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CCR 1- How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
Format: Using Toonsquid (Animation app) as well as voice memos, I recorded myself reading the animation’s script and then drew an animation to fit, featuring a cat ‘mascot’ that I will be using for majority of my Creative Critical Reflections.
I chose this format because I enjoy animation but have never created one that lasts for longer than a minute, so this was a fun challenge for myself!
Script:
In my film opening ‘Again’ the presence of thriller conventions are apparent throughout, such as the use of enigma in relation to the main character, Blair, and her friend, Eve’s, death in every loop as well as how Blair will escape it. The loops themselves are supernatural and even stranger yet is the fact that Eve always dies no matter what before the loop can end.
A main convention that has been challenged by ‘Again’, however, is the high stakes of the situation. It is not a typical scenario in which the main character must dive in before somebody dies because that somebody is dying, has died, and will die hundreds of times. Rather, the main character is almost trapped by themself. Blair knows that at the end of the day Eve will come back if she fails to save her, but the one changing variable of each loop is Blair, whether for better or for worse.
Every loop shapes her as she learns what places to avoid and what the consequences of certain actions are. Eventually, this incessant cycle wears on the mind, and, despite Blair being just a teen, she ends up feeling like the whole world is against her: this situation is also reminiscent of the tale of Sisyphus wherein he must push a boulder to the top of a mountain, but it always ends up rolling back down to square one. This also ties neatly into the overall issue of mental wellness that ‘Again’ aims to represent, albeit more so as an allegory for it rather than explicitly.
The mental health crisis in our modern world is shown to be not as a force that must be fought against, but rather it is the cycle itself. Being trapped in a loop, just like Blair, feeling like every bit of effort you put in is futile. But, eventually with persistent effort and help, you can break free from the cycle.
Our main characters, Blair and Eve, are also teenagers. A social group that, famously, is one of the most easily misunderstood or overlooked, and also the social group that is most likely to begin developing or showing signs of mental health conditions. The age of being not quite a child but not quite an adult either. A period of time in everybody’s life that can be some of the toughest years as they transition into the, quote unquote, real world. This constant disequilibrium within the self and surrounding world reflects the reality of many teens in our modern world today and is what ‘Again’ truly represents.
CCR 2- How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
Format: Using Procreate (drawing app) I storyboarded and created a two-page comic strip of conversations between two teenagers that had gone to a film festival for the premier of ‘Again’.
I chose this format because I loved reading comics and manga growing up, and I’ve always wanted to try my hand in creating my own shorter comic strips.
Link to the better quality version of the comics:
https://file.garden/anzy8lcHBw9pYUCe/AS%20Media%20CCR%202%20comic%201
https://file.garden/anzy8lcHBw9pYUCe/AS%20Media%20CCR%202%20comic%202
By weaving in details through the dialogue, these comic strips explain how our film opening would be distributed and engaging to audiences.
These are the character references that I created for the comic.
CCR 3- How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
Format: Using Procreate (drawing app) I created cards similar to trading/collectible cards that detail my production skills and how they’ve changed compared to before working on ‘Again’ and after.
I chose this format because I used to love collecting Pokemon cards as a child and I recently learnt how to play Magic: The Gathering, so I wanted to try creating cards that resembled trading/collectible cards.
CCR 4- How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware, and online – in this project?
Format: Using cardboard, paper, wooden sticks, colouring pens, and ribbon, I created a small theatre stage-like box and characters. This was to mimic the style of a child’s stick puppet show. I then created a small narrative parodying a typical fantasy hero’s journey, replacing elements of it in order to answer the question.
I first recorded myself reading the script and put the recording through a bitcrusher to further a feeling of an older, more nostalgic video. Then while listening to the audio, I videoed the stick puppets before finally compiling everything in Adobe Premier Pro for slight adjustments and the addition of captions in case the audio was unclear.
I chose this format because I wanted to push myself to create something physical as well, and ended up on doing a stick puppet show. I also wanted to mix the conventions of a typical fantasy storyline with an older, slightly cruder format of show- much like one a child would put on for their parents. (Hence the more rudimentary style of puppet show and the bitcrushed audio)
Script:
Today, our hero embarks upon a treacherous quest.
It is of this town’s annual tradition to create a film in order to feed The Great Consumer, and so begins the journey.
Here our hero discovers their first aid: Instagram. A communication application that will allow them to commune with other heroes on the same quest from any number of miles away.
Next our hero finds vital instruments and ingredients that will concoct a film if used in all the right ways: Canva, containing all the blueprints that fellow heroes use to record all the steps of filmmaking and Microsoft Word which an incantation named ‘The Script’ is written upon, and the camera, gimbal, and tripod. All of which form the very foundation of a film.
Next, Alight Motion can be used to further the quality of the film by creating a production company animated logo.
Oh, but, where will the hero store all of these items? Onedrive! A near endless storage application that can be accessed from wherever, whenever.
And for the final step to bind all elements of the film together there is but one trusted tool for this: Adobe Premier Pro. The film has been made and now our hero can feed it to The Great Consumer!
Congratulations hero, thanks to all of these technologies, The Great Consumer has been satiated for another year to come.