Critical Reflection

 1. How do your products represent social groups?

    Over the course of my journey through the planning, story-boarding, filming, editing, and uploading process I was able to think about what I wanted or hoped to get out of the film. Overall, I had multiple scenes that I had to cut out of the finalizing of the film as it was just too long and way past 5 minutes long. I tried to make my film as concise and easy to watch as possible. I really wanted my film to have three different and unique woman of different ages and personalities reaching their goal of taking down Itai a man who has been giving Ace the main female character a bad reputation on her soon to be insurance company Rawling Rivers. I wanted my movie to inspire young girls and women that we can have such positions and work our way to the top which in this case was to get their hands on a document that Itai has been hiding as it could possibly expose his true intentions. People also in any business work force could also relate to the fact that businesses also don't always play fairly with others especially their competition. I wanted to make the leading roles, females as I believe not enough women have such leading and important roles so I wanted to change that by even casting myself to play a male role. Another social group I believe my film might also inspire or relate to is teenagers as I am myself one and tried to brand my social media sites with lots of pictures and an attracting description to attract my audience as much as can. I also posted mostly on Twitter and Facebook in hopes to attract more mature audiences as much as I can. 

2. How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of "branding"?

    I didn't start thinking about branding my movie up until I started doing my storyboard and thought about all the different ways I could advertise and different content I could post on my social media sites and even YouTube. Once I actually started filming that is when I realized how much harder it really is and why most companies and businesses have people that are specifically working on that department. Once I started posting was when I realized that I am probably not the best at keeping up with social media and keeping up with my followers making sure that content is always available for the audience. Looking back, I am glad that I was able to start learning about branding as I really didn't know how much goes into making a brand stand out such as Paramount for example when you see the iconic opening of the mountain and stars around. If I were to be honest I don't think I was able to brand anything specific from this movie except for the constant use of the fact that this movie is an empowering movie to women. I felt like if I was given a longer duration of the movie I would be able to convey a more direct message about it unlike the way that I was able to for my final production. If I were to continue branding my movie from the point forward I would most likely have my friend Amy be a part of the process and make her the director of social media as she constantly posting and on social media all day long. If she were a part of this process she probably would have done a better job than I have done but I am still proud of my progress and what I have done for my movie. 

3. How do your products engage with the audience?

    The only aspect that truly is interacting with my audience would be through the website for my movie and the social media links that I made live on the website. Through the movie I tried my best to not look at the camera and make it feel like a real movie than just a short introduction like last year. I learned that through social media such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube I will have the most interaction through the comments, posts, and stories that go up. I also made sure that the interaction between me and my audience will be a positive one as I made sure to mention in the description box when uploading the final movie to keep it positive in the comments and to spread kindness. Another interaction later would be through the sales of merchandise and CD's or even through streaming platforms since everything is online now due to the pandemic, but that will be further done the road when I have certain amount of following and based on the reviews. This is another aspect that I could improve on as I feel like I had little interaction and could have used more by taking advantage of what I had on social media. If only I was more confident and understood how to use social media to its fullest potential that is when I think I would have had the most interaction with my audience. I wished I would have used as much as of the time I spent filming and editing on the interaction with my audience to make sure they are engaged and truly are excited for the films release. 

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

    Originally the time that I spent researching for the thriller genre of my film and the conventions that I also researched to make sure my film challenged or used conventions did not go according to plan looking back on it now. My movie doesn't feel like a thriller mainly because the scene that would have probably defined it I had to cut out due to the film being way too long. I had to cut it out and put the important details that defined the entire film more than it would have defined the genre of the film. Overall I am proud of what I have produced and posted for all of you to see, it's just I feel like I could have done way better if the film was longer and I could fit all the scenes that I had to cut out. My film really felt out of the box and definitely challenges most of the traditional thriller aspects. I had a character named Rish in the film portray the thriller aspect through her personality and actions. Rish is a 17 year old chaotic teen that is a high school dropout and is street smart. She has a fun yet angry personality in which she does things that either will help her boss Ace out in the long run or to help herself. The only thriller aspect of the movie was cut out in order to help the audience understand and have a more enjoyable time watching the film. I learned that I really need to think about the genre and conventions for a longer time before I start creating as I tend to change things up later in the film or end up forgetting. I need to learn to take a more daring and risk taking approach to make the movie truly feel like a thriller and get the audience to feel suspenseful.