Critical Reflection Blog

How do your products represent social groups or issues?

The idea of my movie is based on the abused and an abuser. Rickson and Damian ran away from home after being tired of the abuse from their father. Jesson on the other hand use to abuse his son. Most people in people are aware of the abuse and know that it is a bad habit. The type of abuse I am referring to is domestic abuse. Domestic abuse occurs quite often as well so I thought that I could create irony in the movie. So, what I aimed to create was the second chance or in this situation, their last chance. Rickson is trying to steal items from a person’s house (Jesson) because he knows that Damian does not have much time left. This is Rickson’s last chance to save the only family he holds dear. While Jesson has already lost the trust of his son, when he’s about to attack Rickson he remembers how much he use to abuse his son. Sparing Rickson was his last chance to redeem himself. My film represents the fact that abuse does happen, and it will continue to happen. Although I showed that it is possible for people to change. It may not happen often especially since a lot of the time an abuser will resort to abusing people after not being able to control their anger. But there are situations where the abuser may be able to change their ways for the better. The theme of abuse is not the may narrative pushed in my film, but the idea was included.

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

The entire process of creating the film and the social media accounts is all look at under one general name. That name being Last Chance which is solely run by me. By creating the different social media accounts and tying them together through the website I was starting the brand of the film. Once I started promoting the short film on each platform, I had already created the brand. Although it may not be an exact brand because it is not under an actual company. But because I was promoting the short film and had all the social media accounts linked by a central hub you get the feel or sense of branding. Even on the postcard, the short film is being advertised heavily. After someone sees all the different promotions, they may feel more willing to watch the movie. And if that is the case then the entire purpose of promoting the short film so much would have paid off. Even from a creator's perspective, when creating all the different social media, the website, and even the short film I knew in my head that I was representing something. I had to create something entertaining, creative, and clean to showcase. And everything that I was created was under the same name, the same brand. So, knowing this helped make sure that every aspect had to be the same level of professionalism. While creating it I knew that everything would be reflected on what I presented under the film name.

How do your products engage with the audience?

Throughout this entire process, there were multiple different platforms that had to be created. Other than the short film itself, I needed to create a website and social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. The website was the home of everything that involved my short film. Meaning anyone that finds the website would have access to everything about the film and the process that went into creating it. On the website, the audience would be able to look at the cast, the different social media accounts, and even the written storyline of the short film. With all the different actions that the audience has access to they may feel more involved with the short film. Also depending on how they got to the website would make them feel more engaged. If they saw the link to the website through Instagram, then they’ll already have seen the post during the process of the short film being made. The audience mainly engages with the film itself. Like I previously spoke about, having the theme of abuse included in the short film, I wanted the audience to think about what the flashbacks meant after and/or while watching the short film. I hoped for them to put themselves in one of the character’s shoes about abuse. Since Rickson and Jesson were on two different ends of abuse, after watching the film I hoped for them to possibly look at abuse differently in the sense that it can affect people differently for better and for worse.

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

After having the pitch, I chose the three genres drama, spy, and horror. Looking back the only genre that my movie could fit under is drama. The other two choices didn’t quite make sense. When choosing out of the three I always leaned towards drama and now that I have completed the film, it is the only real choice. After researching the drama genre, I felt that my short film idea fit the genre really well. Typically, in dramas, the characters are in a realistic setting and deal with real problems. My film fits that extremely well since the characters were literally dealing with real-life problems. Other drama conventions usually include having the characters go under character development and moving the audience emotionally. Since the film was only five minutes there is not much character development that could be made. Although there is one scene near the end of the short film where Jesson acts differently than he usually would because he realized that he was being violent and abusive again. He stops himself from harming another person. This scene was his character developing based on previous events that were not good. I feel as if this same scene had the most emotion that can be taken away from the audience. Jesson spars Rickson who only ever wanted to save his little brother’s life. The rest of the film did carry emotion with it especially because of the music which fits perfectly with the drama genre.