Creative Critical Reflection

AICE Media Studies Creative Critical Reflection

Creative Critical Reflection Question #4

For our technology used we used a Cannon EOS Rebel T5 camera for our original filming of our opening. There wasn't a specific setting on the camera used for filming just the normal recording set. When we had to re-film parts of our opening for our resubmission we used an iPhone 11 with the camera on the 1040hp setting. 

For editing we used iMovie on a Macbook owned by Meghan. Within the editing process we were able to put a type of filter for the credits to appear on what appeared as a shredded piece of paperto put more emphasis on the letter used withing the story. This software allowed us to merge together clips from filming along with being able to add slides for credits and place incedental music in the foreground of the opening before we edited in the voice over being the letter wasn't visible. 

Creative Critical Reflection Question #3

Throughout the process of this production my skills improved in the way that I learned how to use the camera to film it along with creating the the directing side and learning how to work with the actors along with how the direction of the movie would take place. 

When we started I had never used a camera like that (a Cannon EOS rebel T5) and from this learned how to use it, even if it was just the basics of recording it was something new that was fun to learn while recording the beginning where Allie and Love were hugging. At my school I was already in a Directing class so that background allowed me to put my lessons to work in real life while assisting in directing the film. While we all put in our tid-bits into the behavior of the actors, while we were in class I was able to apply those skills to then improve them and have the base line of what we wanted out of our film opening from a directing stand point. With my evolution in that it helped me in media studies while going over the direction of the film and being able to express what we want to evoke from the audience and what they should feel by the words and action on the screen. It also helped me evolve with my skills within my directing class which then allowed me to succeed on my directing project having the real life application experience through this film opening.

Creative Critical Reflection Question #2

For research the movies used were "Love Simon", "To All the Boys I Loved Before" and "Five Feet Apart." These were used due to the similarities in the target audiences being teenagers and young adults feeling like they could relate to those audience the most and get the most out of it when it come to bringing out emotion and increasing the amount of time the movie is watched.

With this we wanted to try similar ways by using actors within the age group that we wanted to target along with using similar promotion materials. Using social media to reachout to our target audience who spend good amounts of time on platforms such as facebook, instagram, twitter and snapchat. They used social media, along with billboards and posters and trailers on youtube ads and for tv commercials.

The traditional distribution model is that a film gets released in theatres and then about 90-days after the theatre release it starts appearing in stores on a disk and online for streaming purchases. Two of the three of these researched movies followed that traditional model. Both "Love Simon" and "Five Feet Apart" were first released to a theatre and then after 90-days released to the general public on dvd and also available for streaming and digital download.  "To All the Boys I Loved Before" was strictly made for Netflix so once it came out it came out directly to Netflix and is only available there. For our distribution we would follow the traditional distribution by releasing to theaters first and then after about 90-days release to online for purchase or streaming through youtube, hulu, netflix, vudu, and other online streaming services. 

Creative Critical Reflection Question #1

Our movie uses the multiple conventions, some being an over the shoulder shot, insert shot, close up, and a two shot. While he was reading the letter we used an over the shoulder shot, close up, and an insert shot. The over the shoulder shot we try to put emphasis on the letter and focus in on the voice over that follow the words. This is to try and invoke sympathy/empathy within the audience of how Love feels while he is reading this letter. The close up of him reading the letter was to display to the audience his facial expressions while reading the letter, showing his emotions and trying to use the strategy of pathos to link with the audience to evoke empathy. The insert shot was used as the final blow to try and create emotion through the piece. The point at which the audience would have their feelings bottled up that would evoke tears to drop down their face. This shot of the ring was to bring the emotional suspense to its resolution. This was used to aim at the final steps in a "break up" bringing it to its final stages and give more suspense to what led up to and what happened after the break up which would have been shown in the full movie rather than in the trailer. All of this was preceded in a two shot of Allie and Love hugging  which was to display the emotions they had for each other and displaying the strong bond within their relationship. 

Films like "Dear John" and "The Spectacular Now" use similar conventions to tug at the heart strings of their audience to try invoke them to feel as much emotion as possible to side with the characters. 

Social groups displayed in our film were, Hispanic/Latin American, Caucasian, Female, Male, Civilian, Service Members, and teenagers/young adults. This is shown through the costumes and plain visibility of the actors. Within the film Love is wearing a military uniform signifying his employment with the Armed Forces. Allie's civilian status, while not specifically stated is shown through her everyday clothes that would be worn by ordinary people on the street. 

3rd Quarter Submission/ Revision

For our revision we changed the credits and put it on a torn paper like background being our movie involves the letter and figured it would tie in with our movie. We also re-filmed small portions towards the end to insert more angles and shots to increase the variety in our movie(close ups, over the shoulder, side view, and an insert shot).

Distribution Post - Isn't it Romantic

"Isn't it Romantic" was released (initially) on February 12, 2019 in Nigeria. It was first released to movie theatres and then became available online and for dvd sales along with streaming services on May 21st, 2019. This production followed the traditional movie distribution process of starting out in the cinema and then gradually moving to physical dvd sales along with online sales and rentals on amazon prime, youtube, vudu, and google play and ending with streaming on hulu and HBO Now. 

With our movie we would use the tactics of distributing online for sales and rentals to watch anywhere and at anytime. Along with online sales and rentals, we would also do streaming services which would allow consumers to watch our movie with others without having to imparticularly purchase ours alone. 

Distribution Post - To All the Boys I Loved Before: P.S. I Still Love You

"To All the Boys I Loved Before: P.S. I Still Love You" is a movie released in a non-conventional movie distribution method. Rather than beginning in the theatre's, it went straight to streaming. When it was released on February 12th, 2020, it was released straight to Netflix and isn't available anywhere else; thus, requiring a subscription to the service in order to view the movie. This ensures that the movie will get money by the views of those who fit the target audience and that already have a subscription. This movie was also a sequel which raised the chances of being watched by those who have already seen the first movie. 

For our movie we would probably use the tactics of releasing to streaming services to make it more accessible to those who either don't want to go to a theater, or those who aren't capable of doing such. This would allow them to watch in the comfort of their own home and not have to worry about others. 

Distribution Post - I Still Believe

"I Still Believe" gets released to theatres on March 11, 2020 (March 13 for IMAX theatres) and will not be realeased to Netflix for streaming purposes. However the dates that it will be available for online and dvd purchases is still undetermined at this point in time. Going under the assumption of following typical movie distribution, after 90 days the dvd's and online rentals and purchases will be available on sites like amazon and for companies like redbox. We would incorporate the online distribution of selling/renting our movie online (amazon, youtube, vudu, etc.) and selling dvd's. 

Traditional Distribution Research

In the movie distribution world it would be shown in theatres first for the first 90 days and then released to the rest of the world on dvd's and in modern times online and on streaming services. However, for some movies made by smaller/more private production companies release immediately to online movie renting/buying sites and streaming services allowing immediate watching. 

Marketing Plan

It seemed that the general concencus of the movie marketing plans that they all used social media to reach mass amounts of people in the most suitable fashion. We will use a social media account to advertise our film.

Art of the Title Class Activity

I think one that was well done was the title of Loving Vincent. It was a handwritten title on a recreation of a "star" in his Starry Night paiting. I think this was well done due to the contrast and placing of the works with the colors of the background. I think some aspects that we could use in our film opening being we incorporate a letter is the handwritten font for the Title. 

Audience Engagement Research - To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Just like our product, To All the Boys I've Loved Before had a target audience of teenage girls and yound adults that enjoyed romantic comedies and a non-fiction situation. They marketed it as an unconvenstional love story between Lara Jean and Peter after he gets accidentally getting a letter mailed to him the Lara Jean wrote years prior confessing her love for him that was never meant to be sent. They used online campaigns on social media and billboards along with trailers on Netfix and online. We could use social media campaigns to help promote our product.  

Audience Engagement Research - Five Feet Apart

Just like our product Five Feet Apart had a similar target audience of highschoolers and young adults, being that those are the age demographics of which the lead characters are apart of those age groups. They marketed their product as a love story between two teenage cystic fibrosis patients (Stella and Will) who spend most of their time in the hospital. After a new patient starts attending the same hospital and Stella's obsessive routine clashes with Will's recklessness the love story unfolds. By using heartwarming facial expressions in posters and light and faint pastel colors to make people sympathize for the story and make them want to view their product. They used posters, trailers, and online social media campaigns to help promote their movie. We could use posters and social media to help spread the word of our movie. 

Audience Engagement Research - Love Simon

Just like our product, the target audience of Love Simon is teenagers and young adults along with those with an interest in romance movies. They marketed their product as an LGBT teenage love story between a 17-year-old boy lead character (Simon) and an anonymous classmate that he fell in love with online. This was marketed through billboards around California and trailers appearing on television and on the internet. To reach the more desired target audience they went to put ads on snapchat, instagram, twitter, and facebook. We would use social media to help promote our product on instagram and facebook.

My Target Audience

Factors included in my target audience would be: 

Age: Teenagers and Young Adults
Gender: Mainly Female
Geography: Rural areas and areas near military bases
Income Level: Minimum wage and up
Education Level: High School Education and above
Personal Interests: Military interest or Relationship interests

Our product is appealing to our audience because of the relationship appeal and wanting it to succeed through all hardships and live a happy ending (because everyone loves a happy ending), along with seeing the dynamic in a military relationship and seeing all the difficulties that could come with it and how it is all overcome.

Use of Conventions

Our product uses conventions of a romantic drama from using flashbacks and voice overs to emphasize effect and display more of a lonely and sad feeling to the audience. It represents the group of military relationships by showing the difficulty of saying goodbye and the unfortunate end some of these relationships come to while their significant other is over-seas,

Feedback and Revisions

We plan on refilming the portion where the letter is delivered to Jon because you could see part of the house in the backgroud, so, we will need to make a filming schedule to do that.We will also have to re-edit the movie to hopefully make it a better quality and make the title font not as basic. These changes will improve out product because it won't take the viewer out of the feel of the movie that we were trying to display. We will create a filming schedule and meet up with our actors to re-film the scene and hopefully re-render the movie in a higher quality to make the picture clearer. We will also go back into editing to fix the title fonts to make them more unique to the movie opening.

Midterm Submission

We developed the film to showcase the difficulties in a relationship while being long distance and having such extraneous ties with the extra difficulties of being in the military. 

We developed this by showcases the couple saying goodbye to one another while Jon is getting shipped off and the journey to that. After that we showed the painful writing of the breakup letter and the feelings displayed after such a feat.