When it came to writing, I always knew that I wanted my topic to be about XR since it was adaptable to COVID-19 restrictions. The more I learn about the XR, the more I brainstorm our narrative. I had a light bulb moment when developing the script where I knew I did not want to do a full documentary about the XR where we interview the programmers and talk about the development using the screen recordings as B-roll. I always wanted to do something cinematic.

The first epiphany moment was when I remember what I did last semester. For our last assignment, I did a short film about a student (myself) writing an essay upon an interview with Elise McCredie about the challenges that women face in the media industry. By mixing both documentary and fiction genres, I wanted to use this opportunity to create another one for the XR. Having the fiction aspect of the short film, I wanted to have some cinematic moments. When I was watching ‘Baby Driver’ (2017) I wanted to adapt the walk-by transition which can be seen in our short film within the opening sequence. When I emphasized how I wanted the film to be cinematic, Cherry implemented the idea about the split-screen which I thought was a good idea. In a way, this scene helps the narrative aspect as well as being a stylistic choice where it enhances the COVID-19 restrictions where this short film delves into how Film festival adapts to difficult circumstances without compromising its main service, which is to connect with the film community.

The second moment happened after we received our initial feedback on our rough-cut from our MIFF guess where we do not necessarily need to use everything at our disposable. When we interviewed Isabella Radevski and Ghita Loebenstein, I questioned whether we need to use them at all from the beginning. I already knew this when we received an email stating that they can only answer two questions out of five where the questions they chose do not help move the narrative forward. Both conceptually and in future reference, we do not need to fully use everything, and that we should be very considerate with the time duration and carefully use it. This is something I know would be useful where I should remember to not rush the narrative and always focus on the parts that you believe help keep your audience engage while it conveys your intention.