CR

 My short film’s plot revolves around friendship and the struggles friends face. It portrays how girl friendships, in particular, can change, but it also touches on general problems many friends go through, regardless of gender. My movie, in short, encompasses two best friends who meet a new girl and one of the friends becomes closer to the new girl. This caused the old best friend to become very jealous and act on it by killing the new girl. This touches on the theme of jealousy in an extreme manner. Although many people don’t act as aggressively on their jealousy, these feelings are genuine and cause damage to society. The feelings of betrayal and jealousy can stem into greater mental health issues and affect an individual’s role in society. The act of being replaced in friendships can be the loneliest experience for somebody. It makes people think they are not good enough, or that something is wrong with them just solely because of the fact their friend is now closer to someone else. This is something I have experienced and many others have as well. It is very common within society for friendships to evolve, which is natural, but the social issues that happen as a result of this are very seen and harmful. This does not mean people can’t become closer to other people, but it sheds light on the, not very talked about, issues that jealousy and betrayal can cause. In many cases like this, people keep their feelings to themselves during these situations and try not to act hurt by absorbing their pain. This further causes people to experience mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and more. Going through emotions of jealousy is usually done alone which can make people believe they have no support system in life and spiral into heavy psychological problems. Not only are there active problems associated with these feelings and situations, but also long-term issues are at risk of developing. People may then not want to create close bonds or friendships with other people in life due to them being scared of being replaced. Trust issues are very common in developing after a circumstance like this, and these trust issues can bleed into other kinds of relationships like in someone’s family, or non-platonic partnerships. 

The elements of my production include the short film, the website, and the postcard. All of these elements work simultaneously to promote traction and attract people to watch my film, click on my website, and look through my postcard. My short film is the main aspect of my production package and it sets the tone for the rest of the components. As my short film was a murder mystery and falls under the horror, mystery genre, the aesthetic for the website and postcard was dark, ominous, and creepy. This creates a consistent theme in the branding of my short film, website, and postcard. Consistency is key to causing people to remember and want to interact with a certain product. My website includes where, how, and when to watch my short film along with a QR code for a digital version of my postcard. It also includes links to all the social media for the short film and a YouTube link to watch the short film. All of this information is organized in a productive and visually pleasing way for the navigation of the website to be as smooth as possible and leave zero room for confusion or problems. My postcard has all of this information and, also, a link to the website. This creates a link to all of my elements and causes people to have availability for every element of my production. Not only will people have access to every single piece of information needed to watch my film and interact with both, my postcard and/or website, but people and groups will want to interact with my short film package. The attractiveness and ability to become intrigued that my short film package would cause people to constantly want to tune into the different parts of my production. The harmony and connection between all the platforms will create a sense of connection between my audience and the product. The ability to read about my cast crew on the website and also see a picture of each individual who played a part in the creation causes a sense of personal comfort for my audience and allows them to personally understand who created the products and the process of it. This all further attracts more people and creates an overall connected brand for my short film package. 

My products are all interactive and allow audiences to absorb all the content in my short film package. My website has a section designated for feedback and reviews on all my products. Everyone has the opportunity to comment and leave their opinion on my website and social media platforms. This gives audiences the ability to directly reach my group members or myself which gives them a voice and can appeal to them as it can feel that their points are being taken into account. Allowing for their feedback can only end positively even if the feedback is negative as it allows me to pinpoint areas that can improve and where I can alter things. This is beneficial to me and the audience which in turn connects us both. Not only can I connect with audiences but audiences can connect and converse with one another. Many social media platforms have this aspect of sharing ideas which is what makes them so appealing. The idea of sharing your opinion with others and being able to talk to them about it is very attractive and productive for audiences. As I have many social media platforms for my short film people have the opportunity to discuss with one another and my cast crew. This directly allows anyone to engage with my products. This idea is not an uncommon one as well. Thousands of films and anything get feedback from users on the internet which creates a sense of a digital community. Not only can people directly leave comments on my products but as I share teasers, trailers, and promotional material on platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, the audience gains anticipation and excitement among the audiences. Fan group social accounts are often created for films which allows fans to connect and talk about their interests in the short film. My group and I have created fun interactive posts on Instagram like quizzes and challenges related to the film to encourage audience participation and engagement, generate buzz, and increase visibility. I also reached out other my friends from other groups in the media class and asked to do a fun collaboration post on both of our film’s Instagram. This connected their audience with others and allowed for more traction and conversation about the short films to happen. Overall, my products use several techniques to allow for audience engagement.

My short film falls under the horror and mystery genre which I did research on at the beginning of my process in media studies. I researched several aspects of each genre. I dove into the common costumes, lighting, actors, props, and sets within each of the genres. I also researched common angles, movement, and shots within horror movies and mystery movies. This helped me visualize and understand common conventions found throughout those genres. I made all my products visually appealing and matched the genres: of horror and mystery. Using blood splotches and dark colors for my website, I tried to create a scary horror theme. This would be appealing and attractive to the audiences as consistency allows them to remember films and truly indulge them better. For the postcard, I did the same and tried to keep up a mysterious scary theme. Even the social media platforms were all designed to fit the theme of horror and mystery. I added profile photos with famous horror villains and made the YouTube page dark and ominous. For Instagram, I added corny horror quotes and posted several scary photos. This all sets the tone and theme for the branding and products. Using the genre research and applying it to the design of my products and content is very productive and results in a sense of harmony for the whole project. In terms of the content of the film, I used and challenged conventions used in horror and mystery. In many horror movies, tracking shots and bird eye view are used which were also used in my short film quite a lot. This was purposely to replicate the angles and shots done by many other famous horror movies. The sets of my short film are similar to those in mystery movies. My group tried filming during dark times and in open streets with little to no people. In terms of editing, my group used a lot of fade to black and flashes which are used a lot in horror movies.