How do your products represent social groups or issues?
I feel that my film is very relatable.The film is a drama with some comedy. The situation is heartbreaking and a real perception of my life, but I am also living. Therefore I took this film lightheartedly and decided not to get as deep as I could've in efforts to see the positives in this year and this overall situation. I am a teenage girl in quarantine talking about it. so I hope my film reaches other teenagers feeling the same thing. The first half of the film is a daily routine or a look into my life, while the second half is me venting to the audience touching on the global pandemic COVID-19 as well as anti-maskers and how you can get other students and I out of Isolation. I represent all the teenagers right now. How we feel and how we are spending our precious high-school years. I think of this film also as a time-capsule memory. Years from now, I can watch this and see how I was interpreting this pandemic. There was no acting in this film. I was filming alone in isolation, due to the pandemic and quarantine the film is about. This film is my direct experiences and my representation of Gen Z and how we cope with this extremely difficult situation. Whether that is online school, social media, or peer pressure to break quarantine.
How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of branding?
The branding and advertising segment of this product was definitely my favorite part. I was heavily inspired by a television series I watch on HBO called Euphoria. The show is about high schoolers navigating life so I felt a sense of connection there. A very important scene in the show involved blue, purple, and pink lights. So I incorporated that into mine and made it my "theme". I did this in multiple ways. To begin with, I had many scenes in my film with blue, purple and pink led lights in the room. This is also relatable because LED lights have been very popular for teenage bedrooms in the past year. I also incorporated the blue, purple, pink gradient into my advertising. My film logo, advertisements, and even website all incorporated this theme. Personally, I think the cohesiveness of the brand makes it look well put together as well as set the precedent for the film. The colors are dark, moody even. What does this say about the film? None of my advertising directly gave a sense of theme or genre. I liked this because it kept me wondering and kept me interested. The brand is young and unique. ISOLATED had social media avenues that promoted the film consistently, even when the filmmaking process was not going as good. I am very proud of the brand's vision and all the advertisements I created for it. I enjoyed this part more than the film making because digital marketing is an area I want to work in in the future.
How do your products engage with the audience?
As a young person, Gen Z member even, I understand technology. I can edit an advertisement in a matter of minutes, and I know how to film and edit the most effectively. As a young person, I also understand the importance and power of branding and social media. That is why I took that aspect of the film so seriously because I know in the real world It is important. No matter how great a film is, if its not properly advertised, no one will see it. The social media's I focused on most was Instagram because in comparison to Facebook and Twitter, Instagram has the most engagement with my target audience. Therefore, I used that product the most to engage with my audience. Whether it was posting temporary stories or permanent posts, Instagram was the most natural to use. I also followed multiple other film pages. This shows my film page on other people's feed more, according to how the algorithm works in promoting and recommending pages. This means my account was more likely to be recommended to someone who enjoys films or filmmaking. Properly engaging with and communicating with your target audience is the best way to come by organic engagement. My actual film is on YouTube, a very popular and simple platform as well as on my website. My website is linked under all my social media accounts therefore it is very accessible to anyone who would like to watch it.
How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?
I have done research on social media marketing before, from a business class I previously took. Also as a young consumer who wants to enter the business field, I take notice on how companies advertise to me, a sixteen year old girl. Once I got a clear brand vision, the advertising became easy. An issue I came across was the genre. I had another idea for my film with my best friend. Around each other, we become comedians, but when a change of plans left me to do the project alone, I had to rethink. I couldn't make a hilarious film by myself because Im not Kevin Hart, but I didn't want a film about my own life to be depressing either. So this left me conflicted. The drama conventions were challenged because there weren't any sad or negative emotions portrayed, just relatable content with funny commentary. I added sound effects and upbeat music since I felt it being silent was making it not engaging enough. Another convention I went extremely against was the format of my film. I did the first half like a movie scene, edited montage with commentary. Since I had no cast, I had no dialogue leaving me to narrate my routine. The second half of the video followed the format of a YouTube video. With me looking in the camera, talking to the audience directly. This was definitely a last minute hit-or-miss decision but overall I liked the way the film was like nothing I have ever scene before.
