Critical Reflection Questions

 

• How do your products represent social groups or issues?

• Due to the coronavirus pandemic, pretty much everyone globally has come to know what it feels like for life to be shut down unexpectedly. Masks, testing, talk about vaccines, and the ever-present looming of a disease has become a social norm and something everyone has become accustomed to. Our movie centers around  a group of friends going on their winter break vacation in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Fort Lauderdale is definitely one of the most visited places for young adults during the spring break season, so we figured that a virus hitting right at that peak of excitement and joy would be something our viewers could possibly relate to since the coronavirus surfaced in March 2020. While this health issue doesn’t highlight a specific or small “social group”, it is still definitely an issue that lingers in society today. The sudden two week lockdown also mirrored the events of the real world with the shut-downs of multiple areas throughout the country. Each of our characters represents, in some way, the different reactions to the coronavirus and the quarantines that followed. Skye is very positive and has an overall optimistic outlook on the situation, while Sabrina feels frozen and stressed out. Jordan is someone who takes action and responsibility, and ends up becoming a leader for the group. Ryan is actually being affected by the disease and is struggling because of it. Viewers should be able to relate to and feel represented in some way, if not by the characters, then by the situation as a whole.

• How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

• The different elements of our production are included in what was called a “short film package” this time around. Our package consisted of a postcard advertising our movie and its showtimes, a website with all of our info, and social media accounts that aimed to reach a broader audience. We used the same image on every account as our profile picture and had consistent biographies as well. We created an Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube account to promote our film. Given our ages, 17 and 18, we not only understand, but we also embrace the power of social media in the world today. With our accounts we were able to send out casual reminders and promotional photos to our followers, all the while interacting with them and engaging with their content as well. Due to the consistency of our image, information, and usernames, we were able to create a brand that represented our movie. We linked each of our social media accounts on our website, listed them in our blogs, and displayed them on the postcard so that they would be easy to find and extremely accessible to everyone. In the limited amount of time we had to create the accounts for the movie, we gained quite a following on both Instagram and Twitter. Instagram specifically has been a useful tool in the branding of our product. By connecting our Instagram and Facebook accounts, I was able to turn our Instagram into a business profile that gave me access to insights and other data regarding reach, likes and comments that I wouldn’t have had before.

• How do your products engage with the audience?

• As a part of our final task in A Level Media Studies we were instructed to create a variety of components to go along with the release of our feature film. These components included social media accounts such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, and even a postcard that advertised the release date and showtimes of our movie. Each of these accounts and the postcard played a significant role in our engagement with our audience. On a platform as wide as Instagram we were able to interact with our followers on a personal level that likely made them more inclined to interact with us and show interest in our final product. Although our film is within the thriller genre, it is definitely less scary than most movies with that label. Therefore, our reach was able to spread to people of all ages from kids, to teenagers, to adults, and even to seniors regardless of their taste in movies. The movie is also extremely relatable due to the coronavirus pandemic, so the aspects that may have seemed apocalyptic, unrealistic, or eerie coming out in January 2020, don’t seem so unnatural coming out in January 2021. It's truly crazy how much can change in a year. In a way, I’m hoping the film brings comfort to the viewers and is perceived as a reminder that we are not alone. Despite the quarantines, lockdowns, and isolations we have all experienced in the past year whether it be from friends or family, none of us are alone in this unpredictable time. Everyone is experiencing the same thing just at different degrees. By creating relatable content and using our social media accounts to interact with followers on a personal basis, we have used our products to the best of our ability to create an engaging environment for our audience. 

• How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

• As a group we spent time researching different genres in order to perfectly identify the film we wanted to produce. In our storyboarding and planning process we highlighted the specific  conventions of the thriller genre that we wanted to include in order for the movie to come across the way we envisioned. In editing we added suspenseful music playing throughout the film and the volume of it is just low enough that it becomes background music rather than loud, noticeable sound. The music is also nondiegetic so the audience gets that feeling of knowing something the characters don’t, thus adding to the overall suspense. Also in editing we used a lot of fading transitions that  can typically be found in movies under the thriller genre. Another convention commonly found in thriller movies is a psychological factor that contributes to the plot. While our psychological aspect is not clear until the end of the film, we do include it in the storyline since Ryan has been hallucinating and imagining the presence of the other three characters the entire time. As far as filming goes, we used quite a few  low and high angle shots as well as over the shoulder shots that are almost  always present in thriller movies. These were important not only to the genre but also to the portrayal of the characters. One convention that we had no choice but to challenge was the pace of the film. Thrillers tend to stick to a slow burning pace that only draws out the suspense more, however, we were unable to do this because our film had a 5 minute limit. We moved at a quick pace because it was necessary in order to fit in our allotted time frame.