Thinking about what could and what has been

To reflect on this entire process, it has been quite complicated in all aspects. I am aware that I am quite an indecisive person, so any project development of mine is bound to experience some changes,  however, this portfolio project has gone through more change than I was originally comfortable with.

At first, our project explored themes of kindness and generosity as we were going to tell the story of a child taking a toy to give as a gift to their friend. We were going to have some sibling dynamic in there as well, as the scene in which they interact was the way we were going to show the impoverished living conditions of our main character. However, this dynamic obviously developed into much more as we got along with the project.

COVID-19 brought us a lot of obstacles; not being able to get camera equipment, no access to our original actors and actresses, as well as the discouragement that it gave Joey and I was a lot to overcome, but thankfully we were able to do it. Although we are still slightly disappointed that we weren't able to go with our original plans, I think we are just as proud of our current result as we would have been our last.

All in all, this project has enabled me to challenge myself and try ways of filmmaking I would have never thought or chose to do otherwise.  With the amount of restrictions we had, I feel we were sort of forced to be creative problem solvers, which lead Joey and me to do the rotoscoping and change our story so the stylistic choices made sense (aka visually representing a person in the past through the animation). I guess it takes an entire pandemic to learn that I don't need everything at my disposal to tell a good story.


Comments