CCR what??

 So a huge part of the project is our CCR which is a creative critical reflection and I am worried about it. We basically need to create two creative ways to reflect on our project. In those two ways, we have to answer these questions

• How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
• How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
• How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
• How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

So I've been listening to what other people are doing and they all sound really good, like someone is reading it like a bedtime story, someone is doing it like an interview. So I think for one of them I'm gonna do a phone call, where I split the screen and have me talking to myself.  For this idea, I think im going to answer the last two questions.

For my other one where it answers the question, I am going to do it like an interview from a reality TV show. The idea is that I'm surrounded by people who are competing against my film opening and we have lots of drama. I think I could make this really fun because I am a huge fan of reality competition shows. 

before I actually script the questions and answers I'm going to just answer them as a question and not add any "creative" aspect to it which will hopefully make both CCR's easier since I know what my answers are to each question.

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

My film opening titled Anxious Melodies challenges conventions of the coming of age films. Coming-of-age movies that focus on teenagers focus a lot of teens finding love, climbing the social hierarchy but my film focuses on a part of a teen's life that doesn't get shown. From what we learned this year lots of shows and films tend to steer away from mental health topics, especially with teenagers. Mental health in teenagers gets labeled as a sensitive topic that most films think is too deep to talk about. Although in my film the main character Olivia does find her best friend which some coming-of-age movies also do it's more than her finding a friend, it's about her getting into a better place mentally. It's all about the deep relationships you can form over a similar interest, it's about how being around the right people helps you become who you really want to be. I think it represents a lot of teenagers who struggle with anxiety, depression, and just any life problems, being surrounded by movies about finding the perfect boyfriend or getting popular doesn't accurately represent current teens. The reason I wanted to stay away from the cringy stereotypical coming of age is because I relate to the story, the film is loosely based on my life and what I struggle with. I've seen movies about mental health but they aren't popular and not made enough, showing people what it feels like to be a real teenager has a bigger effect than the typical teen movie. By representing this group of people it shows teens that it's ok to struggle with mental health and that it happens to a lot of people, it even helps other people understand the situations some people are in. 

On the other hand, the film does follow the conventions of most psychological fiction movies where we get to connect to the characters and understand what they feel. I think the psychological fiction genre does a great job of depicting mental health issues and that is why I wanted to make one. By understanding the character you form a connection and you almost feel the way they feel and I wanted to do that to make people understand mental health better.

How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

My film's target audience is teenagers, with the combination of a coming-of-age film and a physiological fiction the film would interest teens and young adults.  Since the film revolves around the life of a teenage girl and her issues the target audio will most likely be teenage girls but it's not restricted to that. People who would watch this film opening are most likely aware of mental health problems and may even struggle with it, when watching they can relate and find comfort that things can get better. When beginning to work on the film opening I thought of what I watched and why I appealed to psychological fiction coming-of-age movies. It was because of the connections, I loved how the character connected deeply with one person who helped them with what they struggled with and that's what I did in my story because I wanted the audience to see how people can change you. When it comes to distributing my film I thought about it a lot. Since this is my first ever film I would distribute it on platforms that are easily accessible by lots of people for me to reach as many people as possible which will help me grow as a filmmaker. I would use platforms like YouTube and websites made for other amateur filmmakers; I would also submit it to competitions and film festivals for it to get recognized and gain more viewers.

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

My skills have developed through the year in general. Throughout the year we have been learning 

all types of different camera movements, editing techniques, mise-en-scene, and audio elements that I have never known of, I have learned through the project to develop meaning in what I do. The whole project itself is about what I learned, how meaning has to be deeper than just because it looks pretty and that is exactly why I chose this genre. By doing a story with deep meaning I was able to dive deep into my filming choices and the music especially. Since the film focuses a lot on how music makes one feel I got to understand the power of audio through my film, when editing I realized that I couldn't just add any song over this dramatic scene, it needed to relate and have a connection. Throughout the film opening, I learned to be open to new ideas, to try new things I had never thought of, and to understand why I am doing this and how other people will feel when watching my film.

How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware, and online – in this project?

Throughout the project integrating technologies was one of the biggest parts of it, without all these tools I wouldn't have been able to do the film at all. The biggest software I used was Premiere Pro where I edited the entire film opening, I'm familiar with the way it works and I even learned new things while making my opening. Some other software I used was Celtx which is where I wrote my script, I really used every tool this website had to offer and it was a great tool to have now forever, i have never written a script, and finding this website made the whole writing process a lot easier. Overall the biggest software I used is the one and only Blogger.com this place has been a dream and a nightmare combined, I've experienced every high and low of my project here and I am so glad I have. I think blogging the process of making this has helped me look back and see what I first imagined come to life. Hardware was provided by cbtv thanks to them I was able to use a T7i camera that made the process super easy since I am familiar with it, i also used phone lavs when recording all audio. To make my shots stable I made sure to also have a tripod. Online tools were super useful when looking for music, i used Spotify to search for an artist and actually download the songs I needed. I also used YouTube when searching for sound effects even thought I only used one throughout the film.

After answering all the questions I am now going to use that to help me while scripting my CCR's.