Q1: How do your products represent social groups or issues? 

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Q2: How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’? 

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Q3: How do your products engage with the audience?

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Q4: How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

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   This writing will reflect on the past four months of working with component 3 - Advanced Portfolio in Media Studies and the outcome: a 5-minute short movie The Graveyard. 

 

      The Graveyard is a short movie that mainly reflects on the dark side of social media. While writing the script of the short film, I explored the danger of social media: chatting with strangers, a common among teenagers using social media for the first time. From that, I also want to represent the issue of media regulation: regulations must be updated in the modern world to protect people from the danger of the internet.

     The death of Annie in the movie not only signifies crime but is also a warning to parents. Specifically, in the movie, we see Annie’s mom is a busy businesswoman who cares less about her daughter: she is always in an office outfit, having work-related calls and serving instant noodles as dinner for her daughter. The moment that she eats the bowl of Pho made from Annie’s flesh is a warning sent to all the parents: the “toxic love”, the pressure and the control that parents have on their children negatively affect the kids and through time, they are “eating”, “killing” their children. Kids grow up, they will not wait for parents to “fix” those childhood traumas and they will grow up with those scars in their souls.

      However, as a director,  I should have spotted that the ring was blurry and unclear in the last scene, making the representation weaker. Also, the character “Annie’s mom” in this movie is quite unrealistic as the character arc was rushed: it did not have enough details to support the character's development. As a result, the warning to parents in the movie may be missed or unclear to the viewers. For the next occasion, I will look at wider perspectives to make the elements in the film more relatable and understandable to viewers.

 

      Throughout the project, I have created a sense of branding through the video, the blog and the social media page. First of all, we demonstrate uniqueness through our designs. On each of the social media posts, we put a sign (snake, eyes, greenish, ...) to signify our uniqueness in our content: it reveals the darkest side of the issues to warn people about the problem, even the most traumatizing, disgusting face of it; underneath the creepy plot is a strong message about creating a better world. A world where there is pure happiness for everyone - a niche vision of the studio, not to follow profit. Secondly, we have successfully got the audience involved in the project by hosting an online premiere on YouTube where people can communicate with us, the producer and discuss with other viewers. It shows that our brand is a niche, friendly brand as we constantly respond and communicate with viewers. 

      However, as an editor, I should have included the credit at the end of the short movie to create a stronger sense of branding, there is a sign of Oculus Studio in every media product. This mistake required me to upload a new version of the video to our YouTube channel, costing us to lose all the interaction such as views, and likes that we were having at that moment. This negatively affects the branding of the studio. The social media campaign should also be carried out sooner, during the pre-production phase, to enhance our spreading of brand awareness. Starting soon will also help the group to get a better understanding of viewers’ interests. Therefore creating a “closer” movie for potential viewers. The targeted audience should also be clarified at the planning stage as it helps decision-making be more effective and specific. Lastly, we should have pinned our posters on the information board on each hallway at the school as another method of promotion: the postcard was well-designed and appealing, helping raise brand awareness within our school.

 

      There are multiple ways that I use to engage the audience. Firstly, I utilize the hermeneutic code from Roland Bathers. By using particular elements such as a cooking montage, texting with a stranger, and random shots revealing the shoes, I have invoked the viewers’ curiosity and kept them watching the movie. Through those scenes, I have successfully tricked viewers that they are watching a peaceful sad movie until Annie was kidnapped. After being tricked, viewers are likely to rewatch the movie, trying to spot the hints for that twist. The twist also includes the postcard as on the postcard, the colour is not yet too dark or creepy, no sign of a horror movie yes. Secondly, I apply the intertextual reference that I have learned about while studying Post-modernism: viewers enjoy feeling smart when they spot references and similarities between media products or in other words, they want to find those Easter Eggs. Within the movie, the name of the stranger who chatted with Annie is “Fish n Chip”. On my blog,  I analyzed a film called  “Searching” (2018) and in that movie, the one who committed the crime also had a username Fish n Chip. 

   However, from the feedback, people said that the way the audio was mixed and the difference in colour and quality of footage annoyed them, reducing the satisfaction of the experience.  This was because of the difference in the camera used to film different scenes. On the next occasion, I will get more feedback before officially publishing the product so that it comes out with better quality and engagement. I will also try to be consistent with the equipment used to ensure a better watching time. 

 

      According to my pre-production research, conventionally, a short movie’s length can range from 30 seconds to 15 minutes: they are not long enough to be considered a featured film. Excellent short movies have short yet powerful and impactful narratives that usually only explore one relationship or conflict; one concept or idea; have little dialogue and about 2-3 well-built characters (due to their short duration). Besides, short movies give viewers meaningful and valuable lessons or messages. Also, I found that producers like to put plot twists into short movies. Audio, editing and camera work become more powerful when it comes to short movies: because of the short length, producers choose to show-not-tell by using the music, the cut and the composition or shot styles (the rhetoric) to elaborate more on the narrative. Conventionally, movies with similar themes will have dark, blueish or/and yellowish visuals and slow, instrumental background music.

      With our project, we follow most of the conventions. Our twists are much stronger, changing the whole vibe and the theme of the movie, making the feeling of a second watch differ from the first time. Besides, we try to use the convention effectively by watching other famous short movies to learn from it. However, unlike the conventional, we put too much content and messages in 5 minutes. We should have learned from the convention and discussed one topic/idea only. This will allow us to explore that problem with more depth, resulting in a better narrative with stronger messages. Also, the editing is still lacking some professional transitions, audio mixing and colour grading (mentioned above) which play an important role in a short movie. As the editor, I will continue my journey of learning and enhancing my skills to become a better editor in the future.

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