Reflection on Successful Blogs

    Earlier this week, my instructor showed my classmates and I some film openings and creative critical reflection videos that did well in the previous years.

    All three film openings shown in class used Capcut to edit smoothly and eliminate background noise efficiently. They also all utilized cinematic mode on the iPhones that make the background more blurry to give the character in shot more focus.

    I noticed that the films utilized sound the most out of all elements of production to convey meaning in each of their films. They all used sound effectively to set the mood or give the audience a better understanding of the character's life. For instance, in "The Last Women on Earth" diegetic music was used to show that the main character did not listen to her family and used it as a way to block out the outside world, emphasizing the 'lonely' idea of her film. "The Man of Her Dreams" used nondiegetic music to set an eerie tone towards the end of the opening to give the audience worry and suspense of the mystery in the film.

    The films also used their mise-en-scene well, like how in "The Accused" the main character Joseph appeared to have messy hair, an unbuttoned shirt, and a tie not completely tied to give a distraught mood. Editing was used efficiently in this film as well, by editing the first clip into the second using a black fade in/out to represent Joseph's dream. Camera shots in "The Last Women on Earth" were made increasingly wider as Eve (the main character) felt more and more isolated as the scene continued. In this film, the clips were edited well together to productively tell the story.

    Aspects of identify including age and gender roles were displayed in these succesful film openings. In "The Accused" it takes the role of women being the typical 'nuturers' in society and depicts Joseph in this role as he tries to solve the mystery of his missing wife. In "The Man of Her Dreams" the main character being a women flips the ideal role of the man being the one to solve mysteries, as many people find a young female incapable of this role. In "The Last Women on Earth" Eve challenges the role of being a regular teenage girl by having to grow and develop due to being all by herself. 

I would want to know mainly what inspired these individuals or motivated them to make these specific films. Was it something in their personal life? Or was it just a random spark of creativity?