Critical Reflection

 
Short Film Critical Reflection

The creation of our short film Intertwined was unlike any film project experience I've had. For starters, it was a short film, which I'd never made, along with components like a postcard, which I've also never made. Despite the fact that it was out of the normal for me, it was enjoyable to try something new, and gratifying to have experienced it with such amazing individuals. For starters, my partner, Mariana has been my best friend for about 4 years now. Usually, I stay away from working with close friends, as my teachers always tell me it is easy to get distracted, however, I had a better experience working with her. This is due to the fact that we both have similar schedules and do our extracurriculars together. We also like a lot of the same things, which helped us reach many conclusions. Additionally, my boyfriend was playing my love interest in our short film, this also made the process diverting. 

Pertaining to the film itself, Intertwined is a lighthearted romance short film, meant to evoke all the emotions in its viewers. Happiness, sadness, anger, despair, are all shown throughout the film, depending on the season the film is in. The film is meant to represent teenagers, specifically suburban ones. This is also why teenagers are our targeted audience. Our whole cast consists of teenagers, as the film is meant to represent the fun summers, typical get togethers, and argumentative or passionate love in teenage relationships, usually correlated to teenage life. Nowadays, the lives of teenagers are overly transformed into a negative light. This is shown in films like Euphoria, Waves, Riverdale, Gossip Girl, and really any popular show/movie involving teens. Teens are displayed as entitled, spoiled, addicts, and those in relationships, toxic to an extreme. As a teen myself, I completely disagree with this depiction of teenagers. I love hanging out my friends without the use of drugs or alcohol and I'd much rather spend my time going to the beach or going to the gym, than gossiping or "shopping".  My classmate felt the same way, that is why we decided to display the teens having fun an the beach playing volleyball, eating, playing a game at a get together, conversing, etc. Regarding the toxic relationships, there was a remote one shown in the film and it was shown too see that teenage relationships aren't always physically toxic without reason, as it is portrayed in the shows I previously mentioned. Although there are some "bad" and rebellious teenagers in the world, it shouldn't be the representation for the whole population. It's important to keep this known and display the balance of teens through film. 

 With regards to our films marketing branding, and engagement, a lot of research had to be done in order to achieve a successfully branded short film. Through my research of romance films, such as "Anyone But You" and "The Kissing Booth", I came to the realization that romance film branding is much more specific than I had anticipated. First, I saw that the most used social media platform for romance films, was Instagram. The main element I saw amongst these two romance pages, and many more, was that the social media platforms contained bold text to intrigue those who review the page. When I compared this to films that didn't have descripted images, I saw that I wasn't as engaged. The use of bold text drew me into the post, which of course, led me to either keep looking, or watch the movie. This is the purpose of any and every films social media, to get viewers to watch their film. Which is why we adopted this technique in our own social media. 

Although including intriguing posts is key to reaching ones targeted audience, engagement is crucial to ensure viewers will follow, watch, and/or stay. I created postings with questions on them for our fans. Not only do these postings include interactive questions, but they also directly relate t our film, which could lead social media viewers to watch the film. An example of this posting includes "what is your favorite season?" which relates to our seasonal short film and includes intriguing visuals of important scenes. 

Another example of our viewer engagement is a posting in which we asked the audience who there favorite boy is. This displays the rivalry within a romance film, which could most definitely convey romance lovers to watch this film.

Moreover, social media trends are truly attention grabbers in postings, as it opens other avenues of interest. For example, when researching "Anyone But You"s social media page on Instagram, I saw they did an asmr. Asmr's are a huge part of the entertainment industry nowadays. They are everywhere, YouTube, Instagram reels, Facebook, TikTok, etc. This was a clever promotion that could draw in those who like asmrs. Even though we didn't utilize asmrs specifically, we did include modern trends including relationship advice and a popular movie trend from the classic Scarface. Advice is being given on all platforms nowadays, so I believed the use of relationship tips was not only formfitting to our genre, but also for those who seek love and advice. Regarding the Scarface trend, also a romantic trend occurring, many people will use an audio saying "The eyes chico they never lie" or caption a post with their significant other, this saying. In this case, both love interest were shown with the quote being front and center. Since his is such a relevant trend, not only could it attract those who are interested in trends of such, but also Scarface lovers. It also appeals to again, those who enjoy the two lover in romance. 

Lastly, I made sure to include photos of the cast when they're loving, happy, and enjoying their time together. This always attracts an audience, as those are the emotions people want to feel in life, it is nice to see it within others. Especially in a romance, it is important to show those who are supposedly in love together to build their love trope and interest viewers to see their spark in the film. 

The social media platform branded the film as we wanted it to be branded, a high-spirited fun romantic film! No conventions were challenged, due to the fact that most of the components were inspiration from other romantic films. These conventions were even used in the film itself. 

The last component I created was the Post Card, also posted on the social media. 

I really enjoyed creating this component. Thankfully, I had practice of this from creating flyers for my extracurriculars. For the post card, I didn't research as much as the other components, due to the fact that I wanted it to be unique and had already envisioned what I wanted it to look like during the lesson. Our teachers lesson, along with the notes I took, provided me with the accurate amount of information to create this postcard! I believe it was important to include the post card on our social media, as a way to introduce where we'll be streaming Intertwined. It also sets the information easily and boldly for those who don't want to check the Instagram bio or weren't aware that the information was also there.

Overall, I had a pleasant time working on this project, I do believe some time could've been utilized better, but it all worked out well and we're so ecstatic to share Intertwined to the public!

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