Portfolio Project Post #22 (CCR)

My final post for my portfolio project will be my creative critical reflection (CCR). I need to answer the following questions.

-How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

-How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

-How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

-How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware, and online – in this project?

- I would say my product challenges conventions by being more like a YouTube video rather than something which you would usually see in a film. That wasn't planned, but it ended up that way. I also think adding animations and onomatopoeia with sound effects was something unique to my opening. My product represents mental illness issues since Will shows signs of depression and schizophrenia as he mopes around and imagines the things happening around him as he talks directly to the audience in some scenes.

- My product engages with audiences by breaking the forth-wall and having Will talk directly to the viewers. Since the product is supposed to be a film it would likely be distributed through movie theaters, DVDs, and most importantly streaming services like Netflix and Hulu.

- I wouldn't say my pre-production or production skills developed much throughout the project, but when it came to post-production I learned a lot. At first, I wasn't sure I'd be able to make everything look good or have smooth pacing, but once I started adding sound effects and music I was able to notice what parts would benefit from having onomatopoeia and graphics. Most of the words seen on screen were thought of during editing and the light bulb graphic was added later as well because I saw that the scene would benefit from having visuals. I also learned how to use after effects to track and animate my graphics so they would stay still and move as I wanted them to.

- I integrated a lot of different technologies. The software I used includes Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, After Effects, and my brother used Procreate to draw my graphics. For my hardware, I used an iPhone for filming, MacBook Air for research, Omen laptop for editing, my brother used his iPad for illustrating, and I learned how to format my external hard drive so I could transfer data between devices. The online websites I used other than blogger include YouTube, YouTube to MP3, Chosic, and I had to use Gmail a lot to transfer data I couldn't use my hard drive for.