Creative Critical Reflection

Candidate#4129 Creative Critical Reflection

Final Submission

The changes we made to our third quarter submission, we changed our font to Courier New Bold as it looked more sophisticated, the original font we had was, DIN Alternate Bold, we did this because it fit our genre more and it is a font that would be seen in most movies or television shows that involve investigation of missing people. Also we gave credit to our incidental music, Drone Dark Suspense 3 which is a sound found in iMovie so we gave credit to the proper creators in the beginning of our film with the rest of our credits.

Critical Creative Reflection Draft 4

When filming our film The Neighbor, we integrated many different technologies to make our film successful and the best that we can make it. Technologies we used were a Macbook Pro, iMovie, iPhone 8 Plus, and the music app Spotify. We incorporated all of our technologies into our film and interacted them carefully and appropriately. Each technology aspect we used contributes to the purpose to our film.

One technology we utilized was a Macbook Pro. This contributes to our film because in our film, in one of the opening scenes of Ally and Ashley listening to music on a Macboook Pro while getting ready. We used the app Spotify on the computer when playing Payphone by Maroon 5 to establish our setting and show the characters getting ready and having fun. This was key to making our film since Ally presses pause on the computer when Sarah begins to call her. Also we used the Macbook Pro when editing our film because it was the best option when having a higher resolution film and to have great picture and film quality.

The iPhone 8 Plus we used to film on was essential. We decided to use an iPhone because when transferred our film from a phone to Macbook, the quality was better and resolution was higher making our film clear and easy to see which makes it more enjoyable. The resolution on our film is 1080 PHD at 30 frames per second which is the highest resolution. Switching to iPhone to film rather than a class camera was very changing to our film.

Another technology we utilized was iMovie, which was the editing tool we used to edit our film. As a group, we decided this editing tool would best help us in creating our movie because it provided good transitioning options, fonts for titles and subtitles and overall an easier editing technique. iMovie also allowed us to put in scary incidental movie in the scenes where Patty is in Ally house to add suspense. The sound was provided through the app and selecting this for our film required less work. It allowed our group to understand iMovies resources better as well.

Creative Critical Reflection Draft 3

In creating our film, The Neighbor, I was in charge of the storyboard and taking the important shots from our film and drawing them out while describing the importance of that shot. Meredith was in charge of the editing for our film, Rachel took charge of directing, and Chelsea created the script and our characters. I chose to do the storyboard aspect of creating our entire film because I had the artistic ability to draw the shots and also knew how that shot represented our film. In doing this as a group, we all came to the conclusion that wanted the genre to our film to be thriller/horror. My production skills developed throughout the film in a positive way. As we went through the process of filming and writing I pointed out important shots and details to consider. I had to change the storyboard a couple times as we changed the main important shots a couple times. I also had some experience with filming scenes as in the past I had filmed short films for other classes. I was able to have a more creative eye when holding the camera and finding good lighting and areas to film that scene.

Our whole group participated by acting well. I played the role of Ashley who is one of Ally's best friends. Although I have participated in acting for some other films made in the past. This experience was far different. I had a bigger role in this film and had more lines in the script where I was talking. The good thing about my group is that we all have been friends and are comfortable with each other but the hard part was since we haven't acted together , it was more challenging for us to cooperate and focus clearly. Remembering our lines and moves were difficult because since we are a close group we would laugh and say the wrong words. Although it was a struggle, I believed in the long run we provided a great film with the little experience we had together or in general with acting and filming.

One last production skill was time management. As a group, we all came together to discuss when and where we would start filming and work our schedules around that time. Our film required us to film during day and night to go along with our script. There were times where my group and I found this hard to schedule. People in the group had work, appointments and family plans so finding a specific day to work for everyone took some time.  To come up with day times and night times was something we spent time figuring out. However, we always found a time and day to plan scenes and film the scenes in a good amount of time.

Creative Critical Reflection Draft 2

The target audience for our film "The Neighbor" is advertised to people within the age range of 14-23 that live in the United States as it aims toward teenagers and college students. Our film not only is directed toward teenagers but female teenagers because our characters are female. Ally, Ashley, Sarah and Patty are all female characters in The Neighbor. Both the protagonist and antagonist are the same gender (female) which is unusual for modern day films. Our film also engages with the higher and lower class. The protagonist, Ally, is considered higher class and this is depicted when observing her house, living conditions, clothing which all relates back to popularity.  Patty our antagonist character is lower class. She does not live in the nicest house on the street, her clothing does not match the others and she is not known as the "popular" girl. Both classes are used in the film to show a clear difference in lifestyles and to capture the jealousy Patty has for Ally in the film. The Neighbor and The Quiet Place are similar because both are thriller/horror. Also, using the same social media tactics to advertise to the younger generation, we have similar audience as we both are advertising to younger people. It is proven that more of the younger generation uses social media so advertising the film through apps such as Instagram will attract a wider audience. We used Instagram to market the film because we knew other films had done the same such as Get Out, The Quiet Place and Kidnap. By making this page, we will be targeting audiences worldwide. In 2017, 2.46 billion people in the world used social media (Statista ,2019) and 86% of these users are 18 to 30 years old.  By making a mark on this generation people will follow the movies pages where they will get more details on the upcoming film while being able to send it to friends and family. To distribute our film we will distribute through theaters and utilize streaming through Youtube Movies, Netflix and Amazon Prime. Distributing our film will attract the younger generation because this generation likes to watch movies at the comfort of their home or driving in the car during a road trip.  This distribution also involve Blue-Ray as our movie will be played in high quality, faster and enhanced network and internet.

Creative Critical Reflection Draft 1

We utilized the conventions such as costumes, shots, font and incidental music. In our film we used costumes such as in style fashionable clothing when fitting the characters Ally, Ashley, and Sarah because their characters were popular teenage girls that lived in the area. When focusing on Patty's costume we wanted to portray her character as an antagonist by having her dress in black clothing and put darker makeup under her eyes. This showed a clear difference in lifestyles between Patty and Ally. This also reflected the jealously Patty has for Ally and her best friends because they have nicer and fashionable things that Patty does not have. Ally's outfit included fashionable jeans and a flowy pink shirt, her friends Ashley and Sarah wore similar outfits like jeans and a nice shirt. The outfits all were similar and made Patty's outfit stand out more than theirs because hers was dull and not colorful. In the movie, Hush when focusing on her costume you can tell she is wearing casual in style clothing and when evaluating the antagonist in the film he is wearing darker clothing to indicate a more creepy effect. For our shots,  the establishing shot shows the road that both houses are located on. In this shot you can see both Ally and Patty's houses. This shot is important when utilizing the social classes of both Patty and Ally due to house size and the outside appearance of the houses, it also reflects back on jealousy again when it comes to Patty's feelings toward Ally. The two thirds shot was captured of Patty walking in front of her house picking flowers. This shot showed Patty toward the right half of the frame allowing her house to take up much of the shot to show the audience a close up of Patty's current living situation and where she lives which is much different when comparing to Ally's. The mid- shot of Patty walking in Ally's backyard when she was not home shows how Patty is about to go into her house without permission because no one is home and it leads in to her opening the sliding class door. The font we used in the beginning of the film for opening credits was called "DIN Alternate Bold" and it was used to represent Ally's life. The font is slick and formal which compliments Ally's lifestyle. We choose this font due to how well it replicated her character in this film. For incidental music, we used this music in the creepy scary scenes of our film or the scenes where you did not know what to expect next. This music was also used in Get Out and The Quiet Place. These films used the incidental music the same was we tried to portray it in our film. We used this music in the scenes of Patty broke into Ally's house and when she went through her belongings.
When reflecting on issues in social classes and relating that to our film we understood this issue is a real life thing. We know girls in high school that form clicks and "groups". There is also the people that strive to be in one of these groups and that is when jealousy comes into the picture. There is higher and lower classes especially in the school system. The higher classes are looked up upon and lower look down upon as they are stereotyped this way. Ally looks at Patty in a bad way and Patty wants to be Ally and have her life. However, Patty psychologically was obsessed with Ally and took matters too far by messing with her life. When looking at social classes many groups are diversified and this can cause personal problems. When looking at films with female lead roles, the films we looked at such as Sinister and Get Out used males for leading roles. In our film, we used not only a female for a leading role but used a whole female cast in our film. This eliminated gender discrimination when using mainly males in films.

Third Quarter Final Submission

Our Third Quarter Final Submission with revisions

Revision- Scout Locations

On February 21, Meredith the actress of Patty noticed the house neighboring hers was knocked down, which was Patty's house in our film The Neighbor. To revise Patty's house, we decided to use the house across from Meredith's because it is old, run down and creepy. By doing this, we did not have to change our shots we used for the movie but adjust them very subtly. The establishing shot in the beginning started at Patty's house and moved to Ally's house.

Distribution Plan

We would like to distribute our movie through movie theaters, we will utilize streaming through Netflix, iTunes, YouTube Movies, and Amazon Prime. By streaming our film The Neighbor, more younger people in younger generations like our target audience will be attracted to the film. Also, many people especially the younger generation prefer streaming because people like to watch movies at the comfort of their home or possibly on the go while driving in a car. Our films distribution plan will also include Blue-Ray as our movie will be played in high quality, faster and enhanced network and internet. Blue-Ray is a great resource since it gives the audience options when wanting to watch our film in better quality. Better quality insures the film will have high resolution scenes and this exemplifies the scary or creepy scenes when something that is going to happen.

Distribution Research- Quiet Place

A Quiet Place utilizes both Amazon Prime and Blu-Ray DVD as digital distribution plans to get viewers to watch their movie. Viewers can find the movie A Quiet Place on Amazon Prime and on Blue Ray DVD which are both exceptional ideas to use. These two specific types of digital distribution are very beneficial towards getting their certain target audience to watch their movie. Many people, in this day in age use Amazon Prime video which allows users to watch, buy and rent movies for free if they have the membership. If not, people can watch a trailer and rent or buy for a cheap reasonable price. Blu-ray DVD is popular for ages 14-23 and allows people to watch movies in great quality and experience when watching a movie.

Distribution Research- Get out

Get out has a variety of digital distribution they decided to utilize. Viewers can find the movie Get out on places such as Amazon Prime and on Blu-ray DVD. These two specific types of digital distribution are very beneficial towards getting their target audience to watch their movie. Many people in this generation, use Amazon Prime Video which lets users to watch and buys or renting it for a very reasonable price. Blu-ray DVD is another efficient way of promoting a movie and to attract viewers to watch. Blu-ray is very popular for ages of 14-23 and allows people to watch movies in a high resolution and quality to create a good experience of watching a movie.

Distribution Post

The traditional distribution of film includes VOD, streaming, downloads, DVD and Blu-ray. These models have benefited film for generations. Alternative distribution can bring additional revenue streams to these films from viewers that might not have gone to a theater to see the film.
Although large budget films are more likely to draw attendance to theaters. These films still need traditional distribution models through theaters to maximize profits off ticket sales worldwide.
With our film The Neighbor, we are going to distributed our film by downloads, Blu-ray, amazon prime and Netflix. After 3 months of our film being played in theaters then we will distribute out to Netflix and Amazon. Blu- ray will make it easier for someone to get an individual film. And downloads will be accessible worldwide online.

Marketing Plan

Instagram: Using an Instagram account to advertise our film was a good decision. Instagram is a very popular social media app and brings in a large audience. In 2015, there were around 77.6 million active profiles in the United States (Statistic), this data supports the idea that Instagram is an amazing place to gain attention on something. My group and I made an Instagram page specific to our movie 'The Neighbor' and we edited multiple photos in a collage and posted 5 posts. We made the account public so it broadens our audience. Social Media attracts the younger generation and the younger generation is adapted to sharing posts through retweets, shares and republishes so it spreads around.

Billboards: By using billboard, The Neighbor is advertising to everyone since most people drive and ones who cant don't usually take some other type of transportation which means they are most likely  they would see it. The billboard would advertise a scene in our film with a quote that would attract attention. 

Interviews: The interviewers done by the characters of our film were Patty who was played by Meredith and Ally who was played by Rachel. This advertises the upcoming movie by answering questions about the film process and the general plot to promote it.  By watching interviews for the film, it gives you an insight on the characters personalities and may attract some to the film.

Target Audience Research: Kidnap

Our target audience for "The Neighbor" is advertised to people within the age range of 14-23 that live in the United States as it aims toward teenagers and college students. The gender of our film is more specifically directed to females since the characters in The Neighbor are females. The income level of our target audience is directed toward middle to higher class people, in the movie Ally is rich and lives in a nice house which relates to middle to upper class people.


Billboard: By using billboard, Kidnap is advertising to everyone since most people drive and the ones who don't take some means of transportation which enable everyone to see the board. Also, by placing the famous and gorgeous Halle Berry on the side of the billboard, her fans and people who think she is attractive are more likely to watch this movie. The large KIDNAP on the billboard can interest people and make them want to watch because abductions are a big problem in the United States since an on average 90,000 people are missing at any time (Kepple, Epstein, Grisham 2014).

Social Media Pages: By making social media pages for Kidnap, they are marketing to a younger audience since in 2017, 2.46 billon people in the world used social media (Statista, 2019) and 86% of these users are 18 to 30 years old (Cohen 2017). By marketing their mark on the younger generation, the younger people will follow the movies page to get more details on it, send to friends and retweet and post it.

Interview: At the premiere of Kidnap in South Florida, Halle Berry promotes the movie by telling the people watching why kidnapping is a major problem and how this movie shows there are sick people who will kidnap you children for no reason. After watching this snippet of Berry, one may be interested with her reaction on this issue and watch the movie to see what happens.

Halle Berry Shoutout movie: Halle Berry is shouting out the movie Kidnap, but also women. By calling mothers "protectors and fighters" she is breaking down the gender roles of the usual man saves the day. Because usually men are known for protecting people and their family but in this situation a women is protecting her son, even if it means death. This will attract the attention of women and men to see what role Berry plays in this film.

The Neighbor and Kidnap are similar as both have the same genre, thriller and both movies roles are given to women. Also, in our film, Sarah gets kidnapped just like Halle Berry's characters son does in Kidnap. To improve the marketing of The Neighbor, we will use social media tactics just like Halle Berry's post, we would do something similar and promote the film through our main characters Instagram. By using social media tactics, we will attract a younger crowd as 86% of the people on social media are 18-30 (Cohen 2017). Also, by shouting out our film through the main characters many of her girl fans and followers will want to see it as in her caption she mentions women can do anything.

Target Audience Research: A Quiet Place

Our target audience for "The Neighbor" is advertised to people within the age range of 14-23 that live in the United States as it aims toward teenagers and college students. The gender of our film is more specifically directed to females since the characters in The Neighbor are females. The income level of our target audience is directed toward middle to higher class people, in the movie Ally is rich and lives in a nice house which relates to middle to upper class people.


Billboards: By using billboards, A Quiet Place is advertising to everyone since most people drive and ones who can't usually take some kind of transportation meaning most likely they would see it. Also , the billboard shows a picture of Emily Blunt with a scared glance on her face with the words "IF THEY HEAR YOU THEY HUNT YOU" making people who drive past this interested on why she looks scared and who 'they' are which eventually makes the people want to watch the movie. By placing the famous celebrity on the billboard it will also catch the attention of her fans drawing them to want to see the upcoming movie.

Social Media Page: By making social media pages for A Quiet Place, they are marketing to a younger audience since in 2017, 2.46 billion people in the world used social media (Statista 2019) and 86% of these users are 18 to 30 years old (Cohen 2017). By making their mark on the younger generation, they follow the movies page to get more details and upcoming information on it which then they can send to their friends or retweet it.

Television interviews: Ellen is a television personality who brings people in with her funny celebrity interviews and game shows. According to Wikipedia, there are over 4.2 million people watching each of her episodes in 2018. By marketing A Quiet Place through Ellen, that audience will be able to see that John Krasinski and Emily Blunt are in a new thriller movie and since Ellen is mentioning the film it may draw in the audience to watch it in theaters.

Actors Shoutout film: Many know John Krasinski as Jim from the hilarious television series, The Office. Because of his major role of playing Jim and his roles in other shows like Jack Ryan, John Krasinski has gained up to 2.1 million followers on Instagram, a social media app, and in which by shouting out his film will most likely bring in more audience.

After researching A Quiet Place, our films genres are the same, thriller/ horror. Also, by using social media to advertise to the younger generation, we have the same audience as we both are advertising to younger people. One marketing technique I would use that they did was putting up billboards with the film on it.  I would also love to use social media tactics to market to my target audience, 14-23 year olds, since it is proven that more young people use social media than older people.

Target Audience Research: Get Out

Our target audience for "The Neighbor" is advertised to people within the age range of 14-23 that live in the United States as it aims toward teenagers and college students. The gender of our film is more specifically directed to females since the characters in The Neighbor are females. The income level of our target audience is directed toward middle to higher class people, in the movie Ally is rich and lives in a nice house which relates to middle to upper class people.


Billboard: By using billboard, the film Get Out is marketing to everyone since most people drive cars around. "Do you belong in the Neighborhood?" by asking this question in large words, the movie is drawing to middle and upper class people with their income live in nice neighborhoods like this one in the billboard. By saying "GET OUT" to the movie marketing team is attempting to make the viewer question on why they need to get out of the neighborhood eventually tempting them to watch the movie.

Social Media Page: By making social media pages for Get Out, they are marketing to a younger audience since in 2017, 2.46 billion pages in the world used social media (Statista 2019) and 86% of these users are 18 to 30 years old (Cohen 2017). By making their market toward a younger generation, the younger people will follow the movies page to get more details on it, send it to their friends or retweet the movies pictures onto their feed.

Famous Celebrities: By having Soulja Boy, Sasha Banks, and Rudy Mancuso shout out Get out, they are advertising their movie to a younger crowd as younger people use twitter and are familiar with these famous people. Since these celebrities are supporting the film, more people will want to watch it as they trust the opinions of the famous people and will end up watching the movie to see what all the excitement is about.

Interviews: The interviewers done by the characters of Get Out advertise the upcoming movie by answering questions about the process filming it, the general message of the movie and playing creative games to promote it. By watching the interviewers done by the Get Out cast, the viewers psychological horror film with an originally different plot than other horror films usually would have. Also, the viewers might like the actors personality.




The Neighbor and Get Out relate as both films have a thriller genre and they are advertising to a younger crowd. Get Out was a very successful movie as they used good social media tactics and interviews. To make the film as similar as Get Out, I will use social media tactics just like they did to inform their audience about the film. I will also set up interviews with the main characters of The Neighbor to entertain people with the new film. In hope the characters in the interview will leave a good impression on the viewers persuading them to watch the film.

Revisions- Source Music

After reviewing our classmates comments on our film, some constructive criticism comments pointed out that our source music at the beginning of the film cut out abruptly. The song playing from the laptop is called "Payphone" by Maroon 5 and in the scene Ashley is talking to Ally but Sarah there friend calls and the music stops suddenly. To fix this, we are going to film the scene by showing Ally lower the music on the laptop and this way the music is not suddenly stopping when the facetime call is coming in.

Revisions- Sound

After reviewing some of our feedback comments our classmates informed us that the sound levels of our dialogue in multiple scenes were hard to hear. For example, during the bedroom scene of Ally and Ashley waking up the next morning the dialogue is quiet and since they are laying down it made the dialogue more muffled and hard to hear. In order to change this we are going to move the camera closer to the characters and make them talk louder, this way our audience can see the scene as well as hear the scene more. By fixing this scene and some other scenes with the same issue it will positively benefit our film and attract more audience.

Revision- Wardrobe

We are changing the choice of costumes with the character Patty. After reviewing our feedback we made revisions on Patty's wardrobe. With these revisions we will add more to her character by adding more to her costume to create a creepy thriller effect. Originally the outfit she was wearing was a grey t-shirt and green leggings and it did not depict the films genre. In a way the outfit she was wearing during the film fit in with the other characters more than make a contrast between them. My group and I are making Patty's outfit more dark, by including a black shirt and black leggings. We will also add makeup to Patty face by using darker shades of eye shadow under the eyes to bring out the character more.

Feedback and Revisions

After reviewing feedback from our class we got many positive comments on how our creepy effect worked when using Meredith as Patty in our film. Another comment complimented our plot and how it was easy to understand. Also, the audience praised us for our various camera shots and angles presented in multiple scenes in the thriller. Our use of lighting and music helped create a scary feeling when we dimmed the lights or used dark hallways and night time scenes while adding in suspenseful music in these scenes. Comments were positive on our setting and choice of houses to create the differences between our characters lives.

After going through our constructive criticism, the music in the beginning was frequently commented on how abruptly it stopped which confused many people in our class.  Making transitions more smoothly and less suddenly. Another suggestion we got was to add to Meredith's character Patty costume to make her more creepy and add more affect to the movie. We also got comments on our dialogue on the conversations that are far apart from the camera and to improve our sound with that.


Revisions-
Fix dialogue in far away scenes, speak louder and speak toward the camera. Change Meredith's (Patty's) costume, make her clothes dirty or pick an old worn out wardrobe as well as put makeup on that makes a better creepy effect for the film. The music in the beginning will be fixed by lowering the music slowly while the Facetime call comes in  when music is still playing.

Use of Conventions

How does your product use or challenge conventions of your genre?

The conventions of our film The Neighbor are shown when establishing the setting of a particular house that is considered as creepy due to its run down, old and dirty characteristics. This gives the audience the feel of a thriller type film. In this film we used a creepy high pitched sound to intensify the situation and add suspense. My group and I mixed in darker clips when our stalker character, Patty came into the scene such as when she was sneaking into the house or creeping up on Sarah and grabbing her. The dark setting compliments the characters personality.




How does it represent social groups or issues?

In our film The Neighbor social groups and issues are considered. When looking at class we distinctively separated the high rich group of girls living in a nice modern house from a not so popular girl living in a run down abandoned like house. This draws attention to the fact that class and money are mixed in with the film. Money was used to break down the relationship between Patty and Ally because Ally had everything of a perfect teenager and Patty lacked that. In the film, social classes were justified with Ally living in a huge house having everything obviously hurt her in the long run when her life began to be threatened by her "stalker". Another representation of social groups was that this film was centered around all females in the same age category. Trying to provide the point that girls this age are all different in maturity levels and how they can act in situations. Drama and rumors are a big part of the girls lives in this film.