• How do your products represent social groups or issues?
My products represent social groups or issues by, our film is available to all age groups. Nobody is excluded from watching it. My group and I are very ethnically diverse and come from all regions, we want to share our products to everyone who can access it no mater your age, race, or ethnicity.
My product stands for social groups and issues furthermore by, our film shows that not every thriller needs to be filmed at night to come across as scary. I found that we can carry lots of suspense in our film by using only props and music. When background music is in a higher pitch it makes audiences feel more suspense. For example, in our film we used letters as a key prop, and according to our plot the “stalker” would often send our protagonist a letter. This made audiences more compelled when they saw a letter because they know exactly what it means when the protagonist receives another letter. Thus, making the letters suspense carry over onto the audience. By just showing the letter, it challenged the common issue of how to make our film more thrilling.
Another way my product stands for social groups and issues is by, my groupmates and I decided that we did not want to film our movie at night. Most thrillers have night-time scenes, but we wanted to find other ways to make our film more appealing. This was another big issue because we wanted to be different and not basic.
• How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
The elements of my production work together to create a sense of branding by, while creating this film other than just filming and creating our movie my groupmates and I took other steps alongside it. We created multiple “branches” to brand and advertise for our movie. Starting off I had to create a brand identity for a website. Since our film is a thriller film, I opted for more darker tones to create a feeling of suspense and question. It was important to me that our website consisted of blacks, greys, whites, and even red tones. On the website you can find all of the information about our movie on one page. Another element of production that was created for ‘branding’ was an advertisement poster. An advertisement poster was necessary to gain publicity for our film. We opted for darker colors on the flyer as well; Reds, Blacks, and whites were used to carry over the “thriller” feeling. Furthermore, we chose to stay consistent with the colors on the website and the colors on the flyer so that they could have a more concise correlation. The flyer had more information about showtimes and places to watch our film. Furthermore, another way we chose to brand our film was by using social media. Social media is a free an easy way to gain publicity from anyone in the world. We created accounts on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. We made our accounts have the same color scheme and profile pictures. The last element of our production we used to create a sense branding was our film itself, we made sure to connect the “final branch” which was our film to everything else. Branding is one of the most important elements because it's necessary to make a film successful.
• How do your products engage with the audience?
My products engage with audiences by, since our film is a thriller film our main goal was to catch the attention of our audiences. In the editing process we added music and sound effects that would make audiences feel more engaged. We also used many camera angles such as tracking shots, and wide shots to always show what our actors were doing.
We also made sure to use dialogue that was not boring, so that audiences would not get tired of our film. We made sure to keep dialogue as natural as possible while still going along with our plot. When planning and brainstorming for our film my groupmates and I made sure to come from the perspective of an audience. Using an audience's perspective helped us figure out what we should add and what ideas we should cut from our film.
Besides our film we created many other “products” to engage our audiences. First off, our film has its own website where you can view all its information. Secondly, we created many social media pages so that audiences could be informed about of our film. We created an Instagram, twitter, Facebook, and YouTube in hopes for captivating all age ranges. On our website we have all of the social medias linked so that anyone can access it with just one click of a button. One of the final steps and products we created was an advertisement flyer displaying movie times for our film. This was a particularly crucial step because it showed audiences that our film was done.
How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?
My research informed my products and the way they use or challenge conventions by, when my groupmates and I first decided that we were going to do a thriller film, I went home and watched many movies in the thriller genre. I watched the invisible man, parasite, and a quiet place to get a feeling of different types of genres. From doing my research I learned that every film had a different way of portraying the suspense. Early on in the planning process I decided that I did not want to do a “typical” thriller that consisted of dark streets and more. I discussed with my groupmates and they agreed that we were going to challenge the convention of a typical thriller by filming during the day and still carry suspense. We also are a non-violence thriller which is something very a-typical of this genre. We do have a stalker which for some this could be triggering and considered as violence; however, the stalker does not do any physical violence in our film. We found that since we were not filming at night and there was no violence, we needed to add more suspense in different ways. This was the ultimate Challege to conventions. We added more dramatic music, created conversations that were in depth but yet questionable, used camera angles/shots that led up to suspenseful parts and lasty we used props to our advantage. The use of props is what ultimately (in what I believe) made our film more suspenseful. The letters the stalker leaves create a cloud of suspense. The letters ultimately help audiences feel more attached and more intrigued when more letters came.
