Paper planes: A short feature film

• Main Authors: Adiviso, Jasmine Althea A., Limjoco, Joela Micah T., Tiburcio, Mia Gayle A.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2016
• Subjects: Flight > Drama; Air pilots > Drama; Post-traumatic stress disorder > Drama
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/7714
• Institution: De La Salle University

Paper planes is a 20- minute short feature film of AB Communication Arts students under the name HELLFIRE Productions, produced as a thesis requirements for the Department of Communication in De La Salle University-Manila. It is a transformation drama about the journey of a young female student pilot after she experiences a traumatic in-flight accident. During her solo flight, she enters an unintentional spin and panics. She regains her awareness and recovers the aircraft surviving the near-fatal accident. She struggles with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), being constantly bothered by flashes of her experience causing her to distance herself from her friends. She makes several attempts to get back to flying but the mere sight and sound of a plane bothers her. With the help of her dad Antonio, a former aviator himself, she gets back on her feet, consulting with a psychiatrist, and getting back into flight school. She soon overcomes her PTSD and she is able to take off again. The objective of this film is to shed some light on the civil Aviation industry, unlike previous aviation based films that focus on Military Air Force training. It also aims to inspire and give hope to those who suffer from PTSD and other forms of trauma. This thesis paper aimed to document the film from pre-production, production until post-production. The pre-production includes the review of related literature on the aviation industry, rules and regulations set up by the Federal Aviation Authority(FAA) and Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), physiology and psychology in aviation, flight manual and maneuvers, aviation safety and accidents. Because the film also dealt with post traumatic stress disorder(PTSD), there are several references on the mental illness itself, its core symptoms and manifestations, until recovery and rehabilitation. There are references on previous works done in the film industry as well, such as Pearl Harbor and Top gun. It also includes the planning process presented through the methodology, which includes the storyline, budgeting. The production and post-production are presented through the final film presented during the defense, results, highlights of the defense, and several appendixes including the draft script and working script, production book, script breakdown, call sheets, and clustering.