Critical Reflection

 

“Time For Dinner” the short film portrays imagination through a young child's eyes. Toys may just look like plastic things with no life to them to us now, but we did not always think that way. Adults once too would sit for hours at a time playing with those ‘plastic things’. Somehow, our brain was able to create a whole new world with characters we created, and sometimes we would forget the real world for a second. It seems as though no one truly recognizes or appreciates imagination, and that is exactly what I wanted to show with this short film. 

My movie represents children's imagination and how things children see in everyday life can affect their mind. Society has become a scary world to live in and sometimes it is hard to shield the young generation from it. A parent could innocently be watching the news and a storyline of a dangerous crime can come on while their child is near. This new concept of crimes like theft, killing, and other things can cause a child to think differently. While watching the short film, it is obvious one of the characters is trying to kill the other however this goes over many viewers' heads. Why would a little girl be imagining a girl killing another girl? This is quite worrisome once you think about it. Perhaps the child had seen something on T.V. or some adults were talking about something around her. As the older generation, we must be careful with what we expose our children to. Another aspect to consider is the outfits of the two characters. The girls are wearing short skirts and crop tops which are revealing clothes. With social media becoming more common among young children, it can lead to young girls seeing influencers wear these clothes and envy them. Implanting the idea that girls need to be in revealing clothes and have perfect bodies at such a young age could be detrimental to their future and the way they view themselves. 

The elements of the production of this short film consists of a website, social media page, youtube account, and a postcard. All of these contribute to the branding of “time for dinner” because it provides the short film with a platform for fans or curious people to view the making or behind the scenes of a soon to be film. This also creates anticipation. If people come across one of these branding concepts while the short film is still in the making, they can continue watching the growth and once it comes out they will be excited to  watch it. Since there are so many types of platforms it would be hard for someone to miss the announcement of this film. If someone doesn't have youtube, they'll see it on social media and vice versa. Continuously posting the film poster also adds to the amount of times people see the production of this movie. 

“Time for Dinner” the short film engages with the audience by creating a sense of anticipation throughout the entirety of the film. The film starts out seeming normal and as it continues one character keeps trying to kill the other and everytime she gets close something happens. The audience is anticipating a kill each time the main character does something but it never happens. The audience is on the edge of their seats till the very end. Once it seems like the character is close to killing the other girl, a non diegetic sound appears. This reveals the entire time it was just a young girl's imagination as she was playing with her dolls.  While the audience cannot directly engage with the film, they are still invested in what is going on and what will happen. Aside from the film itself, the social media sites and websites allow the audience to directly engage with the production of this film. The social media sites allow people to comment on the posts asking questions that the cast and crew can answer. The website allows the audience to learn everything about the making of this film and the cast and crew. So although the movie might not have been released yet, people are still able to anticipate it, ask questions, and learn all about the making of it. 

A convention being challenged is the gender of the murderer. It is more common to hear about a male killer than it is to hear about a female killer. That is because male account for 98 percent of all murders. How is our film challenging this? The main character who is trying to kill the other is a girl. Not only is she a girl but she is a very feminine one. Far from the average murderer in today's society. We could have simply made the killer a male because they do make male dolls however we figured challenging this specific convention would be more interesting. That is an example of a convention being challenged from within the film world however there is another one. The production team is only female. The actresses are female, the director is a female, and the editor is as well. It is not likely that you will see the production team  of a product being all female especially in the film industry. I was the director of this film and it felt nice to be put in a position of power where I was able to ask for my team's opinion and my opinion would also be respected. There are 28% female producers, 17% female writers, 18% editors, and only 11% female directors in the film industry. Being able to create something of quality with an all female group was very rewarding and I am proud of my team for fighting that convention. 

“Time For Dinner” The short film follows a young girl's imagination as she plays with her dolls. The short film tackles a multitude of conventions revolving around female stereotypes. There are also many forms of advertisement for this film.