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.