Campaign: Critical Reflection

 

• How do your products represent social groups or issues? 

My product is about World War Two, so the social issue it represents is war. In this case, it was about a German man who was fighting for his country but was against the whole world. From our point of view, we know that the German troops were the enemy, but for them, the soldiers were just doing what they had to do to survive. It shows that in the film the main character said he spent two years of his life fighting and did not want to give up already. While the second character said he also spent a couple of years fighting but just wanted to go home and live. This all represents how war can cause a sense of loss, displacement, and long-term societal damage. In the end, the way we view a major event is all biased because we see it from our narrative. This is a social issue because war is very real. It happens throughout the world and does cause extreme damage to society. The social group that the short film “Campaign” represents both sides of the war fronts. However, it mainly stands for those who are the cause of the war, and in the end, it shows those who are affected by it.

 
• How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of 
‘branding’? 

The elements of my production work together to create a sense of branding because they allow the audience to feel like they are actually going back in time to when it was wartime, especially in the postcard and short film. The postcard was inspired by World War Two postcards and mail. While I was doing my research, I found examples of real postcards that were sent through the postal that was sent out during wartime. The social issue that we have in our short film is war, we wanted the branding to follow that whole aesthetic throughout the whole package. The short film especially creates a sense of branding because the costumes and props are real-looking, which creates a sense of branding because they link back to the postcard. The website also creates a sense of branding because it also follows the message of war. Everything is dark and gloomy but also includes the elements and color that we had throughout the film and postcard. It all ties in together to create a sense of branding. “Campaign” uses elements such as color, and logo to produce branding because the audience is able to go through each media and see that it is all in the same product. The color because it is all colors that are typically associated with war or anything in that category. For example, dark muted colors, or colors that are in the camouflage plate, such as green, yellow, tan, beige, and brown. In the postcard it has a hint of dark red burgundy because I wanted to include a hit of color so that it can pop and contrast to the background. Including that pop of red also has branding because it sends the message of wartime. War sadly always has death and blood, so I decided to include it in the postcard color palette as a sense of branding. The logo, which is the name, also creates a sense of branding because the name is unique for what the movie is. So, if someone sees the name “Campaign” they will know what film it is because we associate all the media, such as the short film, the postcard, and the website, with it. Also, the social media pages all tie it together because you can also ways go from one social media to the next one. All the social media names and email all include the name Campaign.

 
• How do your products engage with the audience? 

Our whole package for the short film: Campaign, engages with the audience because it puts them into a realm where they feel included. The postcard and social media all tie it together and make it so the audience feels included and can engage with it, so they feel like they have a part in the film and promotion. In a postcard, there is a sender and a receiver; to make the audience feel more included and interact with the film the receiver was targeted to them, by the word “YOU.” This was done on purpose because we, CMJS Productions, are sending out our film and sharing it with “YOU” the audience. With the social media accounts, the audience is engaged because ‘Campaign’ social media platforms were specially picked out to target all age ranges. The social media platforms are TikTok, X, and Instagram. TikTok targets the younger generations, which are teenagers; X is targeted towards the older generation and lastly, Instagram is targeted towards the middle generation, which would be millennials. In the social media accounts, they have all been set up and are running. All the social media names are in the postcard so if a person is curious about it, they can search it up and engage with it. Then once the audience enters the social media account, they can follow, like, and comment to stay in tune with the content. Sometimes the accounts post feeds that rely and depend on the audience to interact with them. This can be in the form of a poll or just in general with the typical like and comment. The short film: Campaign website also connects all the social media because all the links are available at the bottom where the contact information is at. The product “Campaign” engages with the audience because they are able to use the email provided at the bottom of the website to contact the production team for any issues or if they want to team up for any PR deals. 

 
• How did your research inform your products and the way they use or 
challenge conventions? 

While doing research for our short film “Campaign,” I researched similar genres in short films so I could have an idea of what conventions we needed to include. One of the short films that I watched was “9;” in 9 the genre was post-apocalyptic; this is not completely the same as the genre of war, but it was similar enough we took some conventions that were included in 9. The main convention that was used in Campaign is death. Death is a common convention, and the way it was used in “Campaign” parallels in both genres (war and post-apocalyptic) for instance, it felt like a sacrifice as they did in the short film “9”. Another convention that I found during my research for “Campaign,” was that of a sense of no return. This is when a character feels like they are in a situation where they can no longer go back, it's typically the climax because the character can either continue fighting to fail or just give up and fail anyway. This was used in “Campaign” at the climax because both of the characters realized there was no way out of the situation they were in. We had both views on it, one where they still tried to fight but failed, and the other who gave up and was killed. Having done the research helped to create this scene because we knew what conventions were in war genre films.