Critical Creative Reflection (CCR)

How do your products represent social groups or issues?

As a Media Studies student and a person that is part of multiple minority groups, I am highly attuned to representation and the lack thereof in the media I consume and create. In creating my short film, one of the main things I wanted to include was a diverse cast and a story that would represent groups of people that I knew continually suffered from a lack of representation on screen. 

My original script dealt with two sapphic high-school aged teenagers finding love without the tragedy or sexualization that is usually attached to sapphic or lesbian media. Though there has been a wave of new sapphic media produced by sapphics themselves, many films that include relationships between women are written from the male gaze, thus making the relationship a foreign thing without emotional depth and below other on-screen relationships that indulge in the emotional depth between the partners. I wanted to challenge this and show a relationship that held as much depth as any other couple.

Due to scheduling conflicts, I was unable to complete and film this story. In my second draft, I attempted to continue to target and overcome the male gaze, but in my final draft I decided to instead tackle a different issue. In my final draft, I wanted to represent high school aged teenagers in a new way. Gauntlett's identity theory regarding audience and the building of their own perception of themselves based on preexisting media that represents them. I realized that in all the stories I was trying to tell, I was building off the archetype of high school students that I’ve learned from the media, even though I know from first hand experience that life is very unlike that. Instead, I wanted to show the stressful parts, the parts that no high school student really wants to own up to and yet goes through all the same. Instead of characterizing what a highschooler should look or act like, I wanted to reflect the experience and ensure that other people my age knew that what they were experiencing was not uncharacteristic for a person our age.

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

This translated heavily into branding, especially lighting. I played off of color theory and made the tenser, more stressful moments reflect the same feeling by using cold colored lights and dark atmospheres. In the first half of the short film, where the main character is stressed and starts to get ready for bed, they are wearing a dark outfit. This darkness follows to the next day in a brown color, but the lighting in the main character’s room changes, and brighter lighting comes into play— especially when the main character confides in her mother. The auxiliary elements reflect a similar sense, with the postcard taking a still from the film that contains this colder, darker lighting and the social media page including playing into the same color scheme to make it all feel like one fulfilling project. The framing and content of many of the shots I used were meant to feel more intimate as well, creating a connection with the audience as this simple yet personal part of life is shared. This leads to the film looking and playing out similarly to other coming-of-age films, but with a new sense of intimacy to the main character that is respective to the genre, yet different than what is usually seen on screen that it makes audiences connect faster and in a different way.

How do your products engage with the audience?

Though the main audience I am catering to are high school seniors, I do believe that a larger majority could benefit from the ideas I portray. The film ends up resonating with high school seniors the most due to the subject matter and their own experiences, as stated earlier, making this film a sort of reassurance to people going through the same things. I think the atmosphere of the film appeals the most to my target audience, especially in the first half. The film also delves into childhood nostalgia and the theme of acceptance, and because of the nature of the time period that many, if not all, high school seniors are going through, this self reflection and bittersweet realization of growing up will appeal to the audience, truly cementing the audience’s personal ties to the progression of the film. This allows for this specific group— high school seniors— to be members of an active audience and apply the example I have provided to apply similar factors to their own lives. In a screening in my AICE Media Studies class, I got a similar reaction as to what I was expecting— reflection on childhood, a sense of understanding, and a willingness to share their own experiences in comparison to the film. This was a major victory for me, as I was able to see that my product was able to elicit the response I was hoping for. 

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

In order to properly elicit this response, I had to do some brushing up on certain theories and apply my own observations. For example, I studied color theory in the past few years but didn’t remember much else other than the effects that certain levels of lighting had on the ambience. However, in my research of cinematography I was able to review things I had forgotten, such as the effects that different colors or different hues can have on the message and feel of certain parts of a film, as well as how breaking up the use of this lighting will send a message on its own. Other research was based largely on my own observations, such as editing styles and the story itself. After asking a few of my friends outside of my school to try and get a broader scope of ideas, I knew that this story of stress and a feeling close to guilt was truly a shared one, yet all the more isolating. I asked their opinions on seeing a film such as mine on YouTube (in its short film format) or in theaters/ a streaming service (in a longer form product) and the majority told me that they would feel spoken to and listened to. One convention that I observed and decided to follow (to some extent) was the use of text messages. Usually, text messages are shown between two established characters, but I chose to only show the main character and keep the identity of the others unestablished, though the audience will infer that the person is someone close to the main character. I also decided to not use an actual text messaging service and instead edit in the messages to give the film a more seamless feel. Though I did film scenes where the text messages appeared on a phone, it felt more professional and more fulfilling to edit in the messages rather than show them on a screen.

Overall, I think I have learned much from the entire process, but most especially the pre-production. Ultimately, I am disappointed I wasn’t able to use my original script and idea, but I am extremely satisfied with the end result of the film I did produce. Hopefully I can use what I have learned here to create that film one day— or produce it in a new way.