A Refreshed Outlook on Media: the changes from late 2025.

Having learned the topics, content, and material in this course, alongside having filmed my project (and is currently in the editing stage), it has led me to reflect on how far my ideas and thoughts have developed on media. One of the media reflection topics was the responsibility of creators on representation of groups in their films. In my film, a majority of the characters on screen are female and none are of minority races. However, it is important to note that this is due to my availability of human resources and assets to use in the production of my film among my friends who were available. I still do believe in the equitable and fair representation of groups in films, but my project's opening sequence made do with available resources. 

My opening sequence was inspired and made from my interests in the young adult genre. Alongside an untitled novel project I am working on, I pulled elements of my planning sheet from that novel project to incorporate and spin into the opening sequence, serving as previous inspiration I drew upon after reading novels like The Inheritance of Loss, and am interested in reading more young adult novels to become more familiar with the genre. This was a project where I wanted to stick to something I was familiar with in content and execution, and mystery films were of interest since I had been intrigued by mysteries that were not whodunnits, but were grounded and realistic and was something I feel I captured in my opening sequence project. 

My skills as a filmmaker have developed in this class and throughout the course of the project. It was fun and useful to continue to develop my skills of smoothness in camera work while holding my phone, where my steps are deliberate and soft to avoid excessive shaking and a fluid image of a person moving on screen in tracking shots. It was also a challenge (but manageable) to ensure that my shots do not contain my reflection as the cameraperson in the frame (or extremely minimal and not very noticeable) to avoid distractions from the subjects and action occurring in frame. I feel this project also helped me improve and build upon my subconscious recognition of framing while footage is being filmed and is being recorded. It drew upon my previous and ongoing photography experience where I would adjust my framing as necessary to capture the moment while ensuring subjects are in focus, in frame, etc. During filming, this skill proved useful to ensure I did not deliberately chop off a subject's head as it could degrade the quality of the cinematography, alongside making adjustments where necessary to ensure there is a smooth flow throughout. 

I feel my relationship with media has had little change, partially due to my lack of consumption of TV shows and movies on a regular basis, but from what I do watch, I feel my habits have stayed the same with my entertainment coming larger corporations (like the corporations that produce and distribute shows like The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and SNL). I have not really expanded into too much into content of independent filmmakers, primarily because of lack of time and not knowing what I would try to look for (though in hindsight, probably mysteries or grounded young adult genres). In other news, it has been interesting to see the events of Paramount's planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, and how that could affect the media market with the streaming services these two corporations own and operate and the content they distribute on their platforms, and will be a story to follow as this merger goes forward for the wider media market amid concerns of consolidation of content and power with too little corporations and entities.