Creative Critical Reflection

Please enjoy the last part of my production, my Creative Critical Reflection. 

Click here to listen to my CCR podcast for Feel Again. 

Thank you all so much, hope you enjoy it! 

-Taylor 

Feeling It

Happy Birthday to me!!! The time has finally come for me to reveal to all of you my production. I think it shows how much I love this project to be excited to write to you today and upload my production. Our movie theater trailer, our social media trailer, our website and our film poster has all been completed and ready to shine on it's own. Asher and I have used Youtube to upload our trailers so that all spectrums of our audience can be subjected to it. Of course, we will be distributing our production across various platforms as we previously mentioned, but Youtube is a great place to showcase them all at once. 

Now, it is with my great pleasure to introduce to you all- Feel Again. 

Trailer #1: 

Trailer #2: 

Link to website: Feel Again 

Movie Poster: 

I hope all of you enjoy every part of our project and all aspects of the production. 

Thank you all for going through this journey with Asher and I, it's been a great one! Enjoy! 

- Taylor 

Farewells

I didn't think ending this project would be so emotional. I have never been upset to finish a project, only excited that its over. While I am thrilled to finally show everyone my production, I am more excited for everyone else to see it than I am to let it go. After working on something for over seven weeks and seeing all of your visions become implemented and get created, you grow a serious attachment to it all, one that is harder to let go than you would have imagined. 

It's probably so difficult because I had so much fun creating all of it and working with one of my best friends Asher throughout the entire process. He was absolutely amazing to collaborate with. Not once did we fight or stay in a deadlock; we figured everything out and compromised. It was so refreshing not to stress over what someone else might think or say, or whether or not he or she dislikes it and puts your idea down. Asher and I had complete and utter trust in one another and felt 100% comfortable sharing or voicing any opinion or idea. Sure, did we not agree on somethings, but it never once turned into a fight and it ended up with us agreeing with whatever we were discussing. Asher and I got so much closer by doing this project than I would have even imagined. The project being over just symbolizes the many more things coming to an end at a very rapid pace. 

It was also such a joy to work with Megan. She was a great sport about anything. She did not care what we told her, as an amazing actress that she is, she did whatever we needed without hesitation. She made the time for us because she was contributed and appreciating art and the media. I also got much closer to her, and I feel like I know her and Nora separately, it's crazy. Nora became real to me and Asher and we referred to her like she is somebody that we actually know. We started this whole project by creating her first and we formed new ideas based off of who we made her, her characteristics and her personality. I've watched interviews with directors, producers, and actors before and always found it strange when they talk about the characters like they know them in real life. They refer to their struggles and hardships like it's their own and they talk about them like they are in another room. This project made me understand why. They have become so passionate about their ideas, that they tell the stories with such passion because they have become emotionally involved, just like Asher and I did with Nora. 

I was severely attached to Decadence, my food magazine last year, and didn't want to let it go. Well, it has happened again. This project has become my baby yet again and it's time to say goodbye. However, we are very excited now to finally be able to show off what we made and receive our peers feedback. 

Asher and I are very proud of what we created and no matter what anyone tells us, we know how hard we worked and how much effort we put into making it, and that's all that really matters in the end. I hope that everyone appreciates and respects the work we have put in and ultimately, I hope that you all love our products. 

Thanks for making this process so enjoyable to document and record. 

With much love, 

- Taylor 

P.S. Tomorrow is my birthday, so my gift to you all is revealing Feel Again! 

Feel Again Poster

The other two portions of this project include creating a Film Poster and a Website for our film. Since me and Asher are working on this together and trust each other's opinions, we decided to split the minor tasks. We figured that working with our strong suits and deciphering who has stronger skills in certain areas, it is a good idea we take on different tasks. 

Asher calls me a photoshop Goddess and many people have told me they think my work is pretty amazing, I try to stay humble about it, but the truth is I am really good at creating and editing graphic designs. I have always loved creating things and it has become quite a hobby of mine in the last few years. I discovered this online software called Canva in my freshman year, and it has become one of my most valuable tools in my high school career, especially in AICE Media Studies. I really love using this site because first of all, it's free, and second of all they give me so many options and choices I can choose from. So with that being said, I have taken on the film poster task. 

For starters I like to come up with my color scheme to use. I wanted to use natural earth tones because I wanted to capture the essence of our film and since these colors went well with many of our scenes, I chose to do them. 

I made certain colors richer than others, and lightened up some of the tones. Color is very important to a film poster and cover and while some many not think so, there are many psychological drives that come with choosing color schemes. I also incorporated some blues into the film poster, since that is also considered an Earth tone but is just not shown on this palate. 

Here is an infographic I found very useful in creating the film poster: 

I found this very helpful in directing my mindset and staying on track to always focus on the mood of our film. For instance, the green of course signifies nature, but it also portrays feelings of darkness and danger. Blue represents feeling of isolation and melancholiness; tones of yellow shows madness, sickness, and insecurity. These colors all played a part in the film poster, whether or not it was the exact colors, or tones of it, they all integrated mixed feeling to set the goal of one overall mood. 

Another trend I noticed when researching film posters for dramas was the technique of using transparency in the upper half of the poster. For instance:

I will be incorporating transparent elements into the film poster and it is going to signify many of the issues in our film. 

I had to be wise about choosing colors because I was cautious about how they will appear throughout different platforms. For example, for our film to be marketing in movie theaters, I need to design it to stand out an to pop out at people as they walk past to go to see their movie. So after researching, movie theaters are often very dark; they either have dark purple walls, red, and even sometimes black. I suppose they have a stereotypical ambiance they want to follow which is good for film graphic designers because then they know which colors to choose. I figured my color scheme will contrast the darkness and go great with whichever the movie theater theme is. They also usually present the film poster in a white or black frame, so these colors will go just fine, since they are mostly natural earth based tones. I also want to market with one of those huge cardboard cutouts that are shown inside of movie theaters and in film festivals so that it literally pops out at people. Again, these color schemes are easy to manipulate to go with anything!

I am so eager to show you all the film poster I have created, but to keep that element of surprise, I am going to hold off a little while longer on showing it to to all of you. 

Until next time!

Editing in Progress

With all of our footage captured, we are prepared to create our trailers. In one of my previous posts I discussed how difficult it was to find sound to put into our trailers, however, with the determined search I was on, I found something I liked and that will fit the description we have been looking for. 

Asher and I will be utilizing iMovie to put our trailers together because we prefer to use Apple products since we are more comfortable with them, and we like the software's features.

We will be preparing each trailer differently. The first trailer is going to be longer with more emotion attached to it and have a mix of conventional dramatic shots and nonconventional shots. We also used more than one soundtrack in this trailer. In the first portion we used music Asher found and it is a little more upbeat and sort of techno, while the rest of the music is what I found and it is a sad piano piece that is soft in the beginning, but picks up in the middle for more intensity. 

The second trailer we are editing together is shorter for social media and it is much more intense with fast paced editing and bursts of short shots. We are using this to grasp the audiences attention since they usually have a shorter attention span and since we don't have that much time to show it on a social media platform. We will also be utilizing the sad piano soundtrack that I found because we felt it was more suitable for our audience. 

Again, much of our inspiration came from the Nocturnal Animals trailers. Asher also recommended we watch a short Snapchat version of the Ghost in a Shell preview because it embodied the characteristics we were looking to recreate. 


As we are very hard at work, I will gladly show you the trailers when the whole project is finished! I can't wait for you all to see it! 

Filming: Take 3

Asher and I shot what was the last and final day of filming. It was a bittersweet moment because as we were excited to finish, we were sad because we knew this was going to be the last time we would film for our senior year. 

We finished in our last location: Cypress Bay. We shot various scenes in the classroom and in the hallways. We thought that this would be one of the easier locations, which is why we saved it for last. However, this provided us some of the most difficult and interrupting film challenges. 

Our biggest obstacle to overcome was the sound issues. This was a huge problem we didn't face in our other locations because we didn't have other people around or had to deal with at all. But in school, people are everywhere. We needed to shoot in class to make it seem realistic, but teachers do not like to be interrupted, which is completely understandable, so we thought of a solution: film during a teacher's study hall. This way we didn't disrupt class and we still had students to work with. Well, these students were not all great to work with. They were loud and obnoxious so to keep down the noise, we asked them if they wanted to be in our film and they said yes. We really didn't need them to be in our film, and we aren't going to be using that footage anyways, but it was helpful because it kept the noise down. 

Another challenge that involved sound was all of the people in the hallways. You don't realize how busy they are until you're sitting there trying to shoot a conversation. The doors constantly opening and closing, people wondering aimlessly in front of the camera, and even the conversations down the hallway were too much background noise. We found a crevasse in the hallway that was not as populated as the rest so it worked out. 

Another issue we kept running into was security. Even though Megan signed in and our teacher gave her the okay to the front office, we still ran into problems. They didn't care if they yelled in the middle of our shot to ask where we were supposed to be, or who was Megan and why she was in "there" school. So it was frustrating, but we had to have the patience to explain that we were just filming for our class and we showed them her pass, but you'd think they'd all communicate that one they already asked us, and not three. 

However, our shots came out really great and I was so proud of the work that Asher and I, and Megan too, conducted. 

Here are some sneak peaks of the day of filming: 

Write to you all soon! 

Filming: Take Two

After such an amazing day (and night) we had filming, we were all so pumped to continue the footage. We were especially excited because we got to go on a little adventure and film at Markham Park! 

This park is beautiful and it has so many unique settings to film in. I am very familiar with the park, as well as Megan, but this was Asher's first time going so I was very happy I got to experience that with him. Asher and I arrived a bit earlier than Megan, so we took the liberty of location scouting specific areas by driving around the entire park. We narrowed our choices down to four different parts of the park that were very aesthetically pleasing and great to film at. Here is a little sneak peak of some of the shots we took at the park: 

Woods

Nora sitting in the woods

Nora walking trail

Megan behind the scenes on wobbly dock

We shot in the woods, that may or may not have had a "No Trespassing" sign before the trail. I did not know about this spot until Megan suggested we utilize it and she took us there, and me and Asher fell in love. Don't worry though, nothing happened; we captured amazing footage and left. 

We also went to various areas with bodies of water. One of them was a nice manmade lake that had sand, and with a tight enough shot, one might think it was at the beach. We also filmed at this area with an extremely wobbly dock, that I refused to go on because it was over a very dirty canal that had actual alligators in it. I advised that we just go to another location because I didn't think it was safe to walk on it, considering there was mesh construction wrap around some of the wood poles. I thought it was sketchy and didn't want to do it but Asher persisted and him and Megan went on it. I stayed back and took some long shots and some stills of Megan on the dock to possibly utilize for our film poster. But after seeing that nothing was happening to them while they were on it, I decided to walk the dock and capture some footage, then quickly ran off. 

So an adventure you could say this day was, but it was so worth it because we captured beautiful shots. I am so proud of the work Asher and I have done so far and so grateful of Megan for doing this for us. 

Next we film in school for the scenes on a high school campus.

Until next time! 

Filming: Take One

Hi All! 

Very excited news in today's post, we have begun filming! Asher and I were able to finally pair up our schedules and put everything else aside to start filming our masterpiece. We utilized most of the locations planned out in our film, with a few add ons, such as Asher's dining room, his backyard and the park in his neighborhood. 

First, we shot in Asher's guest bedroom. This room looks most like it belongs to a female, and to make it more representative of a high school room, Asher and I did a little redecorating. We relocated much of his decorations into the guest room, or Nora's room, including: framed art, desk supplies, stuffed animals, framed pictures, Asher's Himalayan salt lamp (I didn't know what it was at first either), and of course an extra decor which was Nora's bottle of pills. 

We took footage of Nora being on the "Addy," which includes her being very focused in her work and very involved. We took many shots and various angles to have plenty of footage to work with. Here is an inside still shot: 

Nora in her bedroom.

We then proceeded to film in Asher's dining room to shoot some more of the scenes where Nora will be on Adderall. She will be shown taking the pills and doing her homework and studying intensely. 

After that we shot a few scenes in a spare, empty room and transformed it into the therapist's office. We were going to use Asher's dad's office in this scene, but he was using it at the time and it didn't look as good as we had imagined it to do. We made it look like a therapist session by rearranging the couch and the throw pillows and adding degree's to the wall to make it look more like an actual office. 

Asher and I then took some of the shots outside. We shot a scene in the backyard and in the park. We used the backyard in the day and at night and took some pretty cool shots using the lights hanging on the fence at night. We ventured to the park and got unique footage of Nora and her friend on the swings. 

One of our favorite and most fun to film, were the shower scenes. They came out just as we envisioned them too. The inspiration for us came from the famous shower and murder scene in Psycho. Megan was such a great actress to work with because she was willing to do anything and was such a great sport about it all. She didn't mind getting soaked in the shower and having us film parts of her that others would probably feel very uncomfortable doing. None of the shots show nudity, except they imply it which was the goal. They came out great and I am so excited to edit them and show them to all of you.

Here is a behind the scenes scoop on the Adderall, or Addy, we used in our film: we made our own! Asher bought empty vegan capsules off of Amazon Prime because we needed to use something that our actress could actually take (Megan is vegan so it was even harder to find). To make our placebo pills, we filled them up with red sugar. Adderall extended release is orange or blue, but since we didn't want it to be exactly the same because we don't have permission to use them, we chose to do red. 

Making Addy

It has been so much fun filming with Asher and Megan and I'm so excited to continue. Stay in touch!

Shots Fired

Hello everyone! 

As Asher and I have been thinking about how to organize our trailers, we created a very rough drafted shot list. The reason I say "very" is because this is an overall idea of how we want our trailers to play out. We will use some of our shots in both trailers, while others will be used in only one. Also, we will be adding other shots and incorporating them into different scenes that are not on our list. Many of our shots are suitable for a drama film, while others defy some conventions. 

Here is a picture of our drafted shot list: 

Drafted Shot List

After thorough research, we have decided to announce what our two trailers will be targeted towards and how they will be marketed. The two trailers that films usually create have to be differentiated in some way, and most of the time they do this by making them appealing to two different audiences. 

Asher and I are going to create our two trailers based off of our genre and of our audience. One of our trailers is going to be more drama-driven; this means it's going to rely on the typical characteristics of a drama to engage and persuade viewers to come and see our film. This trailer is going to be marketed in movie theaters and film festivals because those who are extremely passionate about movies will understand and appreciate these aspects of our film. 

Our other trailer is going to be more emotionally-driven. This trailer is going to use the character(s) as the main point of the trailer so that the audience can build a relationship with the character. Asher and I will be using pathos to draw in our target audience so that they stay hooked to watch the film. We will be marketing this trailer across various social media platforms to appeal to that niche of generation-Z who are on their social media accounts on their all the time.

Here is a summed up version of the research Asher and I compiled of the typical characteristics and conventions of both: 

Trailer #1 (Genre-Driven- Movie Theater/Film Festival Festival):

1. Trailers displayed at the movie theaters and at film festivals are usually 1:30 to 2:00 minutes. These platforms are suitable for a genre-driven audience who are interested in the characteristics and conventions used in the film. This audience is commonly described as “movie-goers” because they tend to go and see films at these platforms rather than streaming them or watching them at home. Therefore, one of our trailers will be more geared towards focusing on the drama and that one will be presented at these locations.

2. Film festivals and Movie Theaters are a great way to advertise the film because most likely the audience is going to come back to see more films. Our trailer will be displayed at other drama movies that are released before our film so that the same audience is exposed to it. This is commonly how previews are organized at movie theaters and at film festivals- they are displayed before the same genre so that the same targeted audience comes to see it.

3. Indie films do not have that must of a disadvantage as very popular, and wealthy franchised films because it’s about marketing and how well the trailers are produced. Trailers are also typically released within 100 days before the film.

Trailer #2 (Social Media Trailer- Instagram/Snapchat/Twitter):

1. Trailers tend to be 1 minute in length, as social media users tend to be more quick with their consumption decisions. Also, some media platforms such as Instagram regulate the video lengths that can be broadcasted on their application (Instagram allows for videos to be 60 seconds or less). Thus, our social media trailer will be a 60 second trailer.

2. What is nice about social media is that you can broadcast so many different trailers and types (full length, shorter, teaser, etc.). Unlike TV movie trailer commercials  which on average are 30 seconds or less, social media's like Twitter and Snapchat allow for longer full length trailers for a fraction of a cost, as TV costs big bucks to feature commercials on differing networks while social medias cost no money to create and post on their own pages and are not expensive when advertising when compared to TV.

3. Snapchat it is especially important as advertisements on snap usually feature a teaser trailer that, if chosen by the consumer, can be "Swipped Up" to view a longer length trailer, making the consumer feel like they are in control with what advertisements they see (all relates to marketing to Millenials and Gen Z with creating brand loyalty and advertising without advertising).

Both of our trailers will also be distributed on Youtube as well. We feel that this platform has an audience for both, and there should be an area where the two trailers are together for our overall target audience to see. 

I hope you enjoyed our drafted shot list and our reveal for our trailers! Stay in touch to get an exclusive inside look to some of the sneak peaks to our film! (Hint: Asher and I began filming!)

Finding Nora

Asher and I went through a very thorough process of picking an actress. We didn't just want to choose anyone just because they would be willing to act. No. We needed someone who we both equally felt embodied the characteristics of Nora. We thought of a few candidates for the role, but none of them worked out as well as our chosen actress... drumroll please... Megan Vitko! 

View some of the photos of Megan below and see how awesome Nora is going to be: 

   

Megan graduated early from Cypress Bay this year, so she is me and Asher's age and has time to film. She is very fashionable and creative and just the gal we've been looking for. We think that it is great that she is very in-style and has a preferred look because we feel that it will be relatable. Our representation is very important to us because we want our target audience to feel a connection and relate to Nora as a real high school student. We has discussed many times that we need our film to be 100% accurate. We are tired of watching films that have a very poor representation of high school students, so we are going to avoid doing that and please the rest of the population who hates this too. 

We are going to be filming next week (so incredibly excited) and I will reveal how we are going to organize our two trailers, including our drafted shot list. 

Check back soon! 

Soul or Sound Searching?

Who knew sound would be so difficult to find? Asher and I have been searching for the perfect music to pair with our trailers and we have yet to find something we like. We had this proposed sound in our heads of what we wanted to find, but it is becoming extremely hard to pick out. 

Before we started this project, I heard a song that I really wanted to use; however, it would be extremely difficult to get permission to use the song. I wanted to use Sia's song, "Angel By the Wings." Listen for yourself so you can understand and have a feeling for the mood and tone of how we want to set up our trailer, even though we are not going to be using this song.

I fell in love with the chorus and the melody of the song. I already had a clear vision of how I was going to organize the trailers and how I wanted them pan out. My favorite part is the build up to the climax of the very high intense notes because it is so emotionally driven. I liked the fact that it starts out slow and gradually builds up, engaging the listeners and making them feel something for the piece. Immediately when I heard this song months ago, I called Asher and told him to listen to it. He too fell in love with it. 

Although this song would be great, we hit some major bumps in the road in the realization of what it would take to use the song. We learned all about asking for permission for copyrighted material last year in our AS Media Studies class, but since my project was a magazine last year, I didn't have to worry about it or delve into it too much. But now that I am going to use music in my project this year, it became a prominent issue. 

Asher and I did attempt to ask for permission for the song from the Label, Monkey Puzzle Records, however, it was much more than just asking to use the song. First of all, they are impossible to get a hold of. Second of all, we had no idea that it literally costs thousands of dollars for us to use it. We love the song, but we don't love it that much. So during our periodical meeting with our teacher Mrs. Stoklosa, we told her how we wanted to use the song and all of that, and she recommends that we just use copyright-free music. She suggested we try two sites: Purple Planet and Bensound. Another reason I am okay with not using the song is because the usual conventions for a drama film is that they don't use lyrics because it distracts the viewers and takes there mind off of the film itself. 

I am still really bummed out that we couldn't use that song, but Asher and I are keeping an open mind and listening to countless of Royalty Free Music on end, but have yet to find something that we like. Everything we have found is way too dramatic and theatrical. I'm not going to make my trailers cheesy whatsoever, so I am going to continue to try my hardest in finding something amazing for our trailers. I am looking for a distinct piece that is going to not only "wow" me, but my audience as well. I know it's out there, I just have to keep searching. 

Asher and I are very motivated and devoted to making this trailer the best that it can be, so stay in touch, because we may or may not have found who is going to be our lead actress to play Nora!

Scouting Settings

As Asher and I delve more into the production aspects of our trailers, we decided a good place to start would be to choose possible location settings. We began by describing spots that we have both imagined filming in and then we brainstormed about where these settings would be feasible to film. We think that having about 5 main, unique settings would be a balanced number for our trailers. 

Location 1: School Campus 

Since Nora will be in high school, we clearly need a school setting, so it's a good thing Asher and I attend a high school. We not only attend any high school, we attend Cypress Bay High School. Cypress is like a mini college campus. With almost 5,000 students, 3 buildings (one of which is three stories), and over 50 portables, I'd say we have plenty of very accurate representations of the high school Nora will attend. 


Location 2: Bedroom 

We will be using Asher's house, specifically his bedroom and bathroom, to shoot these scenes. We both agreed that he has a very stereotypical looking high school bedroom- artsy posters, messy desk, framed pictures with friends and family, etc. His room will be great for our target audience to relate to and it will feel like it is actually Nora's bedroom. We will use this setting to establish the more emotionally driven scenes because often times high schoolers go in there rooms to be dramatic about their problems, sorry but it's true. 


Location 3: Glass Shower

Asher and I are so so so excited about this setting! We will be getting some very raw and vulnerable shots here that will show the real, engrossed emotional pain Nora is going through. Asher has a very nice glass shower in his house that will be easy to film around so we will be able to make our vision possible. 


Location 4: Doctor's Office 

Our idea for the doctor's office derives from the plan of introducing to our audience that Nora has a serious problem. We haven't decided whether or not we want to make it a therapist's office or a doctor's office only because it depends on where we shoot it. Asher asked his therapist if we can use her office to shoot these scenes in, but she can not give us a straight answer yet because she has such a busy schedule, which is understandable. So our plan-B is that we use Asher's house again and shoot in his dad's office. We can redecorate certain parts and include only what we need in our shots to make it look just like a real-life doctor's office. 


Location 5: Woodland Area 

I think I am most excited about the shots that will come from this setting. We will be filming in Markham Park which is a very woodsy-looking park with 666-acres of land. Markham has such versatile locations that Asher and I can make use of. We have so many cool and interesting shots we want to do here and I have such a clear vision of how I want to do them. It's going to be great!


So those are our main five locations we are going to be using. If we add any more, they will most likely be quick scenes that will serve a purpose of why we added and/or changed any. I hope that you enjoyed our locations and I can't wait for you to see the real deal. 


Until next time!

Person B

After conducting our interviews with our two subjects, Asher and I noticed there are many similarities regarding why they started and why they continued, but there are also many differences between the two, mainly on how much they use of it.

The following is the interview with our second subject, make sure to read the entire interview to understand the affect Adderall has on a person.

Interview with Person B:

Q: When did you start taking Adderall 

A: “I started at the end of junior year for AP and AICE Exams.”

Q: When was it first introduced to you?

A: “I can’t remember exactly, but I know it was from my friends who took it.”

Q:How many times have you taken it?

A. “Only about 12-13 times.”

Q: What is the milligram of each pill?

A: “I take 25 mg, extended release, which lasts about 6-8 hours.” 

(Keep in mind that prescribed Adderall is only 10 mg and is not extended release.)

Q: How does it make you feel when you take it? 

A: “Everyone describes it as extreme focus, and yeah that’s what it is, but it’s more like you can’t stand to not be productive. Like for me personally, I feel good and I feel happy when I am productive and when I can achieve something with my time. Like when you’re on it, you can’t stand to just be sitting there and doing nothing and being unproductive, you need to be doing something.”

Q:What does it feel like when you’re on Adderall and you’re doing nothing? 

A: “It feels like, for me, that it is a waste of time and energy.” 

Q:Are you worried at all about the side effects? 

A:“Like Addiction? No, because it’s not like if you just take something once or a couple of times you’re going to get addicted.” 

Q: Do you generally do better in school when you take Adderall? 

A: It’s doesn’t necessarily mean that I get like miles better test grades because I take a prescription that I’m not supposed to be taking, but it just makes me feel better that I can be productive and focus better in school on stuff that I need to learn and be a more successful person doing so. I can do the things that I want to be able to do, if that makes any sense.” 

Q: Do you want to continue using it in college? 

A: “Umm… I mean obviously you’re immediate thought is yeah, yes I want to because it would help a lot and it would help me focus on the things I need to do. But at the same time, it’s like what are you gonna do? Are you gonna go out and convince some random doctor in your new city to like give it to you.” 

Q: Do you normally convince your doctor to give it to you? Or how to you get it?

A: “Oh, no, no, no, I don’t do that with my doctor. I get it from my friends.”

Q: Adderall is usually referred to as a studying steroid, do you feel like that statement is true?

A: “So the thing about that is, as least for me, when I think about steroids in sports is that is changed your physiology, without any extra effort you get better results that you normally wouldn’t get. With Adderall, you need to put in the exact same effort and the exact same mind power and motivation into that to get the results you’re looking for.” 

Q: So how do you feel when you have a lot of homework and studying to do, but you don’t end up taking Adderall? 

A: “For me, it takes me a significantly longer amount of time to do anything because I am constantly getting distracted and I get distracted very easily, like I’ll look at my phone every couple of seconds.”

Q: Do you usually feel motivated? 

A: “Yeah, but it just makes me happy to have that extra boost to my motivation. I think you have to be a special type of motivated to want to take a drug like this.” 

Q: Have you ever got to the point where you are too focused and end up spending too much time on something?

A: “Yeah when I was doing a lab last week, like it had to be perfect. I was in that mindset where it had to be perfect, even though it took me a substantial amount of time. And sometimes I’ll get caught up on a problem on tests and realize that now I only have 10 minutes left for 20 multiple choice questions.”

Q: What are some of the side effects you feel on it?

A: “It completely curves my appetite to the point where I have no motivation to eat. Like I don’t eat when I’m on it. Usually I’ll binge eat when I’m not on it because I’m bored or because I’m not doing anything. So it completely takes away that distraction and motivation to want to eat.” 

Q: Are you scared of the side effects taking a major affect on your life? 

A: “No, because at this point I know that I’m not addicted and I know that I have a certain cap on what is appropriate for me to ask for and how much to take. For me, it’s not like I have a constant supply that would make me worried.” 

Q: Is all of it even worth it? 

A: “I guess not. It’s not like, at least for me, where a lot of people spend a substantial amount of money on a pill or something like that. But money aside, if I were to get addicted I don’t think it would be worth it. But at this point, I think it’s worth it in the amount that it is.”

I hope you enjoyed the testimonials Asher and I were able to gather. These three interviews were extremely crucial in helping us understand Adderall, beyond research and scientific information. This provided us with real, personal, and raw information and responses. Now Asher and I can design Nora's personality and the obstacles she will face with a much more knowledgable and accurate representation.

Talk soon!