Question one for my CCR

 Now that I have finished filming and mostly finished editing my project I think it's about time to start my creative critical reflection, A.K.A. the CCR. For some context the CCR is an addition to this project where we are challenged to reflect on our choices considering the project and explain why we made those decisions. the purpose of the CCR is to engage us in meta cognition and get us to think about what we've thought about. The CCR is comprised of four questions regarding our project.

The first of the four questions is:

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

Before I start just listing ways my piece follows or pushes my genre conventions, I feel it's important that I go over my genre and some conventions of the genre I ended up doing. 

Just to recap, I ended doing a psychodrama for my film opening which is a subgenre of drama that focuses on a flawed protagonist and is mainly about developing the protagonist in a dramatic way to invoke an emotional response from the audience.

Now that I explained that, here are some genre conventions of psychodramas:

• psychodramas typically deal with the psychological state of the main character and protagonist of the story.
• To invite the audience into the mindspace of the character in order to develop their mental state, films that are considered psychodramas utilize tight shots and many close-ups and 'subjective' camera angles in order to act as a window to the audience into the protagonist's mind.
  
• These camera angles may be paired with disjointed editing and surreal imagery in order to represent a fragmented state of mind, along with the many uses of symbolism through setting and objects and colors imbued with psychological importance.

• the main character is typically put through mental challenges and inner conflicts that lead to the character going through a psychological process and even metamorphosis in some cases.
• psychodramas are character-driven therefore of course the psychology of the characters are the main focus of the story in most pieces under this genre.

Some examples of psychodramas, as mentioned in previous blog posts include:

Perks of Being a Wallflower                              Steven Universe Future                  Manchester by the Sea

                                                                                                                                                                 

Now to answer the question, if my piece uses or challenges genre conventions, my film goes along and uses these genre conventions. 

My opening represents those dealing with depression with the use of lighting with significant psychological meaning, such as blue and other cooler hues, low-key lighting when Lucas is alone, and warmer colors and brighter lighting when around his friends, symbolism, in the shape of the origami butterflies around his room, foreshadowing upcoming metamorphosis, and of course, a character driven plot of a teen who struggles with strong feelings of loneliness and sadness even when he is having a good moment. 

References

                Psychological drama. (2023, April 24). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_drama