Critical self-reflection

This is my critical self-reflection on the crime documentary. 

(Me and my teammates made a plan in a shared document for the critical self reflection, we put in our overall plan together in order to save up some time and effort as we were hours away from deadline. However, we still did our critical self reflections individually.)

With the continuous production of media products, it is important for producers to create a branding for themselves in order to be different from other producers within the industry. The way they do this can be by repetitively producing with similar features whether it'd be their edits that sparks up their visual effects or the way they open and introduce their media products such as in series or movie openings. Gradually, people would recognize these similarities as a style and the firm's branding and in the case where it suits the audience's preferences, they would be willing to keep watching media products from that organization, fostering audience loyalty. With the aim to create a style, our thumbnail and documentary have visual similarities that follows fear and danger as a theme. We did this by overall using the same color scheme, more specifically cool tone colors such as blue hues for both the thumbnail and the opening of the documentary itself. This is to connote sadness, tragic, and create a serious atmosphere taking into account that it is a crime documentary. In addition to that, the typography we used are mostly sharp fonts in which this connotes intensity and seriousness. When searching for a content to watch whether it'd be online or offline in the cinemas, the first thing we'd see is their thumbnail and we would be quick to judge and assume whether it'd be good or not based of just that, thus why a good design that hints what type of content it is is important to grab the audiences' attention. Educating and spreading awareness about a certain situation such as crimes, towards their target audiences, would be the purpose of a documentary. Most of the times, documentaries show information by visual effects such as real life footages and recreation scenes, 2 of a crime documentary's genre conventions, in which in order for the audiences to decode the meanings behind them, producers generally provide them with narrative stories playing in the background as a non-diegetic sound along with the clips of evidences for example.

To find out other genre conventions of crime documentaries, doing research by watching openings of crime documentary helped me uncover a number of others. What I picked up from repeatedly watching them was how most of them used camera angles such as establishing shot of the location related to the crime in the beginning of the opening to introduce the setting of the crime. This would be done with diegetic music such as using a creepy soundtrack in addition to the minimal background noise in order to create a sense of uneasiness from the silence within the audiences. It would then continue to introduction of the people involved, whether it'd be the victim or the perpetrator, where most of the time for the perpetrator, their mis-en-scene would be wearing dull colored clothing where these colors, according to semantic codes by Barthes, connote danger or mystery whereas the victim would wear warm colored clothing in which it connotes innocence and being vulnerable, creating a feeling of sympathy and pity from the audiences. Next, since crime documentaries focus on creating tension and suspense towards their audiences, they would typically follow the genre conventions of implementing cuts that gets shorter in duration every time with the aim to increase the pace of the story. Researching these documentary openings influenced my project a lot though next time I would stick to researching more specifically to my sub-genre. Numerous genre conventions were shown in each of every one of them and they inspired me due it being effective in creating suspense and tension within me, thus I chose to include some in my own crime documentary as well. One of the most important genre convention that I included was the creepy and eerie non-diegetic soundtrack as I've once accidentally played the opening without the sound and it was less thrilling and ineffective in trying to evoke suspense. I also chose to create a recreation scene as it sets the mood and hook the audiences early on where they would be more willing to continue watching since they are already exposed to the beginning of the narrative. However on the other hand, since for the opening of my crime documentary I am aiming for a plot twist that will not be uncovered until later on in the documentary, I am subverting to the mis-en-scene of dull clothing.

All these genre conventions I used had to appeal with my target audience which are primarily teenagers in school and young adults within the age range of 16-25 with demographic factors such as living near the vicinity of where the crime happened and psychographic factors such as being crime enthusiasts, having a fear of getting kidnapped. In addition to that, a stretch may be made for our secondary target audience which would be parents of those teenagers with the aim to gain awareness and protection for their children. The genre conventions I included to appeal to both my primary and secondary target audience are firstly and mainly the interview with the perpetrator where through that, they will be able to analyze their personality, behavior, and their habits as well and find what is odd. Furthermore, the usage of clips of real photos of the location after the crime would create heightened feels of emotions such as sympathy and shock as the proof further confirms how real it is. Before that, my thumbnail would appeal to them as it includes a classroom picture of students in their uniform, thus already giving the audiences a huge hint of people involved therefore those who's psychographics match would be willing to watch. To add to this, according to the uses and gratification theory by Blulmer and Katz, my target audience would watch this for firstly surveillance, to monitor signs of abnormal behavior from the perpetrator as mentioned. Secondly, for their personal identity where the audiences may feel connected through relatable experiences. Thirdly, for diversion, more specifically for crime enthusiasts that enjoys the play of emotions through the effects of tension and suspense. Lastly, this documentary may create social relationship between the teenagers or young adults where they may bond through discussions about it through comments in social media posts where through technological convergence and globalization, they will be able to do this with just anyone from within their country or outside as well. To appeal and attract to these different psychographic audiences more specifically teenagers, through the thumbnail, they may be attracted to the font style of the word "Christopher" that was set different compared to the rest of the words where it styled playfully and has a little heart added for the i. This may lead to the audiences assuming that the crime may be related to love which are an ongoing trending topic within teenagers, causing them to watch and check whether or not their assumptions are true. Adding to that, audiences may be interested in watching as in the thumbnail, the people in the background has the faces blurred in which this may leave the audiences questioning why it is like that and what relationship do these people have with the man in the middle since they are within one frame. Not only that, blurring the people in the background allows the audience to be able to focus directly to the main character, the man in the middle, and before they'll know that he is Christopher, they may question his significance in the story and these are how the hermeneutic codes are employed.

The questions about the significance of the man in the middle would later be answered in the opening where he will be represented as the quiet, anti-social student by his mise-en-scene of dull fashion style seen from wearing only a hoodie and long pants. These students will have a preferred reading of being innocent and out of touch with the society. On the other hand, Harper, the main female character is represented as the popular and friendly student by her mise-en-scene of wearing light-colored clothing which according to the semantic code by Barthes, may connote positivity, cheerfulness, and brightness. In addition to that she will be wearing feminine makeup and hairstyle, giving the audiences the thought that she is someone proper, neat, and up to trend with the society. However, her preferred reading here will be secretly abnormal and unusual. Both being high-school students where they have gender stereotypes such as men having a violent and gory personality whereas the women are stereotypically seen with a gentle, pure, and innocent personality, we chose to subvert to these stereotypes and put their personalities in inverse not only to stand out from others, but also to spread awareness and recognize those who experienced the same crime however no one believed them due to the oppressed stereotypes that the society believes. These 2 characters will be involved in the issue of kidnapping and stalking where we will display the preferred reading of the perpetrator having an obsessive personality and the victim being negatively affected both mentally and physically. In order to create suspense and maintain audience engagement in those scenes, the scenes in the crime documentary are mainly shot under dim lighting accompanied by eerie non-diegetic soundtrack with the aim to create a sense of fear and uneasiness for the audience. In addition to that, real life photos will act as proof to solidify their preferred reading.