Saturday, March 8, 2025

yay, there's more things to do (AKA the CCR)

    While we are still in the thick of our edit (well not the thick but towards the end), we have to start thinking about the lovely CCR. Ah yes, the Creative Critical Reflection, what fun this will be.
    With all the anxiety of the project, I had almost forgotten about this crucial element. But it's fine, I've got some time (this is me gaslighting myself). 

    But there is no time like the present to start thinking about what to do for the CCR, and why not start from the beginning. 

Question #1

    The first question I will be tackling is about genre conventions and representation. Easy enough.  
    Let's start with genre. In our project, we use a good amount of genre conventions. One of the ones that I really felt while I was editing in the use of sound when changing location.
    It really made me think of how in Stranger Things (2016), it was a whole trademark that whenever they would switch locations, they would have this synth sound that would build up, increasing tension, but also making a segue to get to the next thing. Also, they tend todo a kind of audio match when they get to the next location. Here is an example. 

    Stranger Things (2016) Season 1 Episode 1

This is like a super specific example, but it is something I was actively thinking of while I was editing, so I think it would be good to include it in the CCR. 
    
    As for some more overall conventions, I think we have a big character convention of the troubled teen character who goes through this big scientific anomaly. This is a somewhat common occurence within science fiction films, and it appeals to a certain audience of young people (but we will svae that for question two).
    Films like Ready Player One (2018), Tomorrowland (2015) or even Back to the Future (1985) all deal with teenagers or young adults who are broody and unhappy that get put into impossible situation that all has to do with some scientific concept. We really lean into this convention because it always works having the drama of a teenage life combined with the wacky scientific aspect of whatever is going on
    This is definitely a good point of discussion for the CCR, as it is one of the main conventions that we divulge into. 
    
    Now, on the basis of representation, we touch on a pretty significant group. It is not super explicitly stated in the opening, but our main protagonist is going through some pretty major mental health struggles. It is heavily implied as hse is going to therapy, but also with her body language and reactions to the questions. 
    We also are sort of making a commentary on how mental health has been treated in the modern age. For instance, the film Smile (2022) conveys a similar message as ours, that being that epople try to pretent to care about mental health when it really is all just a front. Our character, Dr. Schultz is a perfect representation of that theme. 
    With Alice, we wanted to show her as someone who is a product of the corrupt ideas around mental health and that the time loop is a metaphor for how she feels. Her therapy is just a loop of endless questions before the loop starts, and after is truly becomes that.

    All of these would be good to talk about in the CCR. Once I have my idea for how I will present it solidified, I will get that script going and supercharge this process. I am glad to star tworking on it now because I do not want the CCR to feel like an after thought and I want as much care to be put into it as is in the rest of my portfolio. 

And now for the movie quote of the day... (but it's from a musical)

"Everybody, oh, they love a winner. So, nobody loved me." - Sally Bowles, Cabaret (1966)

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