our Film

So why did we decide to make this film? I’ve mentioned this before but Rachel and I are both involved in the Deaf community through our sign language class. Since we both figured this out, it’s been a main topic of conversation between us so I felt as if we had to include it in our final film. Every since this concept arose, we’ve been so eager to get to the final product. Our passion makes the process that much easier.

The main message of our film is to raise awareness for the deaf. Deaf people go through many everyday struggles that some people could never imagine. Not only that, they overcome these struggles happily, building relationships with other deaf people all around the world!! So not only do we want to show how hard it can be to become deaf when you once knew what it was like to hear, but we want to portray the idea that these obstacles can be defeated!! Our protagonist starts off building a passion that a deaf person can not really obtain because without being able to smplify sound, the music is much harder to create, if not impossible!! But many people in the past have overcome this struggle, Here Are just a few of them. One of the greatest musicians to ever live, Beethoven was able to continue music without ability to hear, and this is who our protagonist will begin to look up to.