CCR Question 1

     The deadline for the Portfolio Project is approaching fast, and now is the time for our Creative Critical Reflection. This will consist of two products that I need to create myself that answer four different questions. The products that we make for this CCR are very open-ended, so as of right now, I am still figuring out how I will actually answer them on camera. I have some ideas floating around, but for this post, I will just stick to figuring out how to answer the first question.

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

    Now isn't that the question of the day. When our teacher presented this, she pretty much narrowed this thing down to two concepts that need discussing: genre and representation. She made a very good point about how we should not have to spend time researching this question since we have already blogged about those topics in the pre-production phase. Phew, that's a relief, isn't it? Let me just check that post... Oh yeah, I forgot, we changed genres AFTER I did those research posts. This might be the most heartbreaking moment of the whole project. You see, I had originally researched genre conventions on psychological horror/horror, and we changed it to sci-fi/drama. I am dreading doing any more research, as that was my least favorite and most time-consuming part of this project. But let me just shut up and lock in because this assignment is due tonight.

All of that work...

Genre Conventions We've Used/Not Used

    One quick Google later, and I have found a nice list of some sci-fi genre conventions. Here they are below:

    .....wow, we barely used any of these.

    Except for one: time travel. I think that is pretty much self-explanatory, and in the CCR I will probably talk about how we blended the sci-fi aspect of time travel into a more drama-focused narrative. Most of the themes in this opening are more drama-like, anyway, so let's focus more on that for now. After a little bit more research, I have found some drama conventions. Here they are below:

    Now we are getting somewhere. Our project definitely aligns more with drama, since if it was a real film, it would showcase Alice's character development. There is most definitely intense social interaction because Alice is almost constantly interacting with others throughout this opening. The heart of this drama is most definitely the conflict, which is the time loop and trying to stop it. The inner struggles of Alice's family issues overlap with the outer struggles of the time loop. This is because the outer struggle being the time loop is set only during her therapy session, which is all about addressing her inner struggles. The audience can relate to Alice since she is stressed out and is reacting how most people probably would in this scenario.

    The main thing that we have deviated from is the real-life situation, the climaxes/anti-climaxes, and the happy ending. This situation is not something that commonly happens in real life, but Alice as a character reacts realistically. There are no climaxes/anti-climaxes because this is the film opening, not the whole film. We are not producing an entirely completed story with this project. The happy ending isn't present, because yet again, this is just a film opening. I will end up creating a script for this, but for now, I think this information sufficiently covers the genre section of this question once I flesh it out more.

Representation

    This part of the question is a little bit harder to answer. I think when it comes down to it, I really just need to talk about why we made our characters act the way they did. I need to answer why we made Alice stressed and zoned out, and why we made Dr. Schultz, a therapist, so apathetic. Well, let's answer them then real quick.

    For Alice, we wanted to have a character that others could relate to. We didn't make her a perfect person who knows exactly how to deal with any problem thrown at her but instead went for someone who is more realistic and distressed about what is going on. I mean, if you all of a sudden got stuck in a time loop, you would probably react the same way; stressed out and trying to figure out what is even happening in the first place. She is dealing with some pretty heavy family issues as well, and anyone who has been through that as well can further identify with her. She is a young adult, clearly stressed from adulthood, and therapy simply is not helping. When coming up with this character, Maiya had even mentioned that she was in therapy before but it didn't really help at all for her. That had a big influence on both Alice's character and Schultz's as well. Being disengaged from therapy makes having to go to it much worse and feels like a chore rather than something that will help you long term.

    We then wanted to make Dr. Schultz a completely apathetic therapist to make this situation much more nightmarish than it already would have been. Therapists are supposed to help with mental health and be sympathetic to the patient to make them feel supported. Dr. Schultz is quite the opposite of that. She seems annoyed and apathetic to Alice and acts fake when she gives her a speech about why she should be in therapy. Having the therapist act like this helps add to the conflict and stress of the situation. Her character really makes Alice feel alone and isolated from any support or help that she may have received if Schultz were a good therapist. People in the real world with jobs that are meant to help others aren't always good at their jobs. I am sure everyone has dealt with someone like this, and that is the reason we made her like that.

    The way we have represented our characters really just stems from personal experience. This helps the audience relate to the protagonist and further reinforces the drama aspect of it all. This just about covers the first question. I will make changes when I eventually create the actual script. But for now, this serves as a nice guideline for that process.

Sources:

- Typical conventions of scifi. (2016). SlideShare; Slideshare. https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/typical-conventions-of-scifi/61742126#3

‌- Conventions of Drama Films. (2011, October 22). SlideShare; Slideshare. https://www.slideshare.net/FarjanaTahmin/conventions-of-drama-films#2

- Max. (2025, March 8). Max’s Media Studies Experience. Blogspot.com. https://maxsmediastudiesexperience.blogspot.com/