Critical Reflection

    My products are about the issues of having to deal with a heartbreak or loss of some sort. Mostly everyone has come to know loss or heartbreak, whether it’s a romantic relationship or even just parental or platonic. Everyone has experienced this pain. My short film helps represent those facing those feelings and how it may look like going through emotions. My short film shows a girl facing heartbreak and going through the 5 stages to help cope through the pain or grief. It may help many feels less alone and feel represented. Each stage of heartbreak can represent the emotional reactions and experience that individuals within social groups or in general may go through as they come to terms with the loss or a challenge at hand. My products can also help represent those dealing with mental illness that sound rare to some, such as depression or anxiety. For example, if an individual is going through a period of depression, they may experience similar emotions and thought patterns as those going through the depression stage of grief. This short film can help represent those who are dealing with issues of divorce, change, personal struggles, and even social issues having to do with sexism or inequality. It helps bring to the eye that everyone goes through this period of pain and grief but eventually that will end. We must come to terms and let go. My product can represent families, communities, and cultures. Families that have gone through a significant life change and are trying to manage their way through, communities dealing with natural disasters to mass shootings experiencing these emotions, and cultures experiencing a cultural shift coping with this journey to preserve their heritage all face the 5 stages to cope through the pain and emotional journey.

    To create the sense of branding I decided that everything must be professional and organized. To do this I created a Gmail to create everything else having to do from social media management to reinforcing the marketing of our production. All the social media including YouTube were created with this email. Everyone who worked on the production has the film email and password. Additionally, the physical aspect or eye-appealing branding must remain the same. The theme throughout the social media to the postcard and website have the same pictures and font. It is the calming effect of the beach with the main character in it. The font is “relaxed” to help bring the last stage in with the sensation of acceptance. The color scheme is also trying to keep the catharsis. The color schemes are keeping up with neutral colors like Beige and pastel colors. It is to help everything seem pleasing and calming, which is the arising feeling of the ending in the production of the short film. Additionally, to create this sense of “branding”, everything created to brand the short film is all under the same name “TheStagesFilm”. Except, for twitter which has an extra “e” after “The”. Keeping this unison helps create that true sensation of “branding”. It also helps the short film be recognized and easier to find if searched. All the elements of the postcard to the website and social media have created and embodied this true branding identity to help reach the audience in a multifaceted way.

    My products, including a short film about the five stages of heartbreak, can engage with the audience in a number of ways. One of the most dynamic ways in which the short film engages with the audience is by evoking strong emotions. By using visual storytelling and music, the film creates an immersive experience that makes the audience feel as if they are going through the stages of heartbreak alongside the main character. Also, the short film engages with the audience by allowing them to identify with the character and their experience. The film explores universal themes of loss and change that may resonate with the audience regardless of their personal backgrounds. Another way my product engages the audience is by fostering empathy and understanding. By showing the emotional journey of the characters and their struggles, the short film develops a deeper appreciation for the challenges that individuals go through when dealing with loss. Finally, it engages the audience by encouraging introspection. The film evokes viewers to think about their own experiences of heartbreak and how they have dealt with change in their own lives. This short film helps engage with the audience in an immersive way. This short film is not only relatable to the lives of many, but it also leads many to look within and maybe heal what pain they have been dealing with. It may let many know that they are truly not alone in the emotional roller-coaster of loss and change. It grasps their attention to help communicate with oneself.

    My product challenges conventions. This is because it is a film about heartbreak and the true emotions of dealing with that pain. Throughout our lives the media has shown relationships to be perfect or so what we know as “Happily ever after”. This has set false expectations to many younger aged people and has created this false security in having a relationship. Many think it does not come with trials or heartbreaks. It almost sugar coats how relationships should look to many people and sets the bar to unreachable heights that many try to strive for, causing them to hurt their relationship for those expectations. My short film challenges this convention of a perfect relationship and shows the reality and grief of relationships and how we must come to terms with ourselves and let go to reach our full potential. And to let others back in after some have hurt us. It releases those younger generations from a set of false expectations to the reality that some relationships are not perfect, and we will face grief. Yet, we will learn to be okay with that loss and change. The film is meant to challenge that stereotypical way of viewing relationships as never ending and lasting. It shows that sometimes for the right reasons the relationship needs to come to an end. And how we deal with those emotions. Just as the main character deals with those emotions the audience follows her along her journey of self-discovery and her understanding of these emotions she is facing.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TXQ70eLKcMGgg_8CxIzM5RI-bSaEJoOeIA00_8sXeLo/edit?usp=sharing