Creative Critical Reflection

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

School PSAs typically have a few conventions that are used. One common convention is a message at the end of the video. My commercial’s message was a group introduction of the team as the Fort Lauderdale Mock Trial team. Another common convention is the costuming used. Normally, school PSAs have student actors dressed in regular attire, such as jeans, t-shirts, and sneakers. My production challenges this convention with the use of formal courtroom attire. Instead of wearing jeans and t-shirts, we wore suits and blazers.

My commercial represents the issue of the justice system. With an outdated system, it will be my generation that is responsible for being the change we want to see. By advertising the mock trial team, we join the fight against ignorance of our justice system within the younger generation.

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

My product engages with high school students who have an interest in competing, public speaking, and the law. The fun upbeat acting can attract these students or even anyone curious about mock trial. As a real media text, it would be distributed over the school website or through YouTube.

3.     How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

At the start of this project, I didn’t have many filming skills. All I would record is the occasional birthday celebration or concert. I had little to no understanding of how to effectively combine different angles and camera techniques to add meaning to my films. Due to this, I began intensive research on these different techniques and why they are used in the first place. Once I researched, I had a much better understanding. Nonetheless, it was when I put these techniques into practice that I saw the effect they have. For instance, I started the filming with a pan of the courtroom. This pan allowed me to set the scene for the viewer. Toward the end of the video, I used an over-the-shoulder shot. This allowed me to present the exchanging dialogue that my three subjects were having. While I still have much to improve, I have come a long way compared to when I started this class.

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

Multiple technologies went into the creation of this project. The first and foremost one is my cellphone. This is what all the scenes were filmed on and is what transported the videos to different devices. I used my phone’s camera app to film with the mode set to 4k resolution and 60 frames per second. The photos app on my device also has basic built-in editing software. I used this to remove any extra parts of the scene where we broke character. After this, I transported the videos via messages to Mya, who did the main editing. The software iMovie was used to mesh all the clips together, add our non-diegetic sounds, and present our opening title screen. All of this technology played a huge role in the production of our commercial.