Feedback Is Key

Two days ago, on 2/23/23, my teacher decided to split my class into five small groups of people. This was so we could discuss our ideas and previous blogs with our teams so we could help each other out and assist in finalizing our plans. This activity was helpful as I could hear and see other people's intriguing ideas and individual approaches to this project. I also had a lot of great helpful feedback from my group relating to my project and my idea.

When it was my turn to discuss my project and my plan, I was relatively nervous and I believed my idea wasn't thought out well or was not good enough yet. However, my group was extremely supportive and really enjoyed hearing my thoughts and plans about how I was going to approach the project. They were also very helpful by giving me ideas and extra techniques I could use to enhance the feeling I was trying to achieve. I really appreciated that they asked many questions since some made me rethink some aspects of my project that could have resulted in problems later on in the project timeframe.

One girl suggested that I use fast cuts during the chase scene in the forest and later switch to slower cuts and longer scenes in the second half of the opening scene when the girl wakes up. I really liked that idea since it can show the difference between the two settings, scenes, and emotions that should be portrayed. Another member of my group suggested that when the girl wakes up, she should jolt up quickly, out of breath. He believed it could add to the creepiness and scariness of that scene when the audience then realizes it wasn't a dream after all.

 I got another very interesting idea during my group's discussion. This was that I should use earbuds or headphones that the main character should wear. This could show the viewer how different the two lives of the main character are while still associating them with the same type of music or even the same song. The earbuds could also show how the main character feels apart from the rest of the world, like a barrier that protects her from the real world.

The girl I had talked about earlier had a really good idea for her opening scene. She decided to make a drama film. She decided it would be about a girl that wishes to be closer to her mother. The main conflict is that her mother always shuts her out and is cold to her while not understanding what she wants. I believed that idea was very interesting because it is unique and I haven't heard of another person doing something similar to that.

A couple of members from my group were also going with a horror genre. A lot of the aspects they were hoping to incorporate in their opening scene were extremely appropriate yet very easy to do. However, they perfectly fit into the type of movie they wanted to do. For example, one of my group members decided to show their killer in the dark which will be adding suspense. He was going to do that by barely showing any of the killer's features and making him disappear and then appear right behind a character. I believed that ideas like that were great to think about since I could try to include a similar technique in my film's opening scene.

   -Dana