Creative Critical Reflection
Wow! Welcome back guys, it has been a long journey and it is time to reflect on what we've learned. The enjoyable moments along with the not so enjoyable moments, this project has been full of experiences. Before starting this project, I felt inexperienced and lost. But, throughout working with my team, I have learned to edit, produce, act, and more.
Software such as Premiere Pro, Cap Cut, Canva, Picsart, iMovie, and Procreate helped bring this film to life. I learned how to use these by watching YouTube tutorials and asking my friends to guide me! There were some bumps along the road, but we seemed to work everything out. For example, when Premiere Pro failed on us, Cap Cut came in to save us. It was enjoyable to work on set, working with the camera and analyzing what shots were intimidating, joyful, or any other emotion. Overall, it has really made me think of pursuing a film related career if that's being a director or producing a movie.
Christy's Creative Critical Reflection:
Question 1: How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
While our film is unique, there are still many conventions that conform to the usual genre expectations. Now, A Red Christmas is a mystery drama thriller. This genre usually consists of elements like a shocking incident, setting the story in motion. In our case, the poisoning of chicken had driven the mystery further. Additionally, plot twists and red herrings are generally used to keep the audience on their toes. While the friends were preparing the food, whoever’s hand was shown had seeped poison into an unknowing guest, emphasizing the red herrings throughout the opener. Another convention that many dramas use is tension. Within our film, tension is built up between two of our characters. While Tiffany mentions how delicious the food is, Zadie gives a quick and slightly insulting remark, foreshadowing that an argument between them will erupt. Now, many mystery thrillers utilize moody atmospheres, and this is demonstrated in how we incorporated the night into our scenes, with dimly lit chandeliers. Furthermore, various close-up shots were used throughout the conversations to highlight tension and heighten suspense, while paying attention to the characters’ attitudes. Even shakier styles of camera work are usually used, so instead of using smooth Steadicams, we handheld all of the purposefully shakier shots.
In contrast, we also challenged the usual conventions since in normal mystery drama thrillers the murderer is typically seen as a nonconformist. However, in this film opener, the murderer is shown in everyday clothes, fitting in with the rest of her friends. Additionally, it may be evident that antagonists are designed to wear darker clothing like black hoodies or coats, while the murderer is seen wearing a festive and sparkly Christmas sweater. Another convention in thrillers may be the presence of sharp murder weapons, our opener challenges this by using poison! Not to mention, there was also no presence of blood which is usually seen in thrillers to show red herrings or clues. In other films it is evident who the killer is in the beginning, though, our film it was not clearly revealed until the very end, and even when it is sort of revealed, it still leaves the audience in wonder.
We also represent many social groups including female representation. In most cases, movies portray the killers to be a male which reinforces the stereotype of male aggression and the quote on quote “damsel in distress.” However, we subverted these expectations and created an unpredictable women representation in film. It is important to break the stereotypes of females always being the victim to promote gender equality. Additionally, we made sure to include minorities, such as the main antagonist being Asian, the main protagonist being black, and the side characters being Hispanic and Asian as well. In the film industry, there is a lack of opportunity for minorities, making it difficult for their career to take off. And many minority actors are limited to stereotypical roles, such as the Asian person being a “nerd” or “math geek” rather than a significant role.
Question 2: How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
Our film opener grabs the audiences’ attention by creating a welcoming and warm atmosphere. In the beginning of our opener, it is filled with festive music as well as friendly laughter. However, it is the change in mood that further engages the viewers. The characters are seen happily preparing dinner together, when an unknown guest is shown drugging the food! This is the trigger that allows foreshadowing in the future, the dark and ominous music we input allows the viewers to really feel immersed in that particular scene. In my personal experience in watching psychological thrillers or horror films, one of the most captivating feelings is getting goose bumps or the heart skips a beat, purely out of unease. We really wanted to make the audience actively engaged allowing further intrigue and anxiety. What allows people to stay and enjoy the movie is the suspense factors that our directors carefully inserted. This is shown when only a singular plate is poisoned, allowing the viewers to wonder which character was soon to be murdered. Additionally, the tension between the seemingly close friends is never explained, leading viewers to wonder if there was any reasoning behind all of this chaos. All these cliffhangers and mysteries allow curiosity to stir inside viewers, creating a sense of wonder. The evil echo of bells both adds a sense of awe and ties it back to the beginning where Christmas is the focus. We were all proud of this factor and we think it’ll definitely impress others.
We really think that if this was a full-length movie, it would be a hit in theaters. However, there are many key components to consider. To start, we would either need to pitch the film opener to nearby theaters or streaming services like Netflix or self-fund it! Let’s say we self-fund it, the budget would have to be pretty low, but that doesn’t mean our film would be limited to low quality production. This is because the hit mystery film, “Knives Out” was filmed in mostly a single house. In our case, if we did have a full movie, a singular cabin in the woods would be a great setting and renting one wouldn’t cost an arm and leg. Secondly, it would be important to find a larger team and cast. It would be important to hire specific people to edit, film, act, and produce! There are many ways that this grand project could be distributed. For example, submitting to film festivals or winning awards as a small film can attract bigger companies. To attract the wanted audience, it is necessary to create excitement and engagement through trailers and teasers. Even social media can campaign for small films since the right marketing can instantly go viral on applications such as TikTok and Instagram.
Question 3: How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
Since starting the process of research, planning, filming and editing I have grown as a film maker in numerous ways. Before this project, I was lost on how to even start a grand film like this. I realized I had to create an experience that an audience would never forget. I had researched story telling in film and almost every director had used storyboarding. So, with the utilization of storyboarding it allowed me to have an idea of the shots before actually filming. So, I improved my screenwriting, which was when I understood how to build suspense, and leave the story on a cliff hanger in order for viewers to ache for the full movie. Throughout this project, I thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of creativity that this story allowed me to have. Although it was difficult for my production team and I to agree on similar ideas. However, throughout the process we went with what looked the best on screen and what was most appealing to the eye. Experimenting with different shots, angles, and transitions was wonderful to carry out, however it was a struggle to film the perfect shot, but that is what bloopers and retakes are for. This all took plenty of time, however, we were all content with the final product.
Additionally, before this process, I was a weak editor and not familiar with any sort of technology. Originally, downloading music had been a struggle for us since many services include the downloading feature in a paid plan. As low budget students, we found a way to download our music for free. We did this by screen recording from our phones, and in order to edit it, we sent the clips to our computers and isolated the audio with the visuals. Moving forward, I had no prior experience uploading videos from my camera. That camera had been a gift from last year’s Christmas, and it was practically collecting dust. So, I’m glad it got utilized for this project as my friends guided me into connecting my camera to the laptop. We had run into some mishaps as my computer was old and barely had storage, but we resolved this by deleting over half of my useless files. Anyway, now that I had received guidance, it was evidently easy to connect the two devices using a USB cable. Upon editing, we had to insert important text like the opener’s title, our names, production label, and more. We had initially chosen to use Premiere Pro but switched over to Cap Cut due to collaboration difficulties. Additionally, we all had more experience with this application and claimed it was easier to use for beginners like us. Before inserting the text, we used Procreate, an application used for art/drawing, and it allowed us to create our own special font. We went for a font that seemed welcoming to suit the opener’s beginning scenes, as it introduced the casts’ names. After creating the animated texts, we saved it as transparent PNG and uploaded it onto the correct clips. In addition to the hand-drawn texts, there were text tools on the side that were easily accessible. In the past, there were some instances in which I was required to post YouTube videos. Though, I find that it is easier to navigate the editing parts of YouTube throughout this long process. All I had to do was click on the camera icon and a tab would appear that allowed me to upload a full video. Additionally, I had learned that changing the publicity of a video was possible, however, we decided to keep it public in order to reach curious eyes.
With all considerations pertaining towards these enjoyable and not so enjoyable moments, I would highly consider film making as a career. I learned much about editing, storytelling, and producing parts of media. Although I struggled through learning all this new material, it was incredible to be able to create and direct an original media piece.
Question 4: How did you integrate technologies- software, hardware, and online in this project?
During this process, we used a variety of tools to bring the film to life. And throughout each step it required learning since we had never used most of these materials. To start, we used a Sony Zv-1f camera. Although we already knew how to use a basic camera, we customized the way we used it to create that mystery-thriller atmosphere. Experimenting with the manual settings brought the visuals to life, this included shutter speed and white balance which controlled lighting. To add on, we make-shifted a tripod to stabilize the full shots that showed the setting. Upon using the camera, we experimented with different angles to create suspense and visual storytelling. Such as the two POV shots we utilized. One during the poisoning to create suspense and tension. Another one in the main character’s viewpoint where her vision is blurry, imitating her fainting.
One of the biggest challenges was editing. We had utilized software called Premiere Pro. Although it was going smoothly on my end, my team realized the project was not shareable. Even worse, the file would disappear from time to time, and it was not reliable at all. Overall, it was difficult to use for beginners. But this doesn’t mean I didn't learn anything. Before the file was mysteriously deleted, YouTube tutorials had taught me how to import, cut, and arrange clips on a timeline. Additionally, there were numerous transitions to input including fade and dissolve. In contrast, we switched over to Cap Cut, as it had always been simple for us to use.
Throughout this amazing journey, Blogger.com has been very useful to document every step. There were many times I documented my learning process, I shared insights and reflected on a few challenges. Blogger.com was fairly simple to use, it took me a while to be able to embed videos, but uploading to YouTube and then embedding seemed to work the best.
Looking back, I am incredibly proud of this journey and project. This
experience pushed me to step outside of my comfort zone and experiment with new
materials that refined my filmmaking skills.
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