Critical Self Reflection

Here is my critical self reflection 

I will be answering these questions for my critical reflection (not by sequence):

1. How do your products represent social groups or issues? (CR 1)

2. How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’? (CR 2)

3. How do your products engage with the audience? (CR 3)

4. How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions? (CR 4)

As indicated in the brief set by our teacher, Mr. Nick, we were assigned to produce an opening for a crime documentary that would run from 3 to 5 minutes. My team, which consisted of Chelsea, Kalista, Audrey, and me, actually created a true-crime documentary that would focus on murder. It is the story of a teenage girl who, at that age, is supposed to be venturing into university life with her best friend. Unfortunately, she gets involved in an online dating site, marking the beginning of her sad demise. In this critical reflection, I will explore the production process of our documentary to show how we incorporated technical elements to both conform or subvert documentary conventions within the crime genre and to show how these appeal to our target audience.

Branding is one of the most important ways in which the audience perceives and understands media. It reinforces the intended message and creates an identity with which one can identify. According to Stuart Hall's Reception Theory, meaning in a media text is not passively received by the audience; instead, they actively interpret and respond to decode messages. Our preferred reading, or what was intended as a message, was a cautionary tale on the toxicity of friendship and how one time or another it could lead to consequences that may hurt someone.

In order to communicate this, a number of technical elements have been employed to develop both realism and authenticity. For example, we included real footage through the vlogs of the two leads, with hand-held camera movements, creating the sense of closeness and attachment between the two main characters. Not only does this technique ensure the narrative is bound within realism, but it also allows the audience to become further engaged with the bond of the two friends, allowing the audience to speculate if the two leads are that close and what happens next. The handheld style indicates the immediacy of phone videos and further emphasizes the emotional veracity of the documentary.

The overall theme for our documentary had to do with nostalgia. We achieved this by incorporating more vintage color grading and videotape effects that gave a feel from film and photography of the 2000’s. This was a stylistic choice made to give a sense of the past and make the audience reflect over the transience in relationships and life. Yet at the same time, we digitized it into modern elements, such as ones involving online platforms and dating apps. The juxtaposition of the nostalgic against the digital speaks volumes to the aesthetic, which makes our documentary slightly very different from the conventional approaches to the genre. This especially plays up the risks of modern technology, especially for our target audience. The juxtaposition of the nostalgic against the digital speaks volumes to the aesthetic, which makes our documentary slightly very different from the conventional approaches to the genre, which is young adults 17+.

We've purposefully chosen these elements, since these elements remind our target audience—mostly the young generation—of their childhood combined with the themes of modern technology and social platforms. Truly, the documentary is relevant and more engaging because it speaks to their own lived experiences. A sense of being careful in friendships and online interactions is an important message for today's times, where boundaries between real and virtual relationships are blurred.

This was also captured on the documentary's thumbnail. Our thumbnail includes a digital picture of the two leads, further fusing personal memory with the dangers of modern platforms. Giving the two characters a personal, almost candid moment, we created an emotional core to the story, to be disrupted by the darkness of the elements of the narrative. Having the thumbnail be more digitized aligns with the documentary's main theme, which is going for a more modern media application (usage of laptops and iPhones). This allows the audience to know how we want to brand our documentary, which is by showcasing online dating. However, that is not the main plot as audiences are able to decode a message, which is why we emphasize the mystery Clara (perpetrator) has due to us wanting the audience to know why something online can affect friendships and how careful we as young adults need to be when picking a friend no matter how long the friendship lasted.

Before working on our documentary, we did a lot of research to identify the conventions of crime documentaries and how these are conventionally established. We tried to follow those conventions, like establishing shots of the crime scenes and classic establishing shots, but also added more modern elements, like video calls, text messages, and video clips. These digitalized features subvert the traditional crime genre and appeal to our target audience of young adults who would enjoy a more contemporary narrative style that also evokes nostalgia.

Our documentary focuses on leads from Southeast Asia (Chinese-Indonesian), thus challenging the dominance of Hollywood/Western media traditions that normally have a prioritization for Western narratives and representation. By centering South-East Asians, we subvert the stereotype of underrepresentation, bringing in a minority group that is seldom seen at the top. This does not only introduce Western audiences to South-East Asian perspectives but also offers representation for South-East Asians in a genre highly dominated by Western culture. Giving attention to the portrayal of characters like Clara and Sasha helps avoid the invisibility of these groups in media.

The character portrayal happens through Clara and Sasha's social media profiles, which were Mise en Scène. Clara is meant to be possessive and obsessive, always stuck onto Sasha. She is filmed in much darker tones than Sasha, who wears, at times, white, representing kindness, care, and naivety. Kyler is more of an introverted character; his character is cold and distant 'nonchalant'. The Uses and Gratifications Theory created by Bulmer & Katz explains that audiences engage with media for diversion, personal identity, social relationships, and surveillance. With the dynamic of Clara and Sasha as our main leads, viewers can either relate to or pity their circumstances, building personal connections to the characters or going back and reflecting on their own relationships, especially with the storyline about online dating and how it can affect our target audience.

We also used the Hermeneutic Code: audio cues, black screen cuts, and zoom-ins that would keep the audience in suspense about what was to happen. Those are some of the usual features for the genre in creating a tense and engaging atmosphere for viewers.

Camera work, MES, sound, and editing in our production were all according to the usual conventions found in documentaries. Documentaries would employ close-ups and medium shots to emphasize the actors through their facial expressions, CCTV footage, and long shots of the location of crime scenes, but also close-ups of some evidence that show possible weapons of murder. Also, the MES used natural lighting and non-formal attire—common everyday—which added to a sense of realism. The interviews were done in much darker tones to infuse tension. We used non diegetic sound because it's usually used in the building of suspense, and so we incorporated that in to really bring tension around a certain moment or piece of evidence. Quick cuts, along with match cuts, were used to move through interviews and evidence; this really reinforced the documentary's narrative flow. 

On the other hand, we also challenged conventional conventions and modernized them to a certain extent, which mainly occurred in post-production as we used a lot of screen recordings as if someone is actually using the social media behind the screen. Through this convention and modern combination in the digital realm, we created a documentary that would converse with young adults yet stand upon the conventional themes of the genre. As we did tons of research, what helped us the most was our general opening documentary research and thumbnail research, as first off we get a general glance of what conventions we should follow and what to subvert; this also allows us to spark the idea we’ll have for this project. As for the thumbnail, I learned that doing lots of research actually cuts back on the development time as we know what general theme we want to follow. However, if I were to do this over again, I would give more time to post-production. While the production phase is not quite complicated, post-production requires detailed work and creativity that can't be rushed. I would have done better in this area with improved time management, which would have enhanced the final result. Fortunately, our weekly progress plan kept us right on track and helped streamline the process.