Project Proposal

My project goes in depth on the methods of reflexive narration in metacinema specifically. I am keen on exploring this type of narration primarily because of my interest in the fourth wall and how it can be broken from House of Cards, and I wish to explore the other subsets of metacinema. I want to learn more about this topic in order to create my own short piece in film based off this type of narration which will serve as my final media of the project. Yet, since the film will be shorter than most of my films before, I will write two pieces of analytical and research essays based off of topics that apply to metacinema such as “why break the fourth wall?” and its historical impact overall.

This project is a risk for me because it’s a topic that none of my teachers have ever truly discussed in class. I’m not basing my knowledge off of anything because I know quite literally nothing about metacinema, hence why I want to explore it. Also, I will write more pieces of writing than any semester of English ever before. Even though I am mostly working alone, I will recruit readers to help me perfect my essays and will need help on my short film from my peers.

Project Productions

Read my research paper

Project Reflection

My Innovator was aimed at exploring the modes of acting. Since I am keen on going into film to pursue my undergraduate career, acting was a way to expose myself to a different realm of film. There are entire departments, schools, and institutions that specialize in acting, but since I do not plan on going into any sort of theatre art, acting seemed appropriate for this project. I believe is it essential to understand directing from the other perspective. The director often tells the actors what to do, but how can he or she possibly direct without having some fundamental understanding about what it takes to be an actor? The power of role reversal is vital in the filmmaking process and I see it as my personal dogma.

From my research process, I learned what can drive a character to pursue his or her actions. My personal film review regarding the effects of the alter-ego in David Fincher’s Fight Club, allowed me to analyze specific characters and the hidden meanings behind their motives. From researching economic doctrines, to psychological theories, I analyzed how the environment created by the director influences the how and why the actor performed the way he did. Kevin Spacey in his acting class exemplified the idea that actors work based off of emotions, and my paper merely researched where those emotions stem from to assist me in my performance. The personal film review also enabled me to connect my own experiences to the critique. Learning how to not only review a film, but interact with the feature by including my own opinions opened up a realm for me improve my acting by searching through my own stories to dissect the characters. This lead me to realize that when I act, I must be able to tie in the character’s motives and tension to my personal life to improve my overall performance.

Although my Innovator was not as particularly collaborative compared to most, I did ensure that my community and peers would read my personal film review. Even though this is mere prose, those that did read my essay were extremely helpful in giving me positive feedback that I could work with. In terms of my acting, I made use of my peers, particularly Willem, to give me constructive criticism on my monologue. I do believe my collaboration was successful in terms of the paper itself, yet needed improvement when it came to my acting. Acting was, and continues to be, a new medium for me, and so it was foolish of me to not invite more of my peers to critique my work, but this can be easily fixed for the future.

If I could do the project over, I would mostly like not have done acting. This is not because of I do not value acting, but because Felix and I were very keen on doing a promotional video for West Valley Flying Club that would have been posted on their website. Not only would this have helped the community, but it would have allowed me to create another film on a topic that I am passionate about. If I could tweak my current project, I would most likely only take only Kevin Spacey’s acting class and learn more acting elsewhere. Masterclass was not extremely informational in its courses, and so I would have used another website instead of continuing with Dustin Hoffman’s class.

In terms of the 21st Century skills I used, risk taking and self direction were easily the strongest and the ones I improved on the most. Usually, I am comfortable making films and filming others, but to turn the camera on myself and have others evaluate me was a major breakthrough. I had no idea whether I was going to be a mediocre actor or simply a horrible one, hence why it seemed perfect for the innovator project. I also self directed myself immensely throughout this semester mainly because none of the teachers have true expertise in the field I was exploring, and so I needed to take the initiative. However, I did not fully improve on the teaming and collaboration aspect of the project. This was mainly due to me working alone mostly and taking my online courses. Though, looking back, I realize that using others as an audience to give me more feedback would have been helpful.

For the future, this project will help me direct actors in my future films. This was the fundamental reason for pursuing this project. I wanted to put myself in the shoes of those that I am directing so that I have empathy for them if and when they struggle on set with their character. This project will further my leadership abilities in my career in cinema since I now have a basic understanding of what it means to act. One must take the class itself before one can be a teacher in my mind. This was my motto, and I believe that many students at Freestyle jump the gun here, and start “teaching” the class before they have taken it. In translation, they are directing actors, without knowing how to act, a common flaw in the filmmaking process, and so I researched acting.

I innovated my learning experience this semester by taking a step outside of English, film, and design. I decided to tackle a different, yet equally vital form of art that all directors should know. By taking acting classes, contributing to the Masterclass community, performing monologues, and beginning to write my own monologue, I created my own curriculum that I am passionate about and that I feel is important to my cinematic endeavours at the collegiate level.

Overall, I greatly value this project because it allows us to be more free in a sense of pursuing our own goals. No classes truly give us the ability to have full control in the content we are learning, until now. Every student has their own interests and goals. Freestyle, by taking a risk with the innovator, enabled my peers and I to take the lead in our curriculums, and I believe I and others made a great use of our time.