Bringing Attention to Cyberbullying-The Interview..
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Photos by Jamison Boyer
Debbie Heimowitz & Jason Azicri:
The Power behind the Production, In Their Own Words...
The talented creators of Adina's Deck, The Exclusive Detective Agency Specializing in Solving Cyber Bully Mysteries, discuss the background and their vision for this very important cyber bullying project.
Adina's Deck was filmed in the San Francisco area in May 2007, where more than fifty crew members and one hundred actors contributed to the pilot episode. The creative team is currently looking for funding to produce “Season 1″ of Adina’s Deck (8 episodes) as well as for international distribution.
By educating children, parents and teachers regarding cyber bullying issues and giving educators additional learning tools, Adina's Deck also provides a unique way to for children to participate in a "Choose Your Own Adventure" , where they are in control of their choices.
The Interview with Debbie:
**Why did you choose cyber bullying??
In March. 2007, I was looking for a topic for my master's thesis. I knew I wanted to focus on middle school students. I spoke with a middle school counselor at Canyon Middle School in Castro Valley, CA. She identified Cyber Bullying as one of the top three problems she sees in her students.
I had never heard of Cyber Bullying, so I immediately became fascinated and wanted to learn more about the topic. From there I read articles online, attended a conference, and started talking to more young people. At every school I found that it was a problem. Every student I spoke with had experiences with cyber bullying, whether it happened to them, they
were the bully, or it happened to a friend.
When I started researching the "solution" I found that very little was out there. And most of the content that did exist was geared towards the teachers. I had difficulty finding as much geared towards the students. Adina's Deck is unique in that it will appeal to both students and teachers.
**How long did this entire project take to complete?
In March, 2007 I started volunteering with a group of 8th grade girls. They helped do research about cyber bullying at their school, Kennedy Middle School in Redwood City. I worked with them for 10 weeks.
During this time we (Jason Azicri and I) were doing research and developing ideas for the script. We finished the script at the end of March. We had about 4 weeks of pre-production, finding crew, holding auditions and fine tuning the script. We filmed for six days in May, 2007. We should be finished editing by the end of this month (July, 2007). So the total process has taken about four and a half months.
**What are your goals with this project??
Short term, we'd love schools, educators and parents to adopt the show and integrate it into curriculum. We'd love students to like the show enough to want to watch it even when it's not in an educational setting. We'd like it to become popular enough to where real girls look up to and want to emulate the characters. Long term, our goal is for Adina's Deck to get funding as a TV series."
Debbie Heimowitz
Debbie has worked in film and television, including MTV's Channel Surfing, Warner Brothers Saving Shiloh and produced the independent film, The Sofa. Visit her Cyber bullying Project or Adina's Deck for more information.
An interview with Jason Azicri:
I had worked with Debbie before and she told me that she wanted to do a "film" for her Master's at Stanford. The main goal was to help students with a learning problem. It's always great to do a project that is made to both educate and entertain.
**Do you have other film/director experience you care to share?
Yeah, I wrote and directed an independent film that Debbie produced called "The Sofa". I'm just finishing it up and am currently entering it into Film Festivals.
**Why did you choose to do a project on cyber bullying?
It's a growing issue that needs to be addressed and not ignored. Cyber bullying is a phenomena that has really heightened many old problems that students have had to deal with. It's like watching the "writing on bathroom walls and passing notes" taken to an entirely new level. In some cases the bullied have become the bullies. It's also giving people the power to turn anybody life into a tabloid while it takes away the author's accountability.
**Do you have any personal experience, with family or friends, that have been impacted by cyber bullying?
Great timing with that question. Actually, my 17 year old brother was just Cyber bullied. A girl posted pictures of him doctored up and posted it on his My Space page and her friends pages.
**Is there a particular reason for the name of your project?
Adina is our main character. She has a deck of cards that she fiddles with throughout the show. There are four girls and four suits. Each girl represents a suit. So the girls make up Adina's Deck.
**What goals do you have in mind for you production?
We would really like to get this into schools as an educational tool. We're looking into other mediums (Internet, DVD, etc). A dream situation would be to get to do more episodes. (especially on a network). There's just so much we found in the research. The episode was also meant to be an origin story in the event that we got to do more".
Jason AzicriJason was a special needs PE and health teacher for three years. He has written five screen plays thus far. Visit Jason at The Sofa , or at Adina's Deck.
Debbie and Jason have kindly invited me to the film premiere, Saturday, July 28th in Stanford, Ca. I only wish I could attend! This screening will be the first time Adina's Deck will be shown to the public.
As someone who is passionate about the issues of online safety and specifically cyber bullying, I am beyond excited about this production! Bringing much needed awareness to such an important issue, is paramount. I plan on using some of this material in my curriculum next year, and hope to help Debbie and Jason bring their vision to fruition.
Photos by Jamison Boyer
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