Critical self reflection

 This is a post for my critical self reflection

This is the link just in case if the text doesn't load properly: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16cWY7By_SiN377jwkExIPsvO60sxAKBqpOLhWxfULb4/edit

    We were tasked to create an opening for a crime documentary, around 3 to 5 minutes according to the brief. Me and my team ( Bagus, Nicho , Saka) chose to create a documentary with murder and kidnapping as the main issue. It tells a story of  how a boy named Bagus changes from being a happy guy to then becoming depressed and suddenly disappearing, because he got rejected by a girl he had a crush on. 

    Before starting the documentary or any sort of production, me and my team did individual research as tasked by our teacher. Before we started , we absolutely had no Idea since this was our first time. Though doing research gave us an opening or a picture on what we can do. First we had to identify the general conventions of a crime documentary, such as the camera angles used, the mis-en-scene, sound and editing. This was done in order to measure the things we can actually do as students. An example of this is that usually documentaries would use props that are from the actual scene or real life evidence of the crime scene.  This became a problem for us, however according to my research I have done from “raincoat killer”, a feature I liked about the opening is that I liked how it recreated the crime instead of using actual evidence at first.  This is important because it will make our documentary seem more authentic towards the audience, making it a unique selling point to differentiate our documentary with other crime documentaries. 

    Another convention I have discovered are the camera shots used in documentaries. Most of the scenes of the interviews were using ]close up shots. Close up shots were the most useful in this case for my documentary.  The use of the close up shots for my documentary was to capture the interviewees' subtle expressions and emotions, I think this would make a connection between viewer and what's happening in the scene making the story more compelling. As well, when the story progresses the plot becomes darker in a way that it starts describing the negative things that have happened.  To create the atmosphere that I intend to show the viewer, I progressively make the close shots ‘closer’ . This is because I wanted to heighten the tension and drama, especially when it was discussing critical moments. Such as the ending where Nicho mentions that the disappearance of the girl and Bagus had a connection. Making Nicho’s face closer to the camera creates a sense of isolation which adds to the tension and dramatic effect as this could evoke more empathy towards the viewers. So according to the reserach, our documentary has conformed to this convention. 

    As for the mis-en-scne used in crime documentaries, the usual conventions is that the props and the color of the scenes are dominantly dark coloured. This was mostly shown during the interview of Nicho with the dark clothing. This dark clothing helps connote a serious, somber atmosphere, to make the scene more ominous. As seen as well, we did minimal lighting, this darkness was intentional. It was to symbolize the unknown or mystery in the documentary. This is a way we have developed the Hermeneutic code from the 5 Narrative Codes theory by Barthes. This will keep the audience engaged and hooked on to understand further on what is going on. Though as seen that the other two interviewees have very different mis-en-scene compared to Nicho’s, hence if i tried to combine the clips it wouldn’t make sense. This is where I used the vignette effect, to narrow the focus on the surrounding and focus more on the interviewees. Although it's not as dark as Nicho’s, the way it creates a dark edge around the screen shows as if there is danger approaching or tension is building up. This could create an uneasy effect to make the scene more intense. Though a convention we subverted from these crime documentaries is that we didn’t have the police involved. This is because we didn’t have the right props to represent the police.

    For the diegetic sounds and non-diegetic sounds of the documentary, I got it mostly from youtube.  A convention between documentaries for its sound is that it has a non-diegetic suspense music in the background. I did this by making the sound crescendo towards the end. This will build the anticipation towards the scene. Additionally, this was a part of the feedback from the edits I got. My teacher recommended not instantly introducing the music to the documentary as it makes it boring and too repetitive. Instead, making it appear later in the scene makes it more interesting to watch as the conversation gets deeper the music increases, Indicating the build up of suspense and seriousness of the situation.   

    Lastly for the edit, a cool inspiration me and my teammates found was that it uses past images of the criminal within the documentary such as newspaper shots or memorical photos in the past. Me and my friends wanted to show an emotional effect for the audeince on how much Bagus means to them. This will also make the audience feel as if they were actually having the conversation with the interviewee.

    These technical elements are also used to represent social groups. Our documentary tries to include young Indonesian students at the age of 17, both female and male. We did this by using multiple different interviews such as using the Indonesian language to represent Indonesians, doing the interview at school to represent students and using a female actor to represent females.  We want to deliver a message that kidnapping is a dangerous thing, his is our dominant reading for this documentary that we want our audience to derive (reception theory by Stuart Hall).  By using technical elements such as a zoom on their serious faces as they show their concern on the people missing indicates that dont like the idea of kidnapping, as their friend has been taken. Combined with the mood set with the mis-en-scene, for example black clothing from nicho or the vigenette effect, makes the scene more dramatic and ominous.     

    Another way we targeted the audience is by using branding. Branding is a way that shows all of our production work compiled into a way we attract an audience. It is important as it holds the value of our documentary and its reputation. This is done by the thumbnail of the documentary. To show a similarity, we added a hint of the plot by showing how his smile with a white background shows him being happy but as the color soon fades to black it shows him being depressed. This is the same with the flow of the documentary as we started off with a slow paced, dramatical moment to share the happy moments with Bagus. Then as soon as the lights are switched back on and the mis-en-scene darkens, that is where his smiles start to disappear. The purpose of this thumbnail is to tell the audience to give a small preview of the content before they actually watch it, hence its important to grab the attention of the audience. 

     Our target audience for this documentary was targeting both male and female, with its demographics being people of age 17+ and people who live in Indonesia, as well as for its psychographic is for people who enjoy mystery or crime documentaries. We chose this target audience because we felt like we could describe them the best, since we are the age of 17 and live in Indonesia. To appeal to the target audience, we added a scenario which would likely happen for teens which is rejection. During this time and age teens encounter love relationships and rejections like our plot, this will make it relatable to them showing that they are not alone. As well, our actors are all teens, using interviews as a way to deliver the information would make it seem like a conversation making it welcome to the audience watching. It's as if they are actually talking with the person on screen. This is also shown in the thumbnail where we used a 17-year-old Indonesian boy for our thumbnail. As well, the word good usually indicates positive things, in the thumbnail it is labeled red. This will make the audience question why the word is good colored red, this is because red symbolizes danger and caution referring to the crime. This would make the audience intrigued to discover more by having to watch the documentary itself. This would make it a part of the Hermeneutic codes as well ( 5 narrative codes by barthes). But aside from 5 narrative codes, we would like to also portray the uses and gratifications theory by Blulmer and Katz. Diversion as a way the audience could use it as a source of entertainment. Personal Identitiy as a way to not become someone like Bagus. Social relationships as if people would have the same problem they can talk it out with each other .Finally, surveillance as a way to raise surveillance on people’s mental health.