Critical Reflection Blog

    In terms of social groups and issues, the film doesn't really represent much. The concept of the film was close to me and it could very well be seen as an extension of myself. In my little premier to some family and friends, I did notice something in regards to the critical reflection questions. While my audience watched, the interpretations and the perceived message of the film varied. I realized that the film could serve as an allusion to the mentally ill, more specifically those who suffer from schizophrenia. I think that the interpretation of mental health adds to the films and gives a little dash of uniqueness. Though it wasn't intended, the film can represent and interact with the mentally ill audience. It's not light by any stretch of the word but, it's surely fitting. With the time period especially, dark and gritty media has never been more relatable. And only after sitting and thinking that I realized that, with my films, I have unconsciously increased the extremely under represented women in media. I have a team consisting of four young women, who contributed so much. And though pieces here and there might floater, I could not have done it without them. If this were to become a feature film or something, I would be proud to stay that these young women helped me to achieve that. As the year's progress, more and more women rise to positions of power, and its a shame that it hasn't always been like that. With this project, I hope not only to show that women are equal to men and worthy of praise and recognition but are vital and instrumental to the way of life we have grown accustomed to. With the newly elected and soon to be integrated female Vice President of the United States, one can only hope that this message is spread wider for younger and younger generations to learn and internalize.

    Which brings me to the engagement of the target audience. Not only does the audience get to feel represented after such a tough year, but the audience is also treated to mind blogging thrills. The film is meant to leave the audience questioning. Mainly, how did the film begin and how does it end, and what do the events mean for them both. Truth be told, as the writer and director, those were my questions too. I wrote a story that unfolded in front of even me, with no clear reason why, and I wanted to leave the room for speculation. As a fan of super natural shows, I love to question works and theorize on outcomes, beginnings, and practically any part of a series I can. I wanted to achieve that through the creation of this film, and essentially gift that to others the same way it has been gifted to me before.

    Branding for the most part was no sweat. I tried my best to polish the brand of this film. I chose a daisy to represent the film because while it doesn't have meaning itself, it's a perfect shell to stand for the symbolism I hand in mind. When thinking of the concept for the film I wanted the movie to be an experience, and I ended up achieving something akin to a dream. Or at least that's how I feel about it. Branding became very important to me when I hit the post production stage of the film; after seeing that the outcome I envisioned had changed. It's almost as to cover it up, but I tried to well in other areas to my work balance. Don't think anyone can be as critical of this film as I have been, or maybe not. Because feel as though I let my film down by not being able to give it the professionalism it deserved. I don't think I hit my highest potential with filming, so by doing the best I could in the marketing and post production stages, I regained some pride in my work.  I aimed to generate mystery for the film, to have the audience talk and theorize the meaning and essence of the film. And if the outcome isn't grand, by marketing it well, and creating a recognizable brand it will still have ground to stand and be discussed.  I'm focusing on the mystery and shock value of the film really. To me, that's one of the most important aspects of branding in order to get an audience interested. Going in blind, to an unfamiliar setting has a way of drawing people in.

    I chose to genre this film as a thriller, and base it off an episode of a Nextflix Orginal, "Love, Death, and Robots". When reaching, I knew I would have to interact with the audience, and decided to through the use of perspective and limited information. I learned that thrillers are too, defined by the moods they evoke, often by toying with audiences' perception synthetic and heightened feelings of suspense, surprise, anticipation, and anxiety.  It was my goal to replicate the surprises and anticipation building. I liked how the audience was made to always on the edge of their seats.  Thillers are made to appear as if everything is so normal, but knowing what the movie is about from trailers and such, audiences are made so that they're always on the look out for somethi

ng to happen; waiting for the other shoe to drop and the chorus of music to begin to cue the racing of their hearts. I had to stray from a lot of conventions, some intentionally, others happened as a result of the circumstances in which I filmed. I couldn't spend much time building up to the weirdness of the film because of time, I think I did well enough while both simultaneously introducing the led character and setting.  Didn't utilize much of low angles, dutch angles, or extreme close ups, but got to use tracking shots, shot/reverse shots, and high angles which were very common in the films I researched to create a sense of space and relism. Music was a challenge since there wasn't much to do with royalty free music but I succeeded in capturing doors, footsteps, and the surrounding nature including the typical warm colors and natural lighting,

Short Film Package

My Film Package

Daize Chain 

The Film

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7q2iy1oKAk

Postcard

 

Website 

Link: https://daziechain.wixsite.com/daziechain

Editing Further

 

While editing is on its way and deadlines approach, problems persist. To aid in my editing endeavor I downloaded an editor software on my laptop. After some searching, I came across a free software that had access to a large royalty-free library with sounds, songs, and transitions. The problem again laid with the importing and exporting of footage. Using Google Drive turned out to be harder than I initially thought. Michell and I are still having trouble uploading in general and getting the footage to edit, When I uploaded it seems that it automatically uploaded as an .MOV file rather than a .MP4 file. We, unfortunately, can't use an .MOV . We figured that we could and would have manually renamed all the files. That's over 100 files to redo though. And even with accomplishing that alone, we'll have to scrap most of them anyway. If it's the only way that we can use the footage so we might just have to deal with it. It's going to take a while, and that's considering that the upload process without the renaming was already a pain, to begin with. For some reason, it seems that this project is attempting to thwart itself at every corner. It could just be me though. This project is turning out to be the hardest out of the bunch. Possibly because I chose to do it all alone. If there's a next time, Ill surely take the help, if I can. Not that I could or wanted to this time, but Id definitely like extra hands for my next project.

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Editing Blog

    Today officially marks the start of the editing process. This is usually of the most exciting parts for me. It's often the time when everything comes together. And you when you see all the work you've put into recreating your storyboard. With this project, however, it's vastly different. Instead of watching the birth of an idea I fostered in my head for months, I will watch it die. It will limp and flail in agony until its inevitable demise. I let it down by not being able to give it the professionalism it deserved. All I can do is salvage what I can, and do the best I can in the marketing and post-production stages. It won't count for much with low quality work, but if what big blockbuster movies have taught me over the years, is bad publicity is good publicity. I want to generate mystery and hype for this film. And if the outcome isn't grand, by marketing it well, it will still have ground to be discussed. 

Similar to the recent musical "Cats". It sparked heated debates, for the amount of money that went into it for it to become a feature film. Still, whether you air on the side of good or bad options for the film, it is still remarkable how far it reached in media. Going to try my best t wrap up even things in a nice bow. I'm just aiming for the film to have a smooth finish and not feel chopping or rushed. Another concern is time. I hope I have enough footage to fill my time. If not, I'll have to make some emergency shots.

 

The End of Filming, and The Beginning of Editing

   Moving on from filming, the editing process is going to be that much more tedious and exhausting. At least with the editing process, I won't physically have to deal and interact with others. I was planning on taking the brunt of editing all on my own, but as seen, plans change. Luckily Michell is returning to the fray. She has offered her services through the assistance in editing, Being away now she can edit without needing anything. But as always, there's a caveat. It isn't a major problem, but boy is it a headache to deal with.

    The issue is sharing and receiving or importing and exporting the footage across platforms, at a distance. The distance is the key component here. Usually when filming one would use an SD card to store the footage. But while using a cell phone, that's not necessary. Using a phone you can share footage easily via text, and the files are too big, on Apple devices, one could airdrop files. Airdrop through work via Bluetooth. And that means I cannot utile this feater in the case. Michell is too far, therefore I must find a new way to give her access to the footage. I tried using email too, but Gmail too has a limit on the size of the file that can be sent. It does however have google drive, I thought, where you can upload and extract files from a bank/sever. The process is usually straightforward, on the computer, but for some reason more complex on the app. Its taken some time, but most if not all the footage is uploaded.

Parting ways with Justin

 

   After everything was said and done. I decided against using a third. With the scenes filmed with Maddison and Hezrona, I already had everything. There was no more reason to put participants at risk from leaving their homes to assist in this project.And despite how much I wish to say that this was all my decision, it wasn't. I would have loved to reshoot and gather extra footage while editing. Justin however was key in allowing that to happen. He, unfortunately, was unavailable. He canceled last minute due to work.

    Its possible that this is decison is overall for the better anyway.While it would neat to have the element of a changing figure, it isnt praticale. That and I feel that my abilty in film is up to the task. During this process, I think I dratic over estimated not only myself and my abilities, but my partipants and failed to consider crutul real world logistics. I wasnt the best director and that led to the fustration of my team. And with lower moral came lower and lower video quality. In all, everything is set to begin editing. All shots have been taken, and every scene filmed.

Filming Inside With Hezrona

   

 Wrapping up with filming with Maddison, we filmed all but on scene. The scene in question was the shower scene. It again didn't go as planned. I first attempted to film in the bathroom closest to our starting bedroom. The problem was that the silhouette did not shine through to get the effect I wanted. Despite shining a flashlight through the curtain from the other side, we could get a clear image of our mysterious figure. We then decided to move to the second bathroom. The second instead of curtains had glass so we saw both participants. This gave the added problem that my sister was of course not going to be naked on camera. We were able to grab the illusion of such in some shots, but not others.

 

    With Hezrona, we simply completed the missing scene. We were on a time constraint, and wish I could have made duplicate scenes with her. She was closer to my sister's skin tone and It would have been easier to maneuver in certain shots. I wouldn't have to worry about her appendages showing. In all, a pretty successful take. The shots were really easy to shoot for these scenes. There was the slight problem of the matching clothes again. Hezrona didn't have a matching sweater or similar pants. We ended up making do and swapping tops when my sister entered the shower. 

Filming in Walmart

    

Not only was filming outside difficult, but filming in a store, during a worldwide pandemic was that much harder. One would think that the circumstances would limit the people we ran into. That unfortunate was not the case. Not only was filming outside filled will uncontrollable factors but it felt that Walmart had that and more in store for us. It felt that no matter where I turned there was someone there. And it wasn't even always like this. I only included Walmart in my plans because when I typically visit, it's relatively empty, and the spaces I had intended to film weren't frequently toured.

    It was extremely frustrating running into all those people. I of course didn't want anyone else in the shots, but I was also trying to maintain my six feet. It was nearly impossible though. It seemed that as one person cleared out, another would come to replace them. I must have backed into three or four people who would just appear behind me as I was looking through the camera. The comings and goings of people wasn't even the worse part. Of course, people came to shop at the store, that much was excusable. But I noticed, even single time the camera started to roll, someone just had to pause in order to take in the none existent scenery. Or group up and chat about something. And worstly pause to take a phone call in the middle of the aisle. What impeded me the most was when I decided to wait until someone made their way past, rather than moving to another location, and they in kind slowed themselves walking down the aisle. Iv never felt more impatient in my life. I wasn't even waiting on anything worthwhile.

Filming Outdoors

     Filming outdoors was difficult.  A lot of scenes had to be reshot because of unconsolable noises. Too many cars would drive by at one. Or someone would pass by on their phone. And while background noise isn't unwelcomed, the volume of said noise is. I would prefer them to be distanced and blended in to create scenery. Rather drown out the focus of my film.

     We filmed at and on the way to a nearby park. Not many people we out that day. There was a man and his two kids playing on the swing set and monkey bars. And a woman on the opposite end with a baby, next to two teens on the basketball court. We kept our distance from them and filmed. They provided some nice background noise too. It wasn't too noisy and it was much better than having an empty park to work with. It was getting to the park that was the issue. When filming the running scenes, I don't believe anyone would believe the number of cars that passed by. And it wasn't only normal cars either. A garage truck impeded filming for quite a while with its obnoxious beeping. And it was followed by a foliage collection truck, it was quicker overall in passing, but decided to stop in the middle of the road we were filming on. Being subjected to all that was exhausting. Not only that, we ran into the issue of my sister being unable to run long distances due to an ankle injury she received from soccer. She informed me of these moments before filming the necessary scenes, we managed to wrap her ankle with a brace and shorten run time at the expense of actual sweat for realism. 

Filming Indoors With Madison

     Our indoor scenes were by far the easiest to shoot. The elements we filmed in was perfect, and for the most part, was exactly how I envisioned it. It was seamless up to a point. For some scenes though, I didn't account for the front-facing participants. In my head, I thought I could just black out their face or something. Thought that I could angle the hoodie down so that the face wouldn't show. That wasn't feasible at all. It didn't come close. Because an added issue we ran into was that Madison and my sister not only differed in height but differed greatly in skin tone. And no matter how much we angled the hoodie, her face showed.

    That limited me to only behind the shoulder shots. Not much room for variety if I'm being honest. That aside. My team was beyond frustrating, My confidence is not the highest as when I initially went into this project. Going back to what I first thought, I think I failed to reach my intended purpose. I wanted to tackle current events, and I pushed that aside for a new point of an interesting and engaging film. It has now taken my strife to push me to look back a the fact that I was skewed from the conception of what I wanted this film to be. Nevertheless, I'll keep pushing on and make the most of what I have. Not only for the grade of course but for the pride that comes with this being my project. No one else name goes on this but my so ownership of this lies with me, for better or worse and I will see it to the end. I will be the sore captain that goes with the wreck of the ship, and proudly so.

Filming Update

     I can proudly say that I managed to get a grip on the situation that is filming. After the disaster that was Michell leaving for the break, I came to the conclusion that I could no longer rely on her. And that I must essentially fill the parts where she was needed. That left me in quite a rough spot if I'm being honest. And at the risk of adding too many delay blogs, I'll illustrate the painstaking workaround I came up with. 

    As it stands now, we have three filming days. Resulting from hours and hours of phone calls and text messages. The three days will serve as dailies and reshoots for all intents and purposes. It came out this way because of the varying personal schedules of the two additions I made to my team. Justin is a part-time worker and can only film on Friday, which is day two. I enlisted the help of both my partner and my sisters, mine babysits and won't be available until next week Tuesday, and my sister's partner luckily is available tomorrow, which is Wednesday, and marks day three and day two respectably. And it that seems confusing, it is. While filming is now wrangled, this scheduling creates its own unique issue. Now if I were to want to mix and match footage, I couldn't. Each participant of course has a different height. My sister is the only constant and is the focus of the film, my partner is shorter than her, hers taller, and Justin is assumed taller but we have no way of determining that until filming day since they have never been in the same room with one another. It isn't a big issue. It might even add an unexpected element to the film that this mysterious s figure changes shape and size throughout until its revel. Though said and done, with filming on different days, we run into the fact that the scenes outdoors will be completely unsalvageable, being that weather and light are unpredictable and uncontrollable. I'd have to pick the best singular figure for those scenes. 

Filming Hiccups

     Plans were made to rewrite it seems. I'm not sure who said it, but I'm sure it's a quote. If it's not, it should be because it hasn't seemed more true than right now. My plan included starting filming on the first few days of our winter break. But it would seem that I didn't learn from my Thanksgiving mishap. I waited too long to get started. I enjoyed my break too much and neglected to begin the work I had delegated to myself. At no one's fault but my own, I now have to rearrange a few things.  And it's not just because I waited, I still have time, so to speak. The problem is, that by waiting, I have now lost a key component of my plan. 

    My plan consisted of four people. These people are: myself, of course, my sister, my classmate outside of this particular class, and a mutual friend who doesn't attend this school.  What has now happened is that  Michell, my classmate is leaving to visit family for the winter break. This is bad on many levels, the first being that she will no longer be able to assist me in filming, and I have lost access to the high-quality camera she posses on her phone. Then on top of not being here, though he is a mutual friend, Justin will be less inclined to lend his assistance without Michell accompanying him. But even if she were to come back in time to lend me her camera, assist in filming, and convenience Justin to participate, her travels jeopardize safety so I couldn't have her there. It wouldn't be fair to the other participants in this time of unease. Covid still runs rampant and I would hope she wouldn't travel, not only for this project, but for her safety, but there's nothing I can do.  I'll just have to find a replacement for them both. Hopefully in time to begin editing on schedule.

Disruptions in Filming

    Maybe it was a tad overzealous of me to assume Id get to film at the first chance I got. And giving myself a week, was a little too ambitious. Didn't take into account that at least two of those days would be spent relaxing and enjoying the break, two more for other projects I had on hand, the day of thanks of course, then the day of cleaning from the day of thanks. Leaving one sole day, which wasn't enough. Instead of filming I just ran through the general plan of the film. Ironed out some details like transitions and so on. My main issue is the the issue continuity. Right now I want the character to be wearing the same clothes when the wake, so they can go to sleep in the them to create the loop, in the picture taken on the news, and when the viewer see her get murdered. Everything is fine up until the last point. I have two actors playing the same person, therefore I must find a way for them to look indistinguishable until the reveal. I hold that either I can do a quick warobe change and swap outfits, with a convenient enough angle, or that my actors have similar enough clothing. But that saying I hope the differences in my actors don't show too heavily on camera. 

   With that all said and done, I planed for Christmas break as well. And to my surprise, it's a two-week break rather than just one week, so that's great. However I was informed that one of my participants might me leaving the state in order to visit family for the holidays. While this isn't as much of an issue, It puts some dents in the plan. The person in question was meant to hold the camera while I direct. That being so I wouldn't have to do everything. Also It would allow me to shoot more effetcily, by positioning the camera woman and actors. Ill mostlikly move the dates up for my orinbigal plan by a few days and start filming on a weekend. Its not as concrete of a plan, but I still want to get started in Demcember, which is approaching stortly.

Websites' Alive and Well

     As of today, the website is fully functional. And just like the social media accounts, It wasn't very hard. My peers and I, by the suggestion of our instructors, used the website, Wix.com. The instructions thereon were pretty straight forward. I choose a general category; film, and some general templates that I liked, and Wix put together a website that I liked enough to start to edit. And not to sound like a sponsored ad, but I found it extremely easy. It didn't take much time, especially since there were other things I had to attend to. The website itself is live and can be found under "https://daziechain.wixsite.com/daziechain".

Which brings me to the decision of the working title. Not that it needed much thought or a deeper meaning, but I did so. It's like a little cherry on top for now. And in terms of branding and them, I like them a lot. I thought of Dazie for the name of my character, as in the name Dasiy, mixed with hazy, to represent the misty and foggy feel that I want the film to have. The chain came in because I want the film to have a looped effect, that the start and end are connected, and can repeat after the film has ended off-screen. And though the name is subject to change the elements I was want to embellish won't. The name will still most like retain apart of its origin if it changes at all.

Socials Went Live

     As of now, all social media accounts for the film have been activated. That includes Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and my personal favorite Twitter. Making the accounts wasn't very hard. It was fairly easy actually. As a member of Gen Z, I'm already well versed in technology. And I had already made personal accounts for each website/app so I was that much more familiar. Not to say making a social account would have been hard otherwise though. The way I did it, was that I simply connected everything, like a tree with branches. In hindsight, I could have gone a step further and made an official email for the film but I decided to use my professional student one. Going from there I opened accounts with the email and there all linked.

    As for branding, and marketing, I'm currently at a loss. Naturally, I don't have anything to post as of yet. I plan on filling the feed with behind the scenes, maybe actor P.O.Vs, and bloopers from filming. But I still have to think about the feel for the movie. I want to base my social media presence off of the show Riverdale, and how each member of the cast had turns posting their own takes on what was happening episode to episode. You got the learn more about the characters they played along with the actual personalities of the actors and I liked that. The only downside is, it might be too lighthearted of a branding idea for a thriller film. Or, maybe the juxtaposition would help hypothetical fans warm up to the film and look forward to it more.

Storyboard Blog

   Below is my storyboard. I didn't do much of it and tried to do my best illustrating my vision of how I wanted the film to play out. I plan on filming from my home so It wasn't very hard to map out where I wanted things to happen. And apart from the scene at the store, I will have full control of the elements to change to fit my vision. Filming at the store is still an uncertain factor in my vision because of this. I don't doubt that I'll be given permission to shoot there, but I worry that because of the public nature of the store the quality of my shots will diminish.

    With the storyboard itself, I can see almost even scene I mapped out perfecting, I like the pacing and to me, everything is smooth until the end. I feel that the drama leading up to the conclusion is adamant, but how I end it could use work. I was thinking of possibly a few more seconds between frames to illustrate the reveal of the figure after the murder. That really comes down to filming and editing though. I'm going to have the camera running for at least a few seconds between each take for more natural transitions. I feel like I also have a lot of varying angles but not many transitions. For pacing sake, I used fades and mostly jump cuts. With one or two action matches, I could also add some dissolves. It's mainly because I want the figure to move quickly. With inhuman, and freakish speed. And I want the feel to be that you could miss something with the blink of an eye. I also want to limit the need for transitions. The way I broke up the film, I can shoot most scenes in one shot, with some need a shot-reverse-shot and that's it, and then a transition in between. I'd love to have each scene have a trucking shot to make it easier but depending on the feasibility of having everything, multiple stitched shots will have to work too. 

Planning Blog

     Beginning with the film's schedule, I plan on utilizing my holiday breaks to the fullest. Since my personal schedule is fairly busy, I plan on using weekends and the upcoming holidays, the days in which school isn't as much of a hassle. And since I will be working with other people weekends and holidays make it more likely everyone will have the means of transportation and free time as well. I plan to film consecutively at my house and the surrounding area, if not in one-day, filming would be back to back; assuming weather and availability are stable factors. Preferably on any given Saturday and Sunday. After filming I'll be on my own for the most part. Creativity and editing and directing will be my main focus, while I enlist the help of my classmate Michell for film, and my sister and neighbor Jahmeila and Justin respectably for acting. And of course, due to coronavirus, everyone will be wearing masks ensuring everyone's safety; if they don't have any, disposable masks have been procured in advance to distribute. 

    The current ideal is to start filming around the 24th, with the 25th, and 26th being the holiday safety net. If need be, the 21st and the 22nd are available. The overall goal is to finish, before the 31st of this month, with any and reshoots, or retakes being done in December. Editing shouldn't take long, for what I envision the bulk of the work in is filming and the transitioning. After all the footage is compiled all that would be left is stitching it together. With maybe one or two sound effects that we'll record like heavy breathing and such I don't see myself having much to do.

    With the basis of the film overall, the only prop I see us needing is a fake knife and some concoction for fake blood. If they can't be bought for whatever, either because of expenses or unavailability, I consider myself pretty crafty so I'll make them. As for customs, I have a good idea of what I want my actors to wear, it'll be regular clothes like running shoes and a hoodie, nothing too hard to muster up out of the closet.

Short Film vs. Feature Length Film

    I simply adored the short film. I was short and to the point, as intended. As though I had a question, they were answered in a manner where I didn't feel cheapened out of my curiosity. Though my thoughts were right the answer so to peak was just accepted. It was a nicely wrapped storyline. And it could be understood without any further explanation. 

    The feature film takes all of this and multiplies it. The story, seemly a prequel, to the short film, elaborates on the story and gives the audience new charters and more backstory. This said it retains its charms with questions. Giving the audience something to wonder about as the story progresses. A trait I want to achieve in my own film making process. I liked how with more time, the film was able to achieve more cinmetic diptions. Like the end, where the audeince got saw the spirtis rise up rather simply walking to their graves and ending it there. The feature film was also able to give more than one story line, it wasn't as clear cut as the short film. There was multiple antagonist and multiple lovable charters. It also gave the audience a hint of romance. It was kinda weird after the reveal that they were all created from the soul of the same man, but it was sweet. The length of the film just allowed for more complex lines of thought. And they had voices! The audience didn't have to interperate anything. The characters told us what they thoaght, and I liked that.

Research 9, The Feature Film

     To think I was interested before. The film was so good. I was hooked off the bat. The opening narration, just, captivating once again. I already had so many questions. In a good way too. Like what caused the end of humanity. What gave this man the idea to create these dolls. How was this possible. Quite a beginning in only the first five minutes. And how do we reach the start the way it did. Clearly, so much time has passed to put us into the era we see.

    Not only was number 9 just the center of the show; the protagonist if you will. I felt drawn to him in the film because he sought to question and challenge common ideas I admired and resonated with that. Everything was so climatic. The sound was so engaging, every moment was expressive and dramatic, and it made watching the movie very enjoyable. So many obstacles for the characters to overcome, and for not one moment did I feel that the characters were flat and static. Each of them had so much complexity, even the antagonist after the audience learns of the history of the word. And though the colors were bleak, the word had so much vividness. I just felt emersed in the word I watched.

Research 9, The Short

    "9" the short film, was great. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I can even see why it would get picked up to be made into a feature film and all. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that. I was taken by surprise in all honestly, to say the least. The ragdoll premises was captivating. And though the film didn't have any dialogue the story was extremely digestible. There was a moment though where I gave the film a little more credit than it was due. I mistakenly thought that number 5 had turned into the antagonist. But before  I could even explore that thought really, the film ended.

    Speaking of, the antagonist was, very cool. He, it, whatever the case was a come combination of all the things I love. A cold, bounty hunting, mercenary type. Nothing gets better than that. I found the mechanics of how it hunted interesting too. How exactly were the two pieces of the tracker connected? As the audience, we could discern that one half sensed when the other was near but was the other was drawn to the missing piece? Or was it drawn to the ragdolls them selfs? If not, why not toss the piece you had and relocate? And for the film as a whole, why only have numbers 5 and 9 as the subjects? I'd like to know what happened to 8, 7, and 6. I am not questioning numbers above that because it'd be understandable that they would have to die early one. I know they died in the content of the film but  I wonder why the director chose to have that dynamic between those two numbers. Especially when 8, 7, and 9 are closer in relatability than 5. It worked out in the end, so it's all good.