Critical Reflection

      My group’s short film Time for Dinner, at a surface level, could come off as shallow or trivial, with no great message or research driving it. However, one must take a closer look to derive the deeper meaning and themes surrounding the film. A combination of research and branding helps to carry across the point, as well as connect with the audience. 

      It can be easy to see the cutesy costumes, cheesy set, and corny dialogue as nothing more than simple writing, but it really is so much more. Time for Dinner represents the rising social issue of the corruption and desensitization of young minds. In the film, it is revealed that the whole story was the imagination of a young girl playing with her dolls. It is this revelation that poses a big question: why was such a young girl fantasizing about such mature ideas? The entire plot surrounds the attempts one woman makes to murder the other. The fact that a girl of such a young age would be picturing this, let alone acting it out with dolls, is disturbing and says something about media in general and the ways it can affect our youth. Graphic media causes desensitization to the point where, as depicted in my short film, it can become what seems like an enjoyable situation to think and fantasize about. Another example of the spoiling of young brains that is not as obvious can be seen, not from the plot, but from the costumes in the film. Both girls in our film are dressed in slightly revealing outfits: very short skirts, tiny crop tops that reveal midriff and accentuate cleavage, and lacy bras underneath. This outfit is slightly tamed by the cardigans, but is still clearly a bit scandalous. It is not to say that girls should not dress in the ways shown in our film, but it should be noted the oddity that a young girl’s image of women includes clothes that, from a more conservative point of view, can seem quite sexual. Again, the reason behind this representation is to remark on the media’s impact on children, in this case regarding their desensitization to revealing apparel and the sexualization of women.  

       Moving on, the elements of our production work together to create a sense of branding. The frivolous feel to all the components of our short film (the website, postcard, trailer, etc.) is intentional. Branding Time for Dinner as a silly film helps to create more of a shock factor when the real message behind it is realized. This silly branding is achieved through a variety of ways. Starting off with our poster, it can be seen that the general mood of the image is not very serious by the color and image. It is a happy light pink, and the image is of a barbie doll. Granted, the doll has a knife in her hand, but it is still clear that the poster is facetious. As for the postcard, once again it is immediately apparent that the theme of the card is lighthearted by the front. The color is also a light pink, and the poster is on one side with the name on the other. The font is a swirling cursive type called Allura, and is consistent throughout the whole postcard, save the social media names, as it was a little harder to read those. This pretty theme is a part of our film’s branding, as it continues the previous atmosphere surrounding it. To further the branding, the website for the film is, once again, mainly light pink. It has fun pictures from the film, as well as cheerful quotes to go along with the branding. As far as social media, the Instagram account for the film absolutely follows the general branding, with kiss emojis, lots of hearts, and zany pictures to depict the film as a silly, lighthearted film. Overall, the branding is created from the combination of all the elements of production surrounding our film.

        Correspondingly, our products also engage the audience to provide a more thorough experience. Audience participation not only creates a more fun environment, but it encourages more people to watch the film. We achieved this through incorporating various elements that were not necessary, but integrated the audience into the film process. Examples of this can be found on the website. For instance, there is a tab where a viewer could find out more information about a live Q&A with the cast and crew. This engages the audience by allowing them to inquire about the movie, and even giving them a chance to speak to their stars. Additionally, the website has another section where an audience member can find out more about the cast and crew. It is labeled “Our Story”, and it enables the audience to really immerse themselves in the short film by learning about the individuals responsible for the film. We also created an email account, partly because it was necessary for some of the social media, but mainly because providing an email account for fans to write to can inspire the audience to watch and learn about our film. The email doesn’t have a specified use, so audience members could use it to praise, criticize, or just talk to the cast and crew. As for our social media, on our Instagram we are also very engaging with the audience. An example of this is the stories we post to the account where the audience can interact with the post. For example, a post asking “is the juice safe to drink?” or “Who do you think the killer is?” can be answered by the audience by pressing an answer choice provided. All of these elements to our products are examples of how we engage the audience to further their experience. 

       Before embarking on our short film journey, my group made sure to collect a variety of research on short films, our genre, and elements regarding our plot. This research helped to inform our products, and how we would use and challenge conventions. Time for Dinner is a short film of the thriller genre. When researching, I found that most thrillers have a spooky, dangerous mood about them to draw in viewers and create a sense of suspense. My group decided to contradict this conventional quality of thrillers, and instead go with a more animated and cheerful ambiance. This juxtaposition to our real plot is meant to entice the audience, making them even more curious due to the unconventional feel of our short film. Additionally, I researched statistics on violence in media before we had even created our scripts and chosen our characters. My research suggested that a large portion of violence in media is depicted as women against other women. When we wrote our script, we made sure to follow this convention by having two female characters in order to stay true to our message that the young girl was under the influence of the media’s representation of women and violence. In all, the research we did helped us in the long run to have certain unpredicted elements, but to also have accuracy in our representations.