Media While Quarantined

Impact On Society 

The spread of COVID-19 has had a huge impact on society in a matter of a small time period. Not only has people's health been globally affected, but people have also been forced to social distance themselves from others in hopes that it will help decrease the widespread of this virus. Items such as face masks, hand sanitizer, Clorox wipes, toilet paper, and more have been in great demand since the news of this new and profound virus was released to the public. Grocery stores such as Publix, have put glass shields in the checkout lines to help decrease the exposure of the virus for their hardworking employees as shown in the image below. 

Quarantine & Social Distancing

Many families have been advised, by the government and local news sources, to stay inside as much as possible should limit their use of transportation by only going to specific locations when necessary. Although many people take these measures seriously, there are still others who go against social distancing. Those people are not only putting their own health at risk, but also older people or anyone who have weaker immune systems. This increases the rate at which the virus spreads and can potentially put someone in a critical condition or even result in death. 

Various media sources such as the news channels have been updating many families including mine about the pandemic. They inform us of the rate of the spread of COVID-19, the number of cases reported not only nationally but also globally, what specialists are doing to create a vaccine, and even how to avoid getting this virus with precautions and safety measures each person should take. My parents have been trying their best to stay updated with the latest news about the pandemic. I stay updated by watching the news with my parents, through social media such as twitter because twitter is known for having a good news platform, and through talking about the situation with other people.

I am able to stay connected to the world outside my home by staying in contact with close friends and family through facetime and other communication applications. I use this to my advantage to maintain my relationships with others and check up on them to make sure everyone is safe and well. Staying updated with the latest news also helps me know and stay connected with what going on in the world. Schools have been taking an online approach which helps students stay connected and still get their education. 

Throughout this journey of social distancing, I've found many ways to keep me from the state of boredom such as watching movies and TV shows, spending quality time with my family, and other small activities such as drawing. Some movies I've watched are: In The Tall Grass, A Haunted House, 1922, and more. Some TV shows I've watched are: The Office (my favorite TV show that I've rewatched a million times), On My Block (season 3), The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez, Love is Blind, and more. Since I've had a lot of time on my hands, I used that time to watch the shows and movies that interested me. I also started drawing again because I had stopped a few years back and I had recently started getting back into it to build my skill.

Planning- Brainstorming

     In this part of the planning process, my partner and i decided to let our minds run wild and write down any idea that comes to mind. By doing this, we are able to look back on any ideas, narrow down our choices and incorporate whichever ideas we find will be the best best fit for the project. We wrote down many ideas and different genres that we believed would not only appeal to us, but also appeal to our audience, which is drama-romance. We believed a drama-romance film would appeal to our audience the most because our audience consists of young teenagers and many of them watch romance films. My partner and i also discussed when we believe the film should take place which will be in the 1990s. The reason why we believed the 1990s should be the time frame that our film opening should take place is because it was a very aesthetically pleasing era, fashion wise, and the style is coming back, meaning it can appeal to our audience because of the clothing and the setting. 

Planning- Casting

     After my partner and i developed our characters, we believed it was best to have an idea as to who we may be casting for the roles of the two main characters. It is important to first develop the characters then find the people to possibly play the roles of these characters because if we get an idea as to what these characters are like, then we can get a sense on who we believe could portray the character the best through physical appearance, acting skills, and personality. Here are the names we had written down of people that we believed could possibly fit the roles of our characters:

Planning- Character Development

     Characters play a huge role in most films. After my partner and I had came up with our final ideas for the brainstorming process, we decided to develop our characters more and to get a taste as to what characters we want and what we are both looking for in our characters. Since the characters live in the 1990s, we had to come up with their costume design. We made a google doc on how we both think they should look like and what their interests may be. Doing this could also potentially help us get an idea as to who we want to play the role each character for our film so this could help make the casting process a bit easier. Some people that we find may not be a perfect fit for the characters so it’s important that we have an idea on what we want the characters to be like so that we can get an idea as to who we want to play that role in the film opening.

     The two main characters that we came up with are Aaron Quinn and Lia Adams. They are the main love interests of the story. It’s important that we develop these two characters first since the story is based around their love for each other. We first decided their character traits. 

Lia Adams

Character Traits

     My partner and i found that in most romance films, the two main characters’ traits are opposite to each other so we decided to make Lia the more outgoing one. Lia is a social butterfly and loves to be around friends. She’s a smart girl in school and knows how to manage her time wisely so she has an equal balance between school and her friends. She’s the typical 1990s teenager who reads the latest magazines, keeping up with the latest trends, and loves the latest music. 

Costume Design

     As for costume design, my partner and i first did research on what teenagers in the 1990s were wearing. Since our character, Lia, loves to keep up with the latest trends, we found that whatever the last eat trends were in the 90s for the girls, could fit our character. We gathered some images that we believed would fit our character the most and her overall aesthetic. 

Aaron Quinn

Character Traits

     As for Aaron, since he is the opposite of Lia, we decided to make him a bit more shy. He’s the new guy on the block and he isn’t familiar with where he just moved to so he seems to be a bit more on the reserved side. Aaron is the type of guy who is to himself, but once you get to know him, he is a very good guy. Lia is attracted to the sense of mystery he omits because she doesn’t know much about him and since he’s shy and to himself, she gets more curious about him. 

Costume Design

     For costume design for Aaron, we decided that he should have the basic look that any boy in the 90s would have in their closet. This could be a sporty crew neck sweater, a pair of loose fitted jeans, and some sneakers. Most boys in the 90s could easily pull this outfit together from what they had in their closets. Aaron is a simple guy so we wanted to portray that through his clothing.