Creative Critical Reflection Question 1

This first few minutes of our film "Crazy For You" follows a lot of the classic conventions used by other films of a similar genre: thriller. Many films do this by making the audience anxious for what will happen next as certain scenes appear on the screen. A few films that include examples of this would be in the movie "The Nun" when Sister Irene walks down a dark hallway completely unaware of the nun that's watching her from behind. At this very very moment, a sense of dramatic irony is created due to the audience being aware of the nun's presence whilst Sister Irene has no idea she's there. This creates that feeling of anxiousness that makes the audience question what as to what the nun will do if anything at all. Then, in the next few seconds, Sister Irene turns around to speak to the person she sees in the dark when the nun then comes behind her and pins her against a wall. This furthers those feelings of worry and fear as the audience is scared for the safety of Sister Irene.

(Insert two screenshots)

Our film very closely resembles these two instances, but at two different times. The sense of dramatic irony is created as it's revealed to the audience that Chelsea has dark and murderous intentions with her boyfriend after a close up shows her mysterious friend slamming a knife on the desk before her date despite the boyfriend having no knowledge of what is going to happen to him. Soon after this, two eyeline matches show the couple in the car talking to each other. This is where the audience's worry and fear reach its peak as the girlfriend goes from a complete standstill, gazing into his, to a swift and emotionless stab to the face with the knife. The audio and video cut to out just before the knife makes contact with the boyfriend, leaving the audience to wonder if he survived, but... it's not likely.

(Insert two screenshots)

In terms of how our film challenges conventions, it really has only one instance. Now normally these kind of films always keep the audience on edge with music and camera angles to keep the suspense up. However, our film doesnt do that. Instead, it keeps changing back and forth straight from a light-hearted tone to dark and scary moment when something bad is shown on the screen, sometimes through parallel editing. We did this mainly because we want those few moments of pure fear to be the most effective, therefore, by instilling a false sense of comfort in the audience right before the scare is a sure-fire way to do this.

3rd Quarter Submission

Distribution Plan

My co-director and I decided to undergo a "Straight to Video" release method for our film's distribution plan. This method makes the film accessible on home formats such as DVD and Blu-Ray. This technique has been especially successful for independent movie makers which is the category that my co-director and I fall under. This way, our movie would skip release in theaters to better appeal to our target audience since younger people are more likely to watch movies at home. For the digital option, my co-director and I would release our movie onto other popular digital streaming sites, such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video. These would also be accessible options that would greatly accommodate our target audience.

Distribution Research - Happy Death Day

Happy Death Day is another film that shares a similar genre and target audience with our own film. It, again, followed the Standard Release distribution plan as it was initially released in theaters on October 17, 2017 and then on TV, digital, DVD, and online streaming afterwards from Janurary 2 to January 16, 2018.

Our film is going to use a different distribution model, however, we do plan on releasing our film onto streaming services similar to how Happy Death Day did. Thereby, Happy Death Day went from the theaters to online streaming while our film would go directly to online streaming.

Distribution Research - Truth or Dare

Truth or Dare is a film that shares both similar genres and target audeinces with our own film. It followed the Standard Release distribution plan as it was initially released in theaters on April 27, 2018 and then on TV, digital, DVD, and online streaming afterwards.

Our film is going to use a different distribution model, however, we do plan on releasing our film onto streaming services similar to how Truth or Dare did. Thereby, Truth or Dare went from the theaters to online streaming while our film would go directly to online streaming.

Distribution Model Research

For the distribution plans for film, there are three commonly used pathways apart from the standard/traditional release. They are the simultaneous release, straight-to-video release, and internet release.

Standard release

The standard release routine for a movie is regulated by a business model called "release windows". It was first conceived as a strategy to keep different movies from competing with each other, allowing them to take advantage of different markets at different times. In this process, a movie is first released through movie theaters in its theater window, then, after about 16 weeks, it’s released to VHS and VOD services in its video window. After an additional number of months, it is usually released to Pay-per-View TV, and approximately two years after its theatrical release date, it is made available for free-to-air TV.

Simultaneous release

A simultaneous release takes place when a movie is made available on multiple media outlets at exactly or around the same time. Simultaneous releases offer advantages to both consumers, who can choose the outlet that most suits their needs, and production studios that only have to run one marketing campaign for all releases. However, such distribution efforts are often regarded as experimental and thus don’t receive substantial investment or promotion. Cinema owners can be affected seriously in case they have to share their opportunity window, especially at the beginning of the movie lifecycle, since about 95% of all box office tickets for a film are sold within the first six weeks after initial distribution. 

Straight-to-video release

A straight to video (DVD or Blu-ray) release occurs when a movie is released on home video formats without being released in theaters first, thereby not taking into consideration the "theatrical window". As a result of strong DVD sales, straight-to-video releases also achieved higher success and have become a profitable market lately, especially for independent moviemakers and companies. 

In regard to the distribution plan that my co-director would plan on using, we wanted to keep in mind the cost, convenience, and effectiveness of going through with one. Therefore, we chose the straight-to-video release method due to our target audience being that of the younger generation. This kind of age group typically has a busier schedule and wouldn’t have enough time to go out and see it in theaters. So, by doing this distribution plan, the target audience would be able watch it on their own time.