1. Reflection Questions
By jolina Adarne

2. How does your product use or challenge conventions?
My film fits typical standards for a sports genre. Through my research I saw that the films would start with the main character telling their life story. In Soul Surfer the main character is doing a voice over of how she loves to surf as home videos of her and her family in the water surfing are playing. In Karate Kid the main character is just traveling to China and there is only one line of dialogue “Are you ready to go?” within the first 2 minutes, then a few minutes later the main character and his mom have a conversation. In my film there is no dialogue or voice overs. I did not want to add a voice or dialogue to my film because I thought t would be weird to add a voice over since the main character is only surfing. I also did not use dialogue since the character is by herself.

3. how does it represent social groups or issues?
A social group and issue that my film represents is young people and depression. My targeted audience is Adolescents. The main Character of my film “Down Under” was specifically chosen to be a young female in her adolescents years, as the audience would be able to relate to her more. Due to her age group she would go through similar societal and life issues as the audience would. The main focus of my film was getting through the challenges one must face and that is the acceptance his or her failures. The main character goes through the stages of depression and self-identity after she loses a big surfing competition and begins to lose confidence in herself. Instead of accepting her loss and moving on she gets obsessed with her failure and even stops her favorite passion, surfing. This movie shows the audience that one should accept and learn from his or her failure, instead of loathing in self hate

4. hOw does your product engage with audience?
My film sends a very clear message and that is to accept failure and never give up. In the begging of the movie the audience may get the idea that the movie is simplistic and it is about a surfer girl that is just trying to make it, however after a little while as the movie develops the audience will be able to witness her failure and her problem to cope with it. They will want to see what she does to over-come it and they will also be able to learn a life lesson. This movie will not be only entertaining but also an impactful learning experience.

5. how would it be distributed as a real media text?
My movie would be distributed through movie theaters. I would release it in major movie theaters around the world. After a month or so I would release a DVD copy for people that would want to buy it and be able to see it whenever they please. I would also spread the word about my movie through the sue of social media. I would make official accounts for it on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Through this my fans will be able to be more connected and also be updated about any news about my movie.

6. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
There was a great improvement in my production skills through this project. I learned how to film different scenes and how to find what angles work best. I learned the importance of pre- planning and using a storyboard to sketch out my movie, as it had an easier and better flow. I learned how to incorporate different angles to get the best influence on my shots. Another part to this was learning how to put my project together and using editing software to do so. By this I was able to make a complete film and something I would never be able to do without the help of this class.

7. How did you integrate technologies- software, hardware and online- in this project?
The hardware I used to film this movie with was a Canon camera the school provided me with. I also used a Sony Splash-proof video camera to tape the wave and under-water scenes. Through the internet, iTunes, I was able to download the song I used for my movie. The song was ”On and On”-Cartoon ft. Daniel Levi. I was able to put it all together by using the editing program “Pinnacle Studies 17”. This program was provided to me by my school. I was able to blog about my research, filming process, and editing by using “wordpress”. Without the incorporation of all these technologies I would not be able to produce my film.