Final Reflection

Now that my project is finally submitted, i'm going to explain how I think this project has actually greatly benefitted me in terms of being a filmmaker and just expanding my creativity. It has been a long ride, but now that i've finished, i'd like to look back and reflect on all that i've accomplished.

This was by all means NOT an easy task, and I definitely faced many challenges, but this project forced me to resolve them in whatever means possible, and to become creative with my solutions. When I first began to come up with an idea for this film opening, it felt almost unreachable, I had these big ideas that I knew that realistically, couldn't actually work, but I think that with my project, I came pretty close. I knew I wanted to do something different, and I felt constrained with doing only one genre, so this was an amazing way for me to think outside the box and combine the two genres that I adore deeply: slashers and psychological thrillers.

I know i've gone on about how happy I am with it, but there are definitely some things I wish I would have changed if I could've done this all over again. First, I relied way too much on post production and should've put more of my energy on pre production. I did have my props and costumes, and locations ready, but my script and storyboard could've been more detailed, as well as having some supplies like microphones could've been helpful. Even though I ended up using voiceovers anyway, having a microphone in such a busy place could've been helpful and would've probably helped take off a couple days of editing the soundscape.

Also, I should have had a more reliable actor. Even though I actually like my story with just one witness even more than the intended story, it wasn't fun to have to scramble to change the story because one of our actors didn't show up. It created a lot of unnecessary chaos and I think it could have easily been avoided if I just had someone a little more reliable.

Another issue I faced: TIME MANAGEMENT!!! I should've managed my time A LOT better than I did in this project, considering how time consuming it is, you really can't leave anything to the last minute. Although I was doing really well at the beginning, I found that towards the end of the project, I was kind of lacking and it showed. Fortunately, it wasn't too bad and I was able to do everything I wanted to do in this project efficiently like my CCR, blog posts, and editing.

Although my management was off, I will say that at the end everything came together perfectly, I was able to edit my projects and any issue that I had was able to be fixed in post production. I was able to use voiceovers successfully, I created many foley sounds, and I used some non-copyrighted music to create the perfect soundscape of the horror world that was 'Paranoia'. My CCR I also was very happy with and it was a breeze to film and edit it. In my CCR, I was able to include all the research i'd done in my blogs, add examples from other films, include some screen grabs from my own film, and I was able to criticize and reflect on my own work.

In the end, I faced a couple rough patches, but we made it out! This project was an incredible experience and I feel that I have grown creatively and intellectually in ways I didn't think I could. Thank you!!