Critical Reflection

     COMPUTER FUNERAL, at its core, strives to highlight and reflect on one major issue that’s prevalent in modern times: an overdependence on technology in its various forms. When originally writing the concept script to get this idea across, I had wanted to use a generational divide between the parents and children of the Babbage family to serve as another parallel issue to draw from when deriving a conflict between these characters, such as having Rebecca and her father differ politically as a result of their ages and their respective reliance on technology for information. However, I later pivoted to wanting to explore the fractured relationships between siblings caused by technology, resulting in the final cut where the cast are all siblings, rather than a whole family unit. 

With these characters, I wanted to represent different types of demographics that suffer from these chronic addictions to technology, and I wound up choosing to focus on politics, gaming, and social media, since those are some of the largest attractors for tech addicts. Each of the characters use technology as a means to cope with a lack of something that they need to function: David needs to be knowledgeable, Peter needs companionship, and Rebecca needs validation and attention. All of these voids have been filled by the use of technology, whether it be with news sites, gaming, or social media, causing each of these characters to form an unhealthy addiction to technology when these voids could be filled by interacting and depending on each other rather than computers, mirroring a lot of modern day families where each family member keeps to themselves and lacks connections with others, which was my intent with this short film.

I kept all of the ages fairly vague, but it's clear to audiences that these siblings are meant to be younger generations, akin to the Millennials and Gen Zers of our time. This is a conscious decision, because its more likely that the audience for this short film is going to be around the same age as the characters portrayed in the film, ranging anywhere between 16 to 25 years old. Both the characters in the film and target audiences have grown up with this technology, and it has since filled many roles in their lives that many don’t realize, and may have replaced relationships with other people with technology instead of their fellow people. It’s likely that most audiences of these ages will relate to David’s political radicalism, Peter’s loneliness, or Rebecca’s thirst for attention online, and I hope that these recognitions of themselves within the characters will help audiences identify their own over reliance on technology, allowing them to free themselves from these unknown addictions.

The social media campaign for COMPUTER FUNERAL is also meant to further attract these age demographics as an audience, using Twitter, one of the most popular social media apps for this age range, to promote the film. Upon learning that about 52% of Tweets in 2020 came from users in Gen Z, I knew that Twitter would be a phenomenal place to attract all sorts  of people to the film. In fact, Twitter may be the only social media to appeal to addicts of politics, gaming, and attention, just like the characters in the film, so I figured growing my platform on there would engage the best with my target audience.

To better appeal to these audiences, the branding across all of my project components- film, socials, and postcard- remains consistent with two major themes: the seriousness of a funeral and the lightheartedness of a comedy. These clashing aesthetics work together though lots of juxtaposition of computers and technology against somber, serious funeral visuals. For example, in my Twitter page, I had started out with more formal / funeral centered imagery, which was later followed by sillier, more comedic posts to undermine its seriousness- which represents the film pretty accurately-  a family’s attempt at conducting a serious funeral for a loved one, which is then undermined by their outbursts of anger and glaring character flaws, lightening the mood of the story.

This theme of seriousness being undercut with comedy or ridiculous conflicts extends through other parts of the short film as well- the costuming of the characters at a first glance appears to follow the traditional mourners’ garb of all-black attire, but as you watch through the film, you see the characters’ personalities bleed through these somber masks, lightening the mood, for example David being dressed nicely but wearing purple crocs, or Rebecca wearing normal black clothes instead of anything more formal. Furthermore. The sound effects of the film (whether they be the bells ringing for each character’s eulogy, or the piano music that scores the ending of the film) are meant to be serious or carrying some emotional weight, but the over-dramaticness of the SFX as well as their juxtaposition against silly and outright stupid characters undercuts the seriousness of the film. I felt that these clashes between attempts at seriousness and flashes of comedy worked best to represent what I wanted the story to be like, as well as branding the project to be more attractive to potential audiences.

It’s also worth mentioning that this contrast between sober and comedic aspects is a popular convention of most satirical pieces. As seen in satirical films like Don’t Look Up, grave scenarios are punctuated with humor in order to deliver their messages in a more palatable manner for general audiences, for example a world-ending meteor hurtling towards Earth is made funnier because of the fact that most people don’t believe in it, giving audiences an easier time digesting the intended meaning of the film through its lighthearted breaks in the face of serious matters. COMPUTER FUNERAL does this to a smaller scale, but nevertheless effectively, using the over-attachment that the characters have to their technology as a comedic lens to view the serious issue of addiction and overreliance on their computers.

In my research I had noticed that most satirical films tend to focus on one major subject that affects all of society, usually critiquing social trends, cultures, and religions, since all are loosely related to some sort of collective thinking or ideology ripe for satire. However, I didn’t feel that this story of technological overreliance fit that criteria, at least, not in any way I wanted to explore. COMPUTER FUNERAL does critique and address a major issue that affects society today, but instead of exploring how this issue impacts society or the world, it adopts a smaller scale lens, tapping into how a big issue can affect a smaller group more dramatically, in the case of the Babbage family. I chose to explore how this one overarching problem of technology addiction can manifest into differing unique problems, depending on the demographic that it affects, for example politically radicalizing a young college dropout, or fostering a social reject out of a lonely teenager.

Overall. I’m really happy with how COMPUTER FUNERAL turned out. I feel so much more satisfied having been able to focus on the writing and meaning of a story first and foremost, before worrying about how to produce it, like I had done for my AS Media film opening. I think that the resulting short film is a product of me figuring out what I want to prioritize in my creative process, and giving myself time to fully realize an idea before racing to produce it. Patience and determination played large roles in the production of this film, and the lessons I learned during this journey will be used in every creative venture I have in the future. I’m happy I took this course, and eagerly await my next chance at putting my experience making this film to the test.

Project Components

After many months of waiting, the portfolio project is done.

I will post all links and images for the video, print, and social media components below, alongside a google drive folder link with both the full short film and the postcard.

Here's the google drive link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10kwJGkZ8gmQMRbWSb4SDLDhI6CnQ0hYw?usp=share_link

VIDEO COMPONENT

You can watch the short film in two different ways:

1) This youtube link! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv1Va44qyhU&t=1s

2) The above google drive folder!

SOCIAL MEDIA COMPONENT

Check out the Twitter page for Computer Funeral at this link!   https://twitter.com/COMPFUNERALFILM 

PRINT COMPONENT

Check out the Google Drive link above for the best quality versions of these image, or simply look at these pictures of the front and back of the postcard!

That's it! It's been a pleasure working on this project (mostly, anyways) and I hope reading through this blog has provided a neat insight on how my work process goes. Thank you for reading and keeping up for the last few months, and enjoy the next (and last) post on this blog, my critical reflection essay! See you (One last time)

Editing- The Bane of My Existence

 Hello! Even though it's Monday on the last week of the project, I have yet to edit ANY of my footage at all. And for those familiar with my past works, you'll know I HATE editing.. It's proven to be the most miserable part of any video project I've worked on, and with such little time to edit, I knew I was going to have to call in the big guns.

Thank god for Ren! After having helped me shoot Computer Funeral as my talented cinematographer, they reached out to let me know they could offer some advice and help editing since they knew it makes me absolutely miserable. I'm so lucky to know such a generous kind person like them!!

Without getting too much into the whole editing process (mostly because it was such a blur of misery, even with Ren's help and company), it came out looking pretty great! Wouldn't have been possible without Ren's helping hand, and I'm pretty satisfied with the end product! Can't wait for you to see it in a few days!!

Bits & Bobs 2: Electric Bongaloo

     Hello all! I figured since I'm done with filming, all that's left is editing, finishing up the social media and postcard advertisements, and finally writing my critical reflection. So here's a little housekeeping blog post where I finish up the social media and postcard ad, since I plan on starting editing later today and finishing by Tuesday. I'll probably end up writing my C.R while editing, as a break from the monotony... So overall, a very close finish for Computer Funeral and my A level portfolio project!

Let's start with the postcard, shall we? In my last housekeeping post, I presented two prototypes for my postcard design, but also recognized certain flaws and mistakes I had made while putting them together. As soon as I posted that blog post... I wasn't as happy with either one, despite feeling so positive only minutes earlier. A conversation I had with my instructor cemented these feelings the next day, and together we broke down what was working with the designs, and what wasn't.

After some talking, we drew a very rough idea of what the new and improved design would look like! On the front, I'd have a very simple layout- only a still from the opening of the film, with the title above the characters. On the back, I'd have one half featuring the key art image I originally had as the front side, with the other half of the back being simple and direct, presenting the information clearly (as opposed to my second design for the postcard).

So now all that was left for my postcard was to, well, actually put it together! I woke up early this morning to get it done, and though it feels a little bland/simple for my taste, I do think it's a lot cleaner than my previous drafts, which look cluttered in retrospect. Take a look!

    Now that I had officially finished the postcard component of the portfolio project, I was free to make some more quick social media posts on my Twitter account (which you can check out here)

These posts are generally sillier and involve short clips of reactions rather than full sequences or edited scenes, because I realized I hadn't been leaning too much on the fact that my film is supposed to be in a comedic genre, so I decided to use these clips that I felt would appeal to comedy audiences on Twitter.

YES YES YES !!!

 Okay, NOW we're done filming, for real this time!! Today we finished up filming on the last scene for the film along with an extra scene that I forgot to film on the first day of filming. 

    So now all we have left is to update the postcard advertisement (expect a blog post on this matter soon), add a couple more posts to the social media (at time of writing there are four tweets posted, I'm aiming to have 10 Tweets on the account by the due date for this project), and the dreaded editing of the film (which will likely be done within a single day sometime next week, very last minute).

It's good to have one less thing off my plate, at least. Enjoy this silly picture from today!

Bits & Bobs

 Hey everyone! There's not a whole lot left to do after yesterday's filming session, so its mostly just the odd job here and there that I need to do in order to call this portfolio project finished. Let's go through what I got done today!

Firstly, I sent out messages to my cast and crew to find out when we're filming the ending scene. As it stands, it'll likely be sometime between Wednesday and Friday, so I can start editing over the weekend (since I'm cutting this pretty close!) However, I haven't gotten everyone's reply at the time of writing, so it's still up in the air...

Next, I got to work on putting together my postcard advertisement! I already had a set idea for what I wanted as one side of the postcard (the buried computer image I've been using for everything), but didn't have anything for the other side. So I decided to be a little quirky and goofy, and set the background to be the iconic Windows XP screensaver, reinforcing the idea that this was an older computer (and also its just a cute aesthetic)

Also, I decided to add the brand logo I made at the very start of the school year as a fun little callback to the beginning of my A level journey! I made an alternate version of the Windows XP side of the postcard that adopts some of the screen effects from the original key art, and while I really like the effect (since the OG looks a bit too cheery) I think I overdid it in the wrong places. Might need to tweak that a little bit.

After all of this, I scheduled a few more social media posts to go up soon on Twitter, and I'm calling it a night here. Lots of work done (or maybe I'm too tired from staying up late last night). See you soon!

Finally Filming

FINALLY!! IT'S BEEN DONE!! Well, sort of, anyways...

I'm pleased to report that the first day of filming went spectacularly!! Literally everything went great! Let's break it down bit by bit, shall we?

First was packing up all the props. Now, I've always thought my car was pretty big, but faced with the task of moving all the props at once, I realized how pitifully small it really is. Like a real life game of Tetris, everything fell together and fit into place (barely). It was a little anxiety-inducing how everything would creak, groan, and shift around during the 20 minute drive to the park, but we survived (Poor Tristan had to snuggle into a little nook among the props to get a ride to the park).

However, once we got to the park and met with Cristi and Blake, we set up the area fairly quickly, with me and Tristan taking out all of the props and arranging them, and Ren setting up the camera and audio stuff (Blake and Cristi had to review their lines so they didn't help unload the props...) But overall everything worked very smoothly, I was surprised and super relieved to see everyone working diligently to produce something great!

Since everything went so well, I don't really have much variety to say about the shooting process. We had a lot of fun, shot out of order to get Blake & Cristi's scenes done ASAP, since they had to be elsewhere, and generally messed around whenever we could afford it. I'm so grateful to be surrounded by such talented and passionate people (the talented part is mostly Ren, who absolutely carried the project with their cinematography)! Enjoy some goofy Behind The Scenes pictures (coming soon to the social media account)