Blog Post #65 - Final CR

Final CR:

The interesting thing about films is that there is something out there for everyone. The best part is that films allow directors to be creative. When coming up with the plot, I have incorporated different signs to represent social groups, use different platforms to create branding, engage with audience members and challenge certain social groups.

My short film “The Final Five” is a film about my protagonist, Mia, who gets into a tragic car accident with her friend Abby. While preparing for Mia to pass away we go through different flashbacks of her life. Towards the end she passes away and we see how the world is perceived without her presence.  Throughout the film, I tried different camera techniques, sounds and experimented with sound overlay. I used different apps and websites to help with advertising techniques and for editing my film. “The final five” focuses closely on teenagers rather than adults. When doing research, the focus was on teenagers and coming of age.  

Social groups are two or more people engaging with one another sharing similar characteristics. Throughout my film, I mainly focus on addressing the female, highschooler, teenage girl social group.  A big part of being a female is “girlhood” which is something I wanted to represent as my film progressed. The flashbacks of my protagonist consisted solely of her memories with her female friends. When it came to addressing the teenage girl aspect, some of my scenes consist of her at school. By shooting scenes at school, it narrowed down the age of my protagonist which is between the ages of 14-18. However, with the film opening with my protagonist driving it signifies that she is between the ages of 16-18. My actors costuming also played a part when it comes to representing these social groups. For example, the actors would typically wear sweaters, leggings, blouses and sweatpants.  

        

                                                     

For the issues being represented throughout my film, I attempt to focus on loneliness along with nostalgia as a feeling. To do this, I include a scene where my protagonist is sad and alone but immediately uplifted when she is greeted by her friend. You can see this change in her emotions. A big part of addressing these issues was through the music that was used as a soundtrack. For example, the songs “The scientist” and “All the stars” were used for the sole purpose to create this lonely atmosphere throughout those scenes. When it came to the nostalgia it was represented during the flashback between the four characters. During that scene, it showed a back and forth of what was meant to be my two older actors when they were younger.  

For filming, I used the iPhone camera app. However, when editing my film I used the app “iMovie”. For creating different advertising images, I used “Canva”. To advertise the film, I used the social media platform “Instagram”. And to publish my film, I used YouTube. Keeping updates and recording the changes with my film, I used the website “Blogger”. All apps were used when it came to creating the best quality film.  

For my filming device, I used my iPhone 15. This was the most accessible device and what I was most comfortable with using. With my iPhone, I was able to adjust the lighting and add different effects that I felt were necessary. iMovie was already downloaded on my device, so it made editing easier. I was able to easily insert and delete clips. I can adjust the different filters, and this made editing the sound a lot simpler. By using Canva, I created different things like my advertising poster, postcard, profile picture and different promotional items.  

 

  

By creating my advertisement through “Canva” I was then able to use Instagram to upload the pictures. Canva allowed me to create the product on my computer, download it onto my phone then post it on Instagram. To gain more attention to the film, an Instagram account “thefinalfivealprojectt” was created which was used to advertise the film. This account was used for promoting the film. This consisted of posters, interviews, hiring flyers, memes, soundtracks and behind the scenes. This all came together as branding because it was characteristics associated with my film. For example, the profile picture. This was originally created through Canva then published over social media. This way, when audience members see it, they will think of my film. Another example is throughout all my Instagram posts it consists of the same four hashtags “#shortfilm, #thefinalfiveshort, #sandyfeetproductions, #comingsoon”. All the different platforms used for this film had some sort of significance (big or small) when it comes to how it contributed to the branding of my film.  

When I first began research with my film, I started with short films. I looked into the time duration, different plots along with advertising techniques. This helped me gain an idea when it came to what I wanted to do and how to apply it to make a well-produced film. I looked into the short films with the same genres as mine. This allowed me to pick up on different genre conventions. By doing this research beforehand it gave me the opportunity to see how a short film is supposed to flow.  

More research I had done consisted of my genres and different superstitions. A big part of my plot is based around superstition. To understand this more thoroughly I did research om what superstitions are. By doing that I learned how I could change things about my plot to make it more realistic. For example, I chose to do the superstition where once you die the last seven minutes of your life consists of memories. With my short film needing to be five minutes, I decided to focus on the last five minutes. To create the death, I had my protagonist (Mia) get into the car accident. Then for the flashbacks I put a dreamy/black and white filter over to give it this flashback effect.  

Throughout films people look for specific genre conventions. Genre conventions are story elements found in a specific genre. For the research aspect I focused mainly on drama along with coming of age. For the drama I looked into the show “This Is Us”. This is a TV drama that focuses on a similar plot to mine when it comes to flashbacks. Throughout the show there were different conventions like dialogue and flashbacks. These are different things that are usually associated with the drama genre. However, throughout the film, I challenge conventions like narration because there is no person speaking over my film or saying what is going to happen next. With coming of age, a common convention is high school life and that a person's life is not going to be perfect. To portray this, I filmed scenes of Mia with friends at school. When I was interviewing people about my film, a common response was that my film taught them that life is short and not to take it for granted. This was represented through the impact that Mia’s death had on the people’s life around her and how one event can affect the rest of a person’s life. However, I went against certain conventions like first love and conflict with parents. This is because my film did not touch on romantic relationships or any connections with the parents.  

To engage with my audience members, I used my Instagram account. When doing this, I asked questions looking for a response. This allowed the viewers to engage with the content and give back their feedback. To do this I would take different things. For example, throughout my film I show two of my characters when they are older vs. younger. I then asked viewers if the casting was realistic or not. They were then able to vote on how well they agreed with the casting. I was then able to take their feedback and apply it to my reflection. With every post my followers were allowed to comment. Then I gave the viewers an opportunity to ask Mia different questions. After giving them time to ask questions I met up with Mia and recorded her responses. By using Instagram to advertise my film, it gave me a lot of flexibility to receive feedback about my film.  

 

 

After finishing my short film, it was a long and time-consuming process. However, a lot of work and time was put into making this to the best of my ability. Throughout the filming process, I feel that I have improved on techniques in comparison to last year and am overall content with how my project came out.