Critical Reflection

  

 

• How do your products represent social groups or issues?

My product represents the social issue of stalking. In a way the concept of following and keeping up with people has increased heavily since the emergence of social media. It’s not unusual now for people to obsess over others they see online. This was even hinted at I’m one of the scenes when the friend group talks about how Rachel, the stalker, would’ve known anything about Chloe. The product also touches on the issue of double personalities / life with social media. Not everybody is as they seem online and the plot twist in the movie is used to show this point. It’s not expected for Chloe to even confront  stalker but ends up killing her. This goes to show you should really be careful with obsessing over people because most people are not what they may seem like from an outside point of view. There are also several social groups represented in the film. One group represented was teen girls. The entire friend group was a group teenage girls and they’re seen doing normal teen activities like shopping at the mall.  My film also has a very diverse cast so the Black, Hispanic, and Immigrant social group is represented throughout the entire film.

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

There were multiple different elements at work in order to make my film what it was. Branding can be defined as how a product is perceived by the public due to a combination of marketing strategies. A brand is like a product or companies identity. I put some thought into it and have come to a conclusion on what I want the movies brand to be. I want it to come off as a shocking but creative movie that warns about the dangers of obsessing over people. It would be ideal for the film to come off as educating yet also fun. Looking back on all the work my group has done, I think this brand was achieved. This wasn’t an easy thing to do though as it has multiple different parts. One element that played a big role in our products brand was our movie picture. This picture appears on every form of social media we have including our website. The goal is for it to be easily recognizable while also giving a hint to what our movie is going to be about.  The way that we did this was by having a small picture of two people running away from each other in between the words in pursuit. We also consciously used the colors blue cream and red to give a mysterious feel. The blue is a dark color, the cream kind of made the blue pop, and the red signified a bloody accident or death. I think all of these tied together to make a brand that would be associated with a thriller film.

• How do your products engage with the audience?

As part of our brand, the movie has its own website, postcard, and multiple different social media accounts. One of the reasons our film engaged  with the audience greatly was our postcard. It was made with the sole purpose of letting the audience know when our film will be premiering and where they could go see it. Our website gave a deeper background as to what our film was about and who we were as people. It showed the casting and  crew as well as a brief run through on what the movie was. Awards and festivals that the movie had been entered in were also mentioned on the website. My personal favorite part of the website that really engages with audiences were the behind the scenes shots that were available.  It showed personality of the project as well as a lot of the work that went into making the project which makes it overall seem more engaging. On my social media page there are also several posts made to try and draw audience and have them interact with our film. When it comes to the film itself I think our biggest way of engaging the audience was through the fight s scene. I take the fight scene as something unexpected that would’ve drawn the audience in and left them at the end of their seats but this is at the end of the film. Towards the beginning what was done to draw people in was having little shots of Rachel following Chloe while Chloe was unaware. This most likely made the audience question what was going on and is probably what drew them in from the beginning.

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

 

The research into thriller films was really my forte with this project. Thriller films are one of my favorite genres so I came in with a lot of knowledge about them already. When the original plot of the movie was made it already seemed like we were going along with conventions that were already popular in thriller films and as the film went on this just became more evident. For example, we start out with a very classic friend group. In thriller films there is usually always a main friend group who is on the receiving end of the experiences.  Our film also has a very large or unexpected plot twist which is a usual element  of thriller films.  The plot twist is one of the reasons why thrillers are so popular as they kind of keep people on the edge of the seat while also making them question what they know about the film or sometimes even with psychological thrillers reality itself.  Another way that we were able to use the conventions of thriller was with the sound. I was really focused on sound through this entire filming process as I wanted it to be as close to an actual thriller as possible. I was kind of   unhappy while editing with some of the background sound we had included in the film but all of the purposeful sound was used strategically like thriller movies usually do.  They were placed at certain points in this story to cause a feeling of anticipation in the audience make them wonder what will happen next. I will say the one way that we did challenge the conventions of a thriller is that there is really no blood at all. Our film didn’t include any blood or any gore though it did have a fight scene. Not all thriller films include blood or gore but some of the more popular ones do and it is a notable mention when you think about thriller films.