Critical Reflection
How do your products represent social groups or issues?
When deciding the genre of our film, my group mates and I knew that we wanted to choose something that can bring social groups together. We also knew that we wanted to create a short film more toward the horror/ thriller genre. We ultimately decided on the thriller genre because a larger audience would watch it and be brought together by this film. The thriller short film my group and I created can represent various social groups and issues. When creating a short film, many factors must be considered such as how and what social groups are impacted by the film. To begin with, it represents families and victims of those who have been affected by murderous crimes. In our short film, the main character Bella is murdered by the serial killer known as “The Slicer”. This can affect people who were friends or related to victims by bringing up memories. This film is meant to bring awareness to the dangers of everyday life. Even if an individual believes that their life is “average”, it can quickly change for the better or worse. Since we are all teenagers living in a city environment, we have to be very careful about our surroundings and the people that try to approach us. It is definitely frightening walking around, and there have been instances when my group mates and I have been harassed on the street. We feel that many other teenagers have also experienced this, and therefore can relate to the short film.
In addition to this, our short film can also bring people together to bond over their love for thriller short films. For instance, when a short film such as The Slicer gets released, people may watch it. Then, you can meet people who also enjoyed the movie through fanpages, film festivals, comments on the movie, etc. This allows people all over the world to talk and discuss the movie. Many questions include, What did you like about the film? What could’ve been better? The plot twist at the end was shocking, what did you think about it? However, people now have to meet on the internet instead of events such as film festivals because of the recent pandemic. Despite the setback, people still interact with each other online, and are more exposed to various cultures as a result.
How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
My group mates and I included many different elements to promote our film. This includes the short film itself, blogs, the various social media accounts, and the postcard. My group and I divided the work so we can accomplish this project in a timely fashion. To begin with, the various social media accounts helped to brand our film. As teenagers, we understand social media and the effects of it because we grew up with it. We tried to post on our accounts and obtain followers so people can get affiliated with the film and eager for it to be released. We primarily posted on our instagram because it is the social media that we know best. Unfortunately we didn’t get many followers, but we are optimistic that people will still watch our short film. In addition to this, the blogs also helped to promote our film. Like the social media accounts, the blogs are public which means that anyone can access them. The blogs show our line of thinking and the entire process of creating the short film. Lastly, the postcards helped to brand our video. This allows the audience to see pictures from the film itself. This can make people feel more eager and excited to see the short film The Slicer. All of the aspects of our film work together to promote it. By blogging, using the various social media accounts, and postcards, our film was significantly promoted. Each piece played a crucial role to our short film.
How do your products engage with the audience?
Our product engages with the audience in many ways. To begin with, our film consists of mostly teenagers. This can allow the audience to relate to their peers since our film also aimed toward teenagers since most of the characters in the movies are the same age. This film aims to inform people all over the world the daily dangers of living in a city, and just walking around in general. My group mates and I have been harassed on the street in different forms, and sometimes it can get really frightening. In our short film, we took it to an extreme by the main character getting killed. This can allow the audience to engage and understand the true dangers of the world, and hopefully be more aware of them. In addition to this, we posted pictures on our various social media accounts to keep everyone updated. The main social media we used was Instagram. On our instagram we posted pictures such as meet the cast, where we posted all the crew and actors, as well as pictures to make the audience eager to see the film. We posted one picture of my neck sliced which gives a hint to the audience as to what might happen to the main character and how it corresponds to the title of the short film. We also had people commenting on our instagram. This allowed the social media platforms to be interactive. Whenever somebody commented, my group mates or I would reply back to the original comment.
How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?
My group mates and I knew that when we got assigned this project we would want it to be more of a horror or genre. After careful discussion and ideas on what the short film was going to be about, we decided that the best option would be thriller. Our short film challenges conventions because it doesn't really fit into just one genre. Instead, it is more of a mix of genres like horror, suspense, and thriller. However, our short film predominantly falls under the category of thriller, and that is why we selected it as our genre. We had to research each of the genres in depth to determine the best one to go with. In addition to this, my group mates and I changed our filming style. When we created the storyboard, we were repetitive in terms of camera angles and movements. While filming, my group and I had inspiration, and started to try out new camera movements that are not as common in the thriller genre. For example, Tekla filmed over me in an aerial shot and moved backwards, moved the camera down while tilting upwards. We don’t really know the name of this movement so I described it as best as possible. However, we also used conventions in our camera movements. A popular movement is a tracking shot. My group and I used this movement a lot because it was fitting, and popular in the thriller genre. Overall, my group and I used and challenged many products and our research informed the products that we used. My group and I have learned a tremendous amount from this project.
