Best fish forever (B.F.F.): A short feature film

• Main Authors: Cruz, Jericho Roel P., Lorenzana, Isabel Marie, Santos, Bianca Darleen S.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2019
• Subjects: Feature films; Virtual pets; Electronic toys; Child development
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/7625
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study intends to determine how the use of technology affects children. Specifically, this thesis aims to produce a feature film that investigates how virtual pets contribute to childrens need for companionship. The group hopes to produce a fifteen-minute short film entitle Best fish forever (B.F.F.), which is about an eight-year old boy named Mikey who develops an unlikely bond with his virtual pet fish. Furthermore, the research aims to identify how virtual pets as companions, impact childrens behavior and the way they perceive how they can form relationships and interact with others especially when dealing with loneliness. For this study, those are considered as children are in the middle childhood age of six to twelve years old. It is a phase wherein children go through extreme changes in their lives. As children begin to develop autonomy and gradually outgrow their early childhood phase and transition to adolescence (Middle childhood as developmental stage 43), it is during their middle childhood that children undergo physical and psychosocial changes (Thomson et al qtd in Middle childhood as developmental stage 48). Hence, the group supposes that the development of children may also be affected by the presence and role of technology in their lives, like virtual pets, aside from their family and peers. Ultimately, the group believes that these factors can impact the developmental process of children especially with the way they perceive and interact with others. This study hopes to explore on these notions and provide an approach that can bring about new meanings and understandings for people, especially the youth, families, and those working in media and communication and child development.