Film Festival Q&As: Perception

Genre: Suspense

“Timothy is just your average high school student, but during one early morning, he decides to break into the house of a local billionaire to steal some very important technology. While inside, he locates the safe and has a very near-death experience, but luckily, he manages to [take] off with the technology. The police catch up [with] him, but he is able to evade them, and so he goes to meet up with his best friend, Jebediah. Together, they work to brainstorm what Timothy should do next as he is currently the most wanted man. He has to find a way to get away with the crime and to prove to the world that his motives are justified.”

“I’ve always had a passion for filmmaking since a very young age. Growing up, I would enjoy making short movies with my friends and family. When I entered high school, I heard about the media classes offered, so I decided to sign up. I met [teacher] Mr. [Jeff] Manders, and in his classes, I continued to learn and develop a stronger love for the art of filmmaking.”

“With this being my third and final year in FX, I really wanted to create something that would top my past films. My group and I were inspired by some various suspenseful and action films we have seen in the past, so we wanted to do something in that genre. We spent many days brainstorming possible ideas for our film and eventually came up with something we all enjoyed.”

“Exciting. With all the words that I could have used to describe our film, it was difficult to choose just one. I think the word ‘exciting’ does a good job of encompassing our film’s story. There are many moments throughout the film where our main character, Timothy, gets into situations that he needs to find a way out of. Moments like those are what make our film exciting to watch.”

“The best part is the feeling that you get when you finally finish your film. This is a moment that we work towards for the majority of the school year, and it really feels good when it all pays off in a great film we get to show the community at Film Fest. We all put many hours into creating our films, so it is incredibly rewarding when we have something we are proud of to present to others.”

“I learned how important it is to plan and to be prepared. Before we could start filming, there were many steps that we took to plan out our film. Even with all this preparation, there were still a few times that we experienced setbacks. Thinking ahead and planning well can be challenging and seem useless at first but pays off in the end.”

“The first thing we needed to do was come up with an idea for our film. This was a bit challenging to do as none of us could think of something, but when we did eventually did decide on it, our next job was to write our script. With the script done, we started with filming. This took several weeks to do, including finding actors and schedule times that everyone is available. The process of editing together our film was also very time-consuming, and I spent many long days doing so. After months of work, we finally had our film done that we were all satisfied with.”