Critical Reflection

In the project Wake Up, the fear of growing up is explored through the lens of three teenage girls in their senior year of high school. They create a vlog series called “Wake Up” to document their last year together as an attempt to manage the fear. The project highlights the strength of friendship, the internal struggles that adolescents face, and the preciousness of time.

                                     

This project represents young adults who are at the brink of adulthood and are struggling with the idea of leaving their childhood behind. Although the target audience is females ages 16-20 who enjoy coming-of-age films and utilize social media platforms such as Instagram, this film is also relatable to older audiences who wish to reminisce on their youth. The two trailers provide a different perspective on the idea of growing up, highlighting the bittersweet nature of the process. Trailer 1 features upbeat music towards the end, romanticizing the lives of the three girls while portraying the creation of their vlog series, while Trailer 2 features more solemn music in the end, focusing on the internal struggle that the character Blake is experiencing. This juxtaposition is supposed to represent how there are feelings of excitement and fear at the same time.

                 

                 

Although the two trailers contrast each other, they are both effective at engaging with the audience. Featured in both trailers, the protagonists are the same age and gender as the target audience, making the film more relatable. The second trailer directly references the audience with phrases like “We all just want to feel secure” and “Will you embrace the fear or let it consume you? making the audience feel personally involved with the trailer. In both trailers, one can hear the internal thoughts of Blake (the main character), establishing an intimate connection between the viewer and the character. As for the print component, other coming-of-age film posters were referenced during the creation of the Wake Up thumbnails, such as 10 Things I Hate about You and The Edge of Seventeen. These were two good examples, as they were specifically thumbnails for streaming services. The four thumbnails that were created represent different aspects of the film. The first two represent the romanticized and aesthetic side of the film, attempting to attract an audience that enjoys upbeat and fun films. The third one represents the intimate part of the film that covers the internal struggles that Blake is experiencing, meant to attract audiences who enjoy intimate and slower movies. Finally, the last one represents the documentation element of the film and how the characters are determined to capture their last moments together, which is meant to intrigue audiences who enjoy creative and mysterious films, as this thumbnail does not give away a lot of information about the characters or the genre.                                                                      

              

           

                        


The social media component of the project is arguably the most engaging part of the project, as the whole point of marketing a film on social media is to engage with the target audience. The Wake Up social media page utilized tactics such as: short fictional vlogs that are supposed to be the vlogs that the girls make in the movie, a Q&A series that allows the audience to directly engage with the director and producer of the film, a “sneak peak into Blake’s diary” or a scrapbook looking graphic design meant to highlight the documentation aspect of the film while making audiences feel special, behind the scenes pictures, stop motion like videos with silly captions, a countdown (Wake up in 5…4…3.. etc.) to build anticipation and introduce the first vlog, and pictures and clips from the film, to engage with the target audience.

          

As well as engaging with the audience, all components of Wake Up feel connected in some way, creating a sense of “branding” for the project. In all parts of the components, the same coloration and font are used in all of the pictures, videos, teasers, trailers, and posters, making them feel intertwined. Additionally, the importance of the vlogs in the trailers is reflected in the social media and the print component through the social media’s fake vlogs and the thumbnail that represents filming and documentation. A big inspiration for the Wake Up account was the Instagram account for the film Lady Bird. The social media crew did an excellent job at creating a sense of unity and branding with the marketing and the film, and they have very interactive content, which inspired some of the posts. Using this account as inspiration helped the Wake Up page form and create its brand with bright colors, the same font, and vlogs. One thing that could’ve been incorporated into the branding but wasn't because of time constraints and logistic issues is more behind-the-scenes content and perhaps even an interview with the director and actors of the film. This would add to the other things in the marketing that make the audience feel special and personally included in the film.

                           

After discussing a lot of the different aspects of Wake Up, it is important to note that extensive research was done beforehand to inform production and post-production choices. For example, before creating a storyboard or plot outline, coming-of-age movies and their genre conventions were researched and analyzed, which informed the creation of the story and the plot. Then, after the plot was created, specific trailers were researched. Perks of Being a Wallflower was a production that influenced a lot of the choices made in Wake up such as the voice overs in the trailer, the text that speaks directly to the audience in the second trailer, the transition between different songs in the trailer rather than just one song, the shot where Quinn has her head out the window, and the overall message of living in the moment and looking around. Following the trailers, different print posters were researched, and the choice was made to do a streaming release, as many successful coming-of-age films did this, such as To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and Booksmart. Streaming release was also a good option because the thumbnails would be able to be chosen based on the audience member and their preferences. Lastly, the social media component was researched, and films such as Missing and Unfriended were used as inspiration because even though they aren’t coming-of-age films, they do a good job of combining fictional online content (the vlogs in my project’s case) with marketing for the film. As mentioned before, Lady Bird was a coming-of-age film that also inspired some of the social media branding and decisions, such as the stop motion-like videos, short clips from the film that reveal small details, and having a continuous aesthetic throughout the Instagram page.

                   

Wake Up is a film about connection, awareness, scarcity, and appreciation. Overall, this project was challenging but rewarding. Making something that one feels a personal connection to is a gift and should not be taken for granted. Just like time.

PROJECT

Hey! Here are the links to my portfolio project, Wake Up!! Hope you enjoy it!!

Trailers: HERE

Print Component: HERE

Social Media Component: HERE

This project was so fun to make, and I am so happy that I get to share it with everyone. I hope this project makes you appreciate things more and that it has an impact on people who watch it. Whatever impact means. Next, I will upload my critical reflection.

final reflective thoughts

Hey!! This is really bittersweet. I loved writing blogs this year. Creating something that was genuinely important and meaningful to me made the blog writing experience so much better and more enjoyable. I didn't mind it last year but didn't love it. I have improved so much in all aspects of research, planning, production, and post-production, and I am genuinely very proud of my project and the growth I've undergone. This project was stressful at times when I didn't know if I would be able to pull it together, but everything worked out in the end. I am really happy that I got to tell a story that is personal to me, and I am also really grateful that I got to do it alongside three of my closest friends.

Being able to create this project while experiencing the emotions that I was trying to portray on screen is crazy. This almost served as an outlet for me to remind myself that fears can be dealt with and overcome, and I need to wake up and appreciate things more. My next two blogs will be the link to my project components and my creative reflection. It has been such a privilege to take this class and be enlightened by its content and learning experiences. Aice Media will always have a special place in my heart.

end/reflection

Hey, so today I finished my trailers and my social media. YAYAYAYAYA! I feel a big weight off my shoulders, and now all I have to do is write my critical reflection. Before I do so, though, I want to explain how I edited the end of my second trailer with the fire. So basically, I searched it up, and I found a YouTube tutorial that explained how to change the opacity of an image. With that, I overlapped both images and faded the fire into the image using the "fade in" transition. Here it is:

I also did a Q&A on my Instagram. I made scrapbook arrangements that are supposed to look like a diary, and I made them as if they were in Blake's diary as an interactive thing with my followers. I captioned the post "A glimpse inside Blake's diary." I also uploaded my trailers and posted some of my thumbnails. With all of my components done, it is time for me to write my critical reflection. I wrote a critical reflection for my midterm grade, so I'm going to reference that really quick before I start writing this one. I also took notes in December about the critical reflection, so I'm going to find those as well.

I referenced my notes and realized that in my planning, I was missing a few things that I needed to include, like specific productions I viewed and ways I could've developed my brand better, so I added that to my Google document. I had forgotten a lot of the things that I had to do, like including multimedia in my reflection and that it was 800-1000 words so I'm glad I referenced these handy dandy notes!! 

Now I will write away and update you later!!

Hey, so it is Sunday (the next day). I am 500 words into my essay, but it is 10:39 PM, and I am really tired. I have until Wednesday to finish my critical reflection, so I will be okay. Again, I already planned out my whole essay, so I should be able to finish the rest very easily. See you soon for my last few blog posts!! (why am I sad)

so close

Hey, I'm having writer's block, but for editing because of the audio. Audio is so important, and I have discussed this before on my blog. I am just having trouble finding music that fits my trailer. So far, I used a copyright-free bell sound effect from Youtube to mimic the school bell and establish the setting, and I found a good song on Artlist to use for the very beginning but I am having trouble figuring out the rest. I am going to update you later. So I filmed the fire shot today. My dad has a blowtorch, and I had some paper bags, so (under adult supervision) I put paper bags in my dad's barbecue, and I lit it on fire with the blow torch. Here is a picture of me doing so:

I don't know how but I am going to find a way to overlap this over the shot of Blake crying but we’ll figure it out.

I FINISHED MY FIRST TRAILER YAY!!! After an hour of searching on Artlist, I found a song called “Himalaya” by Modern Aquatic (it’s copyright free) and “Birthday” by Mika Sade (also copyright free) and I edited the songs by fading different parts of each song together to make the music sound cohesive  and match the visuals. I started editing my second trailer and it’s going well. I plan to finish my second trailer today and write my critical reflection tomorrow.  Today and tomorrow I want to finish posting all of my social media content, and then that’s a wrap! I am thinking of doing a Q&A on my Instagram Story and answer some questions about my film to build anticipation. I am thinking of making another teaser for my Instagram, and adding some more pictures and then posting my trailers. I will see you soon!!

editing

Hey! So I edited my first trailer visually, and I started to edit the beginning with audio, and I like how it is turning out. I’ve been using CapCut to edit because I feel the most comfortable with that software. Here are some pictures from my editing: 

I've filmed all of my remaining shots except the one with fire, which I am filming today, and one of Bea in a graduation gown, which I am doing tomorrow. Since I didn't have those shots while editing, I just used a random clip to fill it in and estimated the amount of time the shot would last. 

Besides editing, I also revised my print component. While speaking to my teacher about the component, I realized that most streaming services don't include a tagline in their thumbnail, so I decided to take that out of the thumbnail, and here is my revised print component:

I feel like now these four are more realistic and fit the conventions of a streaming service way better. I also really like how the four thumbnails are so different from each other and show a different aspect of the movie in each one. It's also important to note that streaming services pick which thumbnail to use based on their audience member, or in other words, they cater each thumbnail to fit the likes of the audience. I think the first two thumbnails would be used to cater to an audience who likes upbeat movies, especially coming-of-age films, and the last two would be used to cater to an audience who likes more personal and intimate movies. The four provide a good representation of the film and can be used to capture a range of audience members. 

Anyways, I am going to keep editing to have everything done by this Sunday. See you soon!