CCR (creative critical reflection)

Here's the link to my personal created CCR video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmVimMOCBIE

Here's the link to my voice-over film commentary for our film 'THE PITCH': https://youtu.be/6-41fEhWs5M

Here's the link to a Prezi that I've created: https://prezi.com/view/hgaH8nHKZqC5X9GcPMCc/

1, How does our product-film opening use and challenge conventions and how does it represent social group or issues

Our film opening's genre is a thriller, and some of it's key features such as conflict, unexpected twists, and high stakes are to give audiences the mood/feeling of suspense, excitement, anticipation, and anxiety.

Our story was inspired by Japanese manga and we came up with a thrilling story based on it.

Here is a generic conventions table that I've made based on some thrillers I've analyzed:

Camera	Editing	Mise-en-scene	Sound
Dim lighting overall creates the sense of tension	L-cut/R-cut —makes transition between scenes smooth and connected	Dark makeup, suggests evil, sexual, but dangerous	hight pitched music shows that the girl might be the predator
Shallow depth of focus on a character makes them suspenseful	Not a single cut/cut that cannot be noticed creates a flowing and continuous effect for the audience	Red invitation suggests threats and danger	Music is intensified, and the beat goes faster with the sound of the wind
Hand-held shots create a tracking feeling as the story progresses for the audiences.	The movie's main theme of color-brown and ash gives the audience a decant and broken feeling	lighting changed from warm to cool, which suggests that things are about to get creepy	Sound of the small flying object moving closer to Paul while music shows calmness, but has sounds of thunder in the background creating mystery
POV/Over the shoulder shot— improves the audiences engagement to the scene	Slow-motion increases the power of movement	Negative space around the title creates a sense of scale	Sounds of the car engine roaring and tires screaming-suggests that the car is in big movements like cutting lane and drifts
the antagonists walks out from the high platform, with close-up shot showing his strength and ambition	Cuts between scenes are very fast, creating an intense feeling and action
Long shots on the spaceships are epic, suggesting its strength and signifies it's humongous size

After watching many thrillers and analyzing them though-roughly, me and my team have decided to incorporate and challenge some of the conventions in our film opening:

Camera	Editing	Mise-en-scene	Sound
Insert shot of the phone provides the audience necessary information to understand the story later	Jump cut when the elevator opens at the start	low brightness/low saturation at the start to create moody/suspense feeling	The music at the start and the end of our film opening is the same, which matches with the same scenes presented
Extreme close-up on the devil's face shows his cold emotion clearly	Slow zoom created when protagonist opens his phone for the first time using keyframe	Cool lighting around the car scenes suggests that it's a dangerous place to be in	Dangerous sound effects lasted throughout our film opening which really creates this suspenseful atmosphere for the audience
Over-the-hip shot of the protagonist holding the bat conveys his anger/energy	Image blur is added as an after effect when the villain enters to create anxiety	Protagonist dials '999' on his phone which means that he is calling the devil for help	'wooshing' sounds are used to give a better transition effect between the scenes
	The flash between the car and when the protagonist wakes up indicates that it is the second day of the story	No one answers the phone, but the devil appears on the car before the protagonist goes on it. This is a moment of suspense	Sound effect with building intensity really improved the audience's sense of anticipation
	The jump cuts towards the end of the film opening increases tension and acts as the first high skate in the whole story	The bat handed to the protagonist hints that he would have a mission to do that's related to it

The main social group that our thriller film has set within is the middle class, and this is clearly reflected by the appearance of a decently-sized home, private car, and opportunity for education etc. I think that our film has shown emphasis on personal problems over social problems as we are limited on budget/time, because the film opening is based on an issue surrounding individual's affection problem.

Here is our script:

Day 1:
Devil: Love issues? (curious)
Bobby: 妈? (distressed)
Devil: She can't hear you you know. I'm here to give you an offer. (confidently)
Bobby: Who are you? (alarmed)
Devil: The point is, we can help each other out. Call me if you've changed your mind (amused/slightly impatient)
Mom: 没事儿吧？
Bobby: 没事儿...

Day 2:
Devil: I'm glad you've made up your mind. (glad)
Bobby: What's the deal then? (curious)
Devil: You my friend, get a good ending, and I get a good laugh. (cleverly)
Bobby: But how? (afraid)
    (Devil hands Bobby the bat)

2, How does our film opening engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

Our film's major target audience is young people from the age of 13 plus, because these are the group of people who will resonate the most with the story about relationship&drama that's happening in the film. We think that people from all demographic groups should be able to enjoy the film, because such problem being reflected in our film will occur in any types of demographic.

There are a lot of ways for us to distribute our film as real media text, which includes advertisements in the form of websites (like on instagram/google ads), videos (like on TikTok/Youtube ads), posters (like on magazines/billboards), and trailers (like on Youtube/television). And for better marketing and engagement of audience to our film, there could be spin-offs produced such as sound tracks (like 'The greatest Showman'/'Intersteller'), related/extended games (like Marvel&Sony's 'Spider Man'/'Sonic the hedgehog'), and action figures (from 'Star Wars' and 'The Avengers').

3, How did my production skills develop throughout this project?

At the start of the year when I was first introduced to media studies, I've had some experiences in photography/editing pictures, and i was able to handle a professional camera knowing all the settings and adjustments (e.g. aperture, shutter speed, ISO etc) that it would make to a photo.

However, as I had completely no experience in film making prior to attending media studies, I was struggling a lot at first on linking all the knowledges I had to filmmaking, especially as the settings and adjustments are just working completely differently. Therefore, as a 'beginner', I had to adjust myself to the whole new system of 'filming' and I started watching tutorials while trying filming to get some hands on experiences before our actual shooting began.

For editing, I kind of had an idea of what to do with the clips we've shot, like the basics- how to import, cut, and export. However, for the more advanced adjustments like sound-matching edits, I've learned it myself by watching tutorials and actually trying it out in the software prior to my actual edit of the film.

And in-terms of blogging, this is actually the first time I've ever tried to record contents under this format, but I found it relatively easy to use and have not yet experienced any major technical issues that would affect my blog.

4, How did I integrate technologies including software, hardware, and online in this film opening?

The main software I'm using is 'JianYing'-a Chinese professional application to do edit/sound/color grading. Also, I've used adobe photoshop/lightroom to produce after effects to some images that we shot while we are filming.

Some hardwares I've used include: A Sony mirrorless camera along with a 24-105 F4 lens to shoot, several LED lights for lighting, an iPhone and a car for props/one of our main set.

For the online technologies aspect, I've watched multiple tutorials on how to edit and color grade in a professional way using 'JianYing', and how to utilize different lighting positions to create the thrilling effect we want. I've also used blogposts made available by 'Wix' to record every details in the filming/editing process as well as things that I find out which can be improved/fixed to update my skills and to make our film opening a better quality.