The Drive, Short Feature - Reflection

 

How do your products represent social groups or issues?

    Our film isn't vocally or directly focused on social issues however when looking for a deeper meaning, an issue that prevails is the male's mental state. To have killed someone he loves, to imagine/hallucinate them in his space, to then kill himself is a lot to receive in a short film. As we forge through an era where mental health is prioritized, this film was an easy development to portray this. Boys and men are prone to be judged for showing or expressing emotions. In the film, this bottled-up self-hatred, guilt, and uncertainty of the main character led to his own demise. Applied to society, this happens so frequently that people push it under the rug. Men should be allowed to have and express their emotions without feeling empty or weak. We are all human and it's impossible to feel anything. Dean committed suicide at the end of the film by walking out into the road because he couldn’t take anymore. People who NEED help, should be able to have access to mental health programs and resources.
    Another thing to look at would be Dean and Rose’s relationship within the film. Although the climax of realizing he killed her occurs towards the end, the act of killing her is atrocious in itself. Meaning it's obvious that they didn't have a healthy relationship. Constant arguing, the inability to share their feelings, and the evident methods that Dean would use to manipulate Rose are common things that occur in toxic relationships. This shows that Rose was often oppressed in the relationship and let Dean overpower her countless times. I hope that more and eventually all women are able to leave and be self-aware of their worth to avoid relationships like this one.
    These are both challenging issues and while not directly planting these social issues in our film I hope people are able to recognize these issues and use the film as an example of what they should avoid or address with proper help.

How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’? 

        Being in charge of the social media and branding aspect of the film was just as important as the filming and editing processes of creating a film. A brand is a name given to a product and/or service such that it takes on an identity by itself. They are not just consumers of the product but play a major role in its promotion. In this case, a film needs a unified brand in order for viewers to automatically recognize the film by its characters, scenery, apparel, and more. Starting with our planning process, The Drive was set to be a drama genre with a dark background hence the colors on the postcard and social media posts. Overall it was a fun and challenging task.
      With branding comes trial and error. There were countless times where I’d be doing a section of the website where I’d scroll through stock/google images for a background photo that matched our theme. As mysterious and simple as our title, “The Drive”, it was necessary to match this all over. Promoting the brand I gave each product/factor that was connected to the film the same exact cover image so it could be recognized instantly as “The Drive.”

How do your products engage with the audience? 

Our film engaged with our audience through pathos and ethos while keeping them entertained. The film starts with the setting being in a parking garage and from self-experience movies with this kind of location are always interesting and serve as an attention grabber. Adding the features of intensive dramatic music served as an enticing method and it also keeps people drawn in. Our film has fast transitions, many camera angles, and more that cause a viewer’s curiosity to wonder what's next and how many more things are going to happen. Through Cole’s acting he was able to enable pathos from the audience by showing great emotion. Once turned into the bad guy after the climax of the film, appealing through ethics makes him the bad character that viewers watch to bad mouth while still creating buzz around the film.
  Our other engagement method was greatly through social media. Our pages are an additional product that needs time to develop. I posted movie updates and created content that would get an audience riled up or excited for a film drop. On the Instagram stories, I would use interactive features such as polls to encourage audience participation. 

How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

    I've always been familiar with drama films and conventions as I have watched many shows and movies within this genre category. I’d say that we went with drama, mystery, and thriller. Before our planning process, we did much research on short films and genre studies. Through this, I feel we were all able to interpret what the usual conventions are. Therefore, we didn't challenge the genre and product but continued the conventions as they are effective to produce a quality film.
    While accessing the basics for the film, we knew that we’d need a good climax, plot twists, not many characters, and a smooth film that an audience could follow. Short films usually have max 4 characters but it's safe and even better to have two so their relationship could really show. Another required factor of every film is the titles, studio name, and production title.
    Since my role was mainly marketing management, the conventions applied to me was what would be the best way to promote and advertise a film. The components of this came with creating a website, postcard, and film social media pages. I choose to look at many postcard examples to see what they’d have on there and how to design mine. The initial postcard I made looked more like a flyer and this was because I didn’t match the film’s simplicity. The final postcard was great and had the necessary parts of a frontal display and the back having the film's information.
    For the website and linked social media, I did the same. I searched for popular drama films such as “Me Before You” and “The Whole Truth” to see their media platforms and websites. Although I used a movie website template on WIX, I still needed direction on how to place and list information so this could be as official as possible. On the topic of officiality, this is why I was so inclined to create a trailer. I felt that our product wouldn't be complete without it.