SECOND CHANCE

PLOT SUMMARY

Ellie runs for the University of Hartford track team. She’s a very talented member of the team who was having the best season of her life when she got a stress reaction in her foot that ended her indoor track season. Now fully recovered and back to full training in preparation for the outdoor season, Ellie is constantly terrified that she will somehow hurt herself again and have to miss out on another season. The feeling haunts her and she feels unable to tap into her full potential with it hanging over her.

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While out for a routine run, Ellie steps in a pothole and sprains her ankle. She ends up in the training room after the run to get her injury checked out. During this time, she finds a silver necklace that turns out to be a time turner. Ellie accidentally uses the time turner to go back one hour–just before she heads out for her run and hurts her ankle. At first, she is unaware that the time turner has allowed her to time travel. When she discovers that her ankle is suddenly back to normal, she realizes what has happened–she has been given a second chance. She attempts to go on her run again and change the sequence of events so that she never hurts her ankle, but an unexpected obstacle gets in her way, resulting in the same outcome. Ellie keeps traveling back one hour, attempting to complete her run without hurting herself, but no matter how she tries to change her approach, she ends up injured. 

 

Finally, Ellie realizes that she needs to change her mindset, not just her approach. She’s been living in fear of injury, but she needs to learn to build some confidence and trust that she can participate in her sport without holding back out of fear. You attract what you fear, so Ellie knows she needs to find a way to control her fear, otherwise, she’ll just end up hurting herself every time. After making this mental adjustment, Ellie is able to get through her whole run and make it back to the locker room without hurting herself. Having learned this valuable lesson, Ellie is no longer scared, but excited for what’s to come.

 

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BEHIND THE SCENES

This project was created as an assignment for my Science Fiction Genres class during my junior year of college. The assignment was to create a story using still images that incorporates the science-fiction genre in some way. I chose to use the story of a college athlete overcoming the mental strain of injury because it’s something I can personally relate to.

 

I shot most of the still images for this project on my Canon Rebel using my friend Gabby as the talent and voiceover. We shot everything on campus, mostly in the Sports Center. A few of the shots from the beginning were older photos from past seasons of her running. In this story, a device called a "time turner" is introduced that allows the user to go back in time and correct an event. The time turner plays on a desire that many people have to be able to go back and fix things that have happened in their lives, even if it’s just one moment. I drew inspiration for this project from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I liked the concept of the time turner from the film and I wanted to play with this idea of being able to control time on a short-term scale of going back a few hours rather than several years.

 

I wanted to use this film to show that time travel might not necessarily solve all of the problems that we think it could… not unless we’re willing to change with the events that we tamper with. What I mean by that is that if Ellie had not found a way to overcome her fear, the outcome would have been the same no matter how many times she traveled back to change the sequence of events. I think most people see time travel as a potential way to fix mistakes or change outcomes of events, but maybe that’s not necessarily how it would be in reality. Maybe certain outcomes are set in stone, no matter how many times we try to change them. What makes the difference is whether the person is willing to change too. I wanted to demonstrate that with this project while using a relatable, human story (an athlete overcoming an injury) to help get the point across.