Met with peers and got feedback on my project so far

Walking into class today, im not gonna lie I was a little scared. For a little background, I'm working alone on my portfolio project, however, to share ideas and get some feedback from others we were doing an activity in class where we got to meet with a randomly selected group of peers (also working on their own portfolio projects). But, while I was scared at first, since we had to pitch our ideas, and i was scared I wasn't gonna able to get it across in a way that made sense (or they just simply would not like my ideas), the experience turned out to be very informative and helped me solidify what I wanted to do in my project. By having to be put on the spot, and explain myself, it helped me understand exactly what I needed to focus on, what I should work more on, and any parts of my project that were confusing. 

Quick notes I took to not forget my group's comments

Overall, they liked my project idea, and didn't throw tomatoes at me and publicly shame me, so that's a win in my books :). Hearing this was very validating, but, most important was their constructive feedback and advice. One of their confusions with the concept was whether the kids were being transferred to these boarding schools via coercion or forced/kidnapped. This made it clear that I need to communicate in the opening, that its economically encouraged, not forced, instead the children are being sent over more for economic opportunity. To fix this, I think I'll add a line in my script, where the presenter guy kind of explains, how they provide free education, and the kids simply need to provide them with a cut of their future earnings, telling investors its "a win win!" (very much not a win win). 

Another interesting thing that came up, was they had a few questions on where I was going with the plot, and kind of what my main character's future motivations and main plans where. This got me thinking and I really wanna help develop the story more, it gave me a few different paths with where I could take it. First, I could basically have the character be super dedicated to the school at first, very academically focused, sacrificing everything, emotionless, and then as the story progresses, slowly start to be deprogrammed (not sure what the catalyst for this would be) and start to realize that this life is horrible and try to escape (thriller components start to come in). Second, I could have the student go in already discontent, and show signs of discontent early on, and work from the inside to turn the rest of the school against the leaders. Depending on which option I go with, it would affect how in my opening, the main character either acts completely apathetic and serious, or shows signs of dissent. I'll probably explore this in a future blog, where I dive deeper into world-building and plot, but I'm also curious next week when I meet in groups again, what they will say.