Critical Reflection

My product represents the issue of obsession. I felt like this topic is not talked about enough unfortunately but should be due to its potential effects. Obsession can develop in a fast and serious manner and can often lead to crimes. What is so dangerous about it is that the culprit can often be within their victim’s social circle without the victim even knowing it. In the short film, the victim is actively being watched and studied, until she realized and sensed something was wrong. She was about to get attacked and kidnapped if she had not used her intuition and followed her gut. This proves how important it is to be vigilant and careful when someone comes into another person’s life a bit too easily. Moreover, this project also represents friendships. In the short film, the victim was lucky enough to be surrounded by her friends quite often, which lead her to talk to them about her doubts and worries. The friends played an important role because they confirmed how the main character, the victim, was right about feeling worried and observed, and told her to be careful. If the victim’s friends were not there, the victim would have most likely not taken action and kept on going with her life. In other words, this shows how crucial friendships are by being able to receive advice, and how necessary it is to talk to the, when something feels off. In broad terms, this is what I wanted my short film to represent. 

 

The elements of my production create a sense of branding by creating multiple accounts on several social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Moreover, I have developed a website dedicated to the short film. It promotes the social media accounts at the bottom of the page, which brings the audience directly to them in just one click. It also includes a summary about what the short film is about, the release dates that are accompanied with the location and screening times, a news page, promoting reviews, as well as the crew members that have worked hard for the production of this project. Every detail in the website has been thought of. Even if it is small, it is still crucial because it gives the public a feel of what the short film conveys. For instance, some of the writing on it is in a red, scary font, or it also shares some pictures taken directly from the short film to advertise it even more. Overall, this helps promote it in a way that is very common and useful nowadays. Creating social media accounts is an excellent strategy when it comes to marketing because it can easily boost views by growing the accounts and gaining a larger audience by the day, which builds an audience network that would easily share the account and incite the public to watch the film. Additionally, it would help reach an international audience very easily, in just a few clicks. All of these tools that have been used in the production of my short film promote it by engaging the audience with it in multiple ways online. It creates a sense of branding by advertising and shaping my short film in many diverse ways.

My short film engages with the audience by raising awareness and teaching how important it is to be careful about one’s surrounding. Due to social media and the younger generation staying home more often, or simply having personal issues, some people try to find comfort in others by strongly getting involved in their life, which can sometimes lead to obsessive behaviors. It is unfortunately very easy for someone to engage in obsessive habits. Some consist of following their victim, tracking where they go, getting involved in their personal life by pretending to develop a “friendship”, using social media as a resource, and many more. Not only does it not take much for a victim to relate to all of the above, but it is also difficult to stop it from happening. This is why in my short film I have included a scene of the victim discussing her worries with her friends. It truly highlights the importance of talking to someone of trust when something feels off. In that specific case, it prevented the main character from getting abducted, by having a talk with her friends, and having them telling her about their perspective on the situation she is in, by saying that what she is experiencing is not normal, and very odd. This teaches the audience to not trust anyone too quickly, mostly when they seem a bit too pushy and forceful. It depicts how trusting your gut and using your intuition in any situation can save someone’s life. Moreover, in the short film, the main character was naive and picked up on indicators that the character who plays the culprit might actually be dangerous way too late. She should also have been more careful about who she gave her private information to from the start. Lastly, it teaches the audience how an abductor can come in all shapes and sizes. They don’t have to be old men wandering the streets to be considered dangerous. They can be the victim’s age, gender, height, or can even be part of their social circle, just like how it was represented in the short film. 

In other words, it engages with the audience by teaching them how important it is to be aware of your surroundings and not trust anyone too quickly. 

 

Prior to actually creating the short film, I had done some deep research about thriller movies to be familiar with the type of conventions that are frequently used in this movie genre. This research has inspired me into incorporating different types of conventions to portray a thriller feel into the short film as much as possible. Some conventions I incorporated that are in accordance with other thriller movies are dark lighting in order to create a mysterious atmosphere, intriguing music that put viewers on the edge of their seats because it is an  indicator that something is about to happen. Another important convention that I insisted on using is rain. Rain, including its calming yet unsettling sounds would increase the tension right through the screen. These are the main conventions my research has inspired me to use for my short film.