Critical Reflection

My short film for A-level Aice Media Studies was titled “The Beaten Path”. The film was about a man who was simply following his daily routine and going for a run when he came across a dead body on the path. The film details the following few days in which the police are involved, the body is covered up, and the killer is exposed. The film challenged conventions by showing corruption within employment. The killer was discovered to be the very same park ranger that was alerted to the body in the first place, allowing him time to dispose and cover up his tracks before the police could investigate. This shows how even the people we trust and look to for help could be something unexpected and that we need to be careful with who is trusted and who is hired for important positions in the world. There are important background checks that are commonly overlooked when certain applications are submitted for employment. The effects that this can have point towards corruption and can only lead to a downward trend in customer service. Along with this, corruption in places like police departments or government can have major effects on daily life. This is why background checks are run and why they should be taken seriously. 

For my production, my group and I took more than a few steps to make sure the short film was branded well to appeal to the public eye. We created an instagram to reach a greater audience on social media. The instagram features pictures of both star actors and background actors that were featured in the film. This is important because it can almost preview the film and it could potentially lead to more viewers which, in turn, would generate more revenue. Instagram is an important platform to reach because it is where most of the current generation finds out about things. This along with tiktok have become primary sources of information for both news and social factors such as movies or short films. While my group did not actually create a tiktok page, the instagram page is expected to have a large enough effect to draw more views to watch the film. To go along with the instagram page, my group also created a website to advertise the film. This is to reach an even larger audience and to target a different type of audience then the audience that would see the instagram. The website features the same pictures that are posted on the instagram. We needed to make sure that every audience was given the same positive attractions and reasons to go watch the film. This is why the same pictures were posted on both pages even though it could be seen as repetitive. The website also features show times for the film and the date of which it will be released. The film is advertised to be highly anticipated which was the goal since that would lead to more views and therefore a higher revenue. 

The film is very unique because it engages with the audience in a unique way. The film was created in a way that was intended to engage the audience and to give the audience a realistic experience while they were watching the film. There are portions of the film that show nothing more than a man following his daily routine and going for a run. This was meant to show the audience that crazy things can happen to normal people and days that may begin just like any other day. The audience was meant to feel as if everything happening in the film could happen to them in real life. The film then starts to become interesting when a dead body is discovered, which happens every day. Although it may not seem like it, things like this happen every day and that is what the film was created to show. Towards the middle of the film, the man is speaking to a police officer about the incident before taking that same officer to the location of the body. They discover that the body had been moved, meaning that even though the runner was telling the truth, there was nothing the police officer could do. This shows how sometimes it can be difficult to report things even when you are telling the truth. At the end of the film, we see that the park ranger was the killer all along, which shows that even the people we go to for assistance can be corrupt. The audience is meant to relate to this more than anything else, since it happens every day. 

While researching for my short film project, I came across a lot of important and interesting information about how to express things in the film and how to reach the audience in a unique way. My group used both public and private places to film, which was intended to show the audience that the film was realistic and that it was not just a fiction story. Along with this, the props used were meant to be as real as possible to give the best viewing experience possible to every person that took the time to watch the film. The realistic aspect of the film was also intended to display the conventions of the film, in this case, corruption. Each scene of the film was thought through from a number of viewpoints to make sure the order of the scenes would benefit the production of the film. Some scenes are more important than others, which is why they may seem longer, or more thought through, but each scene was just as important, no matter how long or short it may be. My group made sure to acknowledge how important conventions were to the film while creating the project in the first place. We went over each scene as a group anf discussed how it would apply to the convention of corruption and then made sure to emphasize the plot twist at the end. This was how we managed to create such a great film that conveyed our conventions in such a realistic manner.