1. Critical Reflection
Ema Vilchez

2. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
In a thriller/action genre of movie, the movie tends to start right in the action. My movie conforms to this idea in that it starts right when the character framed for murder is running in the woods. We don’t know why she’s running or who she’s running from. All we know is that her shirt is covered in blood. The opening of the movie is supposed to make the audience wonder what is going on and make them want to watch more. The second half of the opening gives some explanation: she was framed for murder. But it still leaves a lot of questions that remain unanswered. This is the point of the opening of a thriller: leave lots of pieces for the audience to use to put together a picture. While the “framed for murder” plot has ben used many times, besides in the first season of Daredevil, I very rarely see it used with a female suspect. This was one thing that I wanted to use to challenge it. Another thing was how there were some brighter colors than I was going to use in my original idea. This was mostly because since my mother has cancer and chemo causes her to tire out easily, I had to improvise. The brighter colors contrast with the tone that is being set by the blood and the non-diegetic music. This comes off as unsettling since it doesn’t match the tone being portrayed. While at first my movie does not seem to be portraying any group, it actually does. Unlike the protagonists of most thriller movies I have seen, the main characters seen in the opening are female. Not only that, both of them are Latina. It is very rare where I get to see Latina characters that don’t act stereotypical. The main character simply acts like a normal person while her sister is freaking out just like a normal person would at the sight of blood on herself.

3. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
My product actually would engage rather well. The concept of someone being framed for murder is a plot that many seem to enjoy. It engages in that it goes toward the female audience in an unexpected way: with a female protagonist. The male audience would probably be pulled in the genre of the film itself. The marketing for the film would probably work by going for the different demographics in the trailers. For those that love action movies, the trailers would focus on the action sequences. For those who are there for the thriller, it would focus more on the mystery of who the actual killer is and why they would frame the protagonist’s sister. Another demographic would be for those who want to see the protagonist and her sister interact in a sisterly bond and work together. To drum up hype for the movie, a website with mysteries and guessing for clues could be implemented.

4. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
In this process, I have grown a lot as a filmmaker. Before this project, I used windows movie maker to make my projects because it was easier. I had been learning to use Pinnacle 18 while I was doing this project. This itself already improved my skills as an editor. As a filmmaker, I had to redo takes multiple times in multiple angles and movements in order to get my vision just right. This is a far cry from when I would just do one or two takes and then improvise. With editing, I used multiple different takes before I chose one to decide which one fit best with the scene. I used multiple different ways to bring in the credits and even when exactly the music should start and end. I have learned that I like making thriller genre videos. Before this project all of my previous projects were more in comedy. I wanted to try something a little out of my range to see how I would do. While I’m not sure I want this to be my career, I would like to start doing little projects like these in my spare time.

5. How did you integrate technologies-software, hardware and online- in this project?
I used a canon videocamera in order to film everything. I used my own laptop and the desktop in school to edit everything. When I used the internet, I used it to find the Se7en font I wanted, the research I needed for locations and ideas, and to blog everything. Lastly, I used Pinnacle 18 on both my laptop and the desktop to edit.