Portfolio Project 2: Electric Boogaloo

Hello to all internet-surfers and mis-clickers! My name is Aly Burnett, and if you've read anything on my past blog (which you can find in the upper right hand corner) I dabble in the world of Media for fun and for a grade. Let's take a brief moment to welcome our truly special guest, who came all the way from England, the Cambridge AICE community!

This school year, I'm an angsty senior waiting to gain some freedom and go to college, trying to balance my school work, rehearsals, social life, and family life without combusting. Much of my interests have remained the same, like participating in musical theatre and drama club, film watching and creating, goofing around with my friends, and making people laugh.

This year, I came into the course not really knowing my options for the A Level portfolio project. I knew that all the options required a video component, but that was all. We learned about all four ("Four!?"- me, to myself) choices, and I was torn between the Film Promotion Package and the Short Film Package.  I ultimately decided to go with the Short Film Package, as I would rather make a film in its entirety, rather than film footage specifically for a trailer. With my fate sealed through a Google Survey, I got to work brainstorming for the story I would tell this year.

Lately, I've been avidly listening to a range of true crime podcasts, like "Crime Junkie", "Serial", and "Cold". "Crime Junkie" is a series which documents a new case each episode, while "Serial" and "Cold" document one case over an entire season. Within these episodes, a lot of cases I would hear were about abductions or murders, in which a person was reported missing to the police. Police don't immediately jump into action after receiving these reports for a number of reasons, telling families to come back and report the person missing again in a certain period of time if they haven't shown up- these time period ranged from 72 hours to one whole month. If someone is potentially abducted, the initial time after is crucial in ensuring they return home safely- it doesn't allow a perpetrator to get as far away from the abduction site, witnesses are more likely to report accurate information, and the public as a whole will be more aware and look out for the missing person. 

I want to tell a story that for some reason demonstrates the importance of these 72 hours, showing the public how crucial these hours really are in bringing someone home. The general idea is there, and I can imagine some specific points, but I need to do some research in order to completely flesh out the story.

I hope that during this project, I can grow and learn from my mistakes from my AS Level self, so that I can improve on my film making techniques and ultimately put out a better production.