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.