Critical Reflection

 • How does your movie represent social groups or issues?

My movie represents two brothers. Being that they are twin brothers, that is what brings them together, what makes them a social group category. The problem arises when the twin brother kills the other and takes his life as a college student. The whole movie is about how these two brothers are separated and how it’s great for the one who left, but not so much for the one still there. There could have been more of the brothers' story, but I couldn’t find the time. An issue that my movie represents is murder! There are so many things that can happen. The body wasn’t hidden, it was just left in the seat in front of the creamery. It’s safe to say the brother isn’t too smart. There can be an entire group of people that realise he is dead and have to deal with that trauma. There could be someone who finds him, or realised and brings other people into it. Those groups that find the body would be a social group, and the issue would be the trauma caused by it. 

There’s also many things that the main character does that can be put into a social group. Since a social group is a group of people with things in common, there is always something that someone is experiencing that can place them in a social group. For example, trying a drink and thinking it tastes funny. Everyone has done that at least once. There has always been that time when you’re trying a drink for the first time or under a different recipe and it isn’t good. Another example is the fact that he’s a new college student. Everyone wants to experience the ‘moving to a new town and starting your life’ at some point in their life. There are people that have done that and who can talk about it. That’s a social group on it’s own. The people with the experience. 

• How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

There were many elements of the movie. Including music and visuals. Getting the music to correspond with the movie is a very important aspect. The mood needs to be set correctly. The music can’t be in the beginning of the movie when nothing has happened. It also has to be the right kind of music. I can’t have my happy music at the end where the main character dies, I also can’t have the suspenseful music in the middle when he’s just getting tea and living his life. That could be insanely early foreshadowing. If anything, the music would go in the very last time he got his tea, but even then it wouldn’t be good. 

What was on the screen was a very important part of the movie as well, obviously, it was the movie. There were certain times when the scenes had to be right for the emotion to be displayed correctly. The camera couldn’t be in the wrong angle or it wouldn’t capture what I was trying to convey. There is a moment at the end where the evil twin brother is walking up to the main character. I made him walk toward the camera instead of making him walk with the camera because the message went better. I was trying to put the camera in the spot of the main character, since the movie is still in his eyes. He doesn’t know he’s been poisoned until it was too late. Whereas if it was the other way, the brother knows he’s killed him. He knows that he’s going to get the life he’s always wanted. Placing the music where it was and the camera where it went was all a part of getting the audience to feel what I wanted them too. Getting them to feel what I want is what makes my movie, and my position as a director/creator the fame it needs, a.k.a, my brand.

• How does your movie engage with the audience?

The movie keeps the audience engaged with the audio and visual aspects of it. The audio aspect is the music. I watched many movies to get an idea of what I wanted for the movie. Then I asked my friend to make music after completely forgetting what movies I watched. Just like how it created a brand, it also works to engage my audience. Using music to change the mood of the movie, can also change the way the audience is feeling about the movie. Since music has been scientifically proven to change the mood of people, it makes sense that it’s used as help to change the mood of the movie. There is a scene in the beginning of the movie where the main character is walking into the dorm house for the first time. It cuts mid way into him opening up the door so we can see him walk inside. That was obviously intended to get the expression of him and see his mood change. When seeing the mood of someone else people tend to mimic that since we are very sociable creatures. We’re not going to see someone happy and immediately be mad at them with no reasoning. He was excited to be in his dorm. This also works with those people who have experienced that or want to experience that. They can live, or relive this through his eyes. Also, since it’s a short film, it could be harder to keep everyone engaged. That’s not an issue when music is to play. Music can change anyone's mood and I took advantage of that. 

• How did your research inform your movie and the way they use or challenge conventions?

My research made my movie so much better. You wouldn’t think it, but most of my research consisted of watching movies with similar genres. I took note of what they did in a general sense. They had music, obviously, but what kind of music? Every movie has music, whether that’s a laugh track or instrumental. If it’s not dialogue, it’s probably music. Even documentaries have music! The music that I found the most in the movies I watched was suspenseful music. Granted, I did watch full length movies where they had over an hour to really develop the plot, and the music made sense. It just brought out the emotions that we were already feeling. Whereas, in my short film, and in the few others that I did see, the music was used as a guide so the audience knew that something was coming. I probably should have watched more short films, but the ones I found weren’t in my genre. I did notice, in the short films, that everything was very fast paced or was cut to feel like a large amount of time has passed. This makes sense because it’s such a short amount of time that is allowed in the film. I took advantage of this trick and did them both. Although, it was because I was trying to fit all the scenes into a time frame, and not a random time that would have worked. Using everything that I learned helped with the movie, while some used and others challenged the conventions, they both worked to my advantage in the end. I either took that idea and used it myself or saw how they did it and asked myself how I could change that to make it work for me.