Critical Reflection

My idea for What You Watch came to me from the idea that “You are what you watch”. This film explores that idea and how such a mentality affects more than just an individual.

While I had the idea for the film for several months prior to officially beginning this project, I never thought about the specifics when it came it’s genre or how I would promote a story like this. In watching other short films like The Black Hole and Da Capo al Fine, I felt the psychological thriller genre would best fit the story, and with some experimental elements toward the end. I’d stick with some conventions such as harsh lighting and having a story unfold through the eyes of a single character. For the story’s ending, I wanted to include specific elements and techniques that would allow a viewer to interpret the ending rather than simply telling the viewer what the film means; it's a commentary on those that consume media after all.

When it came to how to promote the film, I look a similar and fairly recent film, Joker. I looked at how the film’s Instagram promoted with official stills, character posts, posters, and its grid layout. Unlike that account I posted more behind the scene pictures because I wanted to share the process. I just made sure to color grade those pictures to make the posts consistent with the colors associated with the brand.

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Joker Movie (@jokermovie) • Instagram photos and videos

I landed on using Instagram for its active viewer base of 16-24 year olds, the target demographic for the film. The age range came from the fact that Eric and Trent Marley were younger characters in the story. Trent specifically was made the “youngest talk show host in America” first out of practical limitations, but then because it’d allow Eric to relate more to him more easily; the same idea can be attributed to those in the age demographic that watch the film. If given more time to flesh out a grander story, I would’ve liked to have more representation for women in the story, besides just the character at the train station, to appeal to w wider audience. Though in its current state, it’s not far from what is seen in the male dominated Talk Show host scene.

To keep up with Instagram’s stimulus driven user base, I’d make use of the vibrant blue hues associated with the brand and plan out my posts in advance to maintain a symmetrical and aesthetically pleasing grid layout. I would’ve liked to post more earlier on in the process to potentially reach a wider audience, but I found it hard to post during pre-production because I felt I didn’t have material that would work with the brand I had in mind.

For the film I wanted to not only make what was being watched as engaging as I could, but also make the process of Eric watching the TV as intriguing as I could. Many of the scenes in Eric’s house took place at night, but rather than use a lack of light I made use of blue colored lighting to allow details to stand out in the frame. Another trick I used to make the shots of the TV and Eric more engaging included, using a projector to dramatize the light “emitting” from the TV and adding in zooms in post to have a sense of movement beyond what is played on the TV. I do wish I was more prepared when it came to filming the 2 exterior scenes, since those do feel less stylized and flat visually, and I simply feel that those scenes aren’t as engaging as the ones in Eric’s house.

The low key lighting and blues of Eric’s TV room became the basis for the rest of the brand. Granted, several of my first few posts had to do with the TV room, so I was able to cement that as a foundation. Keeping in mind my grid layout helped a lot with making the profile for the film seem cohesive. The positive reception towards the Eric and Trent character posts also influenced me when it came to making the print component; I reused images from those posts and combined them with the font I was using for the title graphics for the film, so naturally I felt it fit with the brand.

When it came to developing the character of Eric and Trent, much of their actions and details were based on how I wanted them to represent their given concept. For Eric, I based much of his character around Erik Erikson’s 5th stage of development, Identity vs. Confusion; as someone with no personality of their own they must rely on the media they consume to have an understanding of how the world works and how he should represent himself. Today because of social media and fairly open access to media, it’s more easy than ever for people to model how they live their lives off of other people; Eric’s character is an example of when this is taken to an extreme. In the film, I wanted to start with a scene where this behavior was reinforced, but later have Eric be punished for that sort of behavior. I wanted the later scene to show that while it can work sometimes, that way of living is not viable.

For Trent’s character, he was heavily based on the loud and proud personalities of Bob Barker and Stephen Colbert. I had him push more liberal leaning viewers because of his appeal to younger audiences and to mirror the status of iconic hosts like Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien, and the aforementioned Stephen Colbert. Trent is meant to embody the ideas the media creators want to push forward. He’s a “messenger” who is trapped in the limelight because of the people in power and the people who watch. In this story Eric’s behavior doesn’t just affect himself, but it also creates an endless cycle that provides funds for media creators to continue to push their own agendas.

When I first began the project I did so with the idea that I’d have my own uninterrupted vision at play which for the most part is there, but it was very much a lot to do as just 1 person. I feel if with other people or in a larger time frame, I may have been able to focus more on both smaller things like technical aspects and larger components like the social media page. With that said, I still loved the process and I’m excited for the next big project.