Hey guys!!
So, today's very last post is my Creative Critical Reflection!
Question 1: How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
A Red Christmas is a mystery thriller drama, and there are many ways it uses conventions from these three genres. For instance, a common characteristic of the drama genre is a storyline, often about societal issues. In our case, A Red Christmas has a storyline about the social issue of crime. This also reflects the popular characteristic of mystery films, where a crime is often committed, and is displayed in our opener during the scene where poison is strategically put into a plate of food and served to a specific person. Additionally, more often than not, the thriller genre includes plot twists that lead the film in a whole new direction. They are usually unpredictable and unexpected. We utilized this convention in our film opener, as shown in this scene where it is revealed that Christy is the perpetrator. However, the placement of the plot twist and the reveal of the perpetrator is also a way that challenges the conventions of these genres since it is at the beginning of our film, rather than in the middle or near the end, like most other films.
My group and I were the actors in our film. Since we are all 15-16 years old, our opener represents teen social groups. As a cast consisting of only girls, our film is also a representation of women. Additionally, our opener represents the Black, Hispanic, and Asian community, with me as the starring actor and Christy, Tiffany, and Zadie as the supporting actors.
Question 2: How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
Our film has a mystery aspect, and there are things we included that are exciting, compelling, and unexpected. For example, our audience is left on a cliffhanger in which it is revealed who the perpetrator is. However, the audience still doesn’t know what happens next to the victim and may have an interest in knowing when the rest of the group will figure out that the criminal is right in front of them. It allows them to generate their own ideas and theories that they will want to know if they end up being right or not, making them want to watch the rest of the movie. To distribute our movie as a real media text, I would work on building an audience using visual advertisements like posters and trailers. I would also use social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter to share information and content about our film, as well as collaborate with brands and influencers to create a community of potential watchers and cater to our target audience of teens and young adults. I would then enter our film into film festivals to build more traction towards it and potentially gain the interest of a distributor that would like to sign with us since we are independent filmmakers. This way, our movie can also be shown in theaters and on streaming platforms such as Netflix.
Question 3: How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
This project has taught me many new things that helped to develop my production skills. When I first began this project, I had no idea what storyboarding was, and I learned that it is an important aspect that allowed me to visualize my ideas and gave me an organized plan to follow when filming. Even though I had experience in editing prior to this project, I learned new skills, such as importing fonts. The font we used for our title sequence, Trade Winds, was not available in Capcut, so I had to go through a series of steps to put it in there myself. Additionally, I also learned how to convert files. The music we used was from non-copyrighted videos on YouTube, which were in MP4 format, and I had to convert them to an MP3 file to get them into audio format. Additionally, I also learned how to share projects. My group and I took turns editing on Premier Pro the first time we edited, and I learned how to use the Team Project option to give them editing access from their own devices.
Question 4: How did you integrate technologies- software, hardware and online – in this project?
I used a series of technologies to create this project. For example, I used my laptop and my school’s desktops to learn how to maintain my blog, “Behind the Scenes”, on Blogger.com, where I shared my experience and new knowledge of film that I learned in class. I also used these technologies to edit our film on the software’s Premier Pro and Capcut, where I was able to apply my newly learned knowledge of the use of transitions. Lastly, my group and I used a vlog camera to film, and I learned how to move and position it to get specific shots and angles, like POV and low-angled shots, to give off certain feelings and moods.
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