CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION

Creative critical reflection 

‘Tru 2 u’ introduces explores the high school experience of a teenager, Lara. She struggles to navigate her way through school without facing the torments from bullies. The film investigates whether she can remain true to herself after falling for the popular jock. I conducted my own trailer research prior to beginning my own project. My trailer research can be found in the tab above. I researched the following films in detail; Cloverfield, American Sniper and Gravity. From researching and analysing the trailers, I understood that it is important to ensure that the clips used in my own trailer  are purposeful and meaningful. Trailers should capture the audience's attention whilst leaving them questioning how the plot will unfold. 

My film trailer represents social groups and issues through the character of Lara. On the surface, my film appears to be a light hearted rom-com, however, it does address important issues in society. A study conducted by the BBC revealed that 93% of women agreed that they were judged more on appearance than ability. 47% believed that their looks held them back most of the time. At the start of the film trailer, Lara is represented as a socially awkward girl. Despite her intelligence and academic success, Lara is treated very poorly by her peers. According to the British Federation of Women Graduates’ qualitative research on women in academia has found that gender issues still exist. As Lara does not fit into the societal expectation that women should present themselves in a certain manner; dressing in feminine clothing and perhaps makeup, she is treated differently. Alongside this, her love for reading leaves her to be an easy target for bullies. Lara feels the only way to get her crushes’ attention is to wear more revealing clothing, experimenting with makeup and straightening her hair. This outlook on the expectations of women is almost comedic, with Lara desperately trying to get fit and attempt pull ups in order to change her exterior. However, despite the comedy, there are also some eye-opening moments in the film where Lara realises that the best way to be with the person she loves, is to just remain true to herself.

The name of our film is titled; ‘Tru 2 U’. To create a sense of branding we first established our goals, planned accordingly and then reverse-engineer from there. Our goal was to ensure that our ‘Tru 2 U’ brand name is recognisable and established across a variety of online platforms. The ‘Tru 2 U’ title is catchy. We used an abbreviation as they are catchy and easy to remember. In order to successfully create a sense of branding in the promo pack it’s important to be authentic and not do what everyone else is doing. Therefore, we explored the idea of introducing an exclusive merchandise line, which includes an inclusive mini fashion line to promote confidence and individuality in teenage girls. All the merchandise includes the ‘Tru 2 U’ brand name including the stationary on sale. This creates consistency throughout the promo pack. As a production team we carried out additional research to see how our competitors advertise their film. We learn that focusing on a particular genre makes getting an audience and gaining popularity a lot easier. Therefore, across our promo pack, we stuck to our teen high school drama genre. Our brand identity consists of our ‘Tru 2 U’ brand name and the positioning of our film in the teen high school genre. We aimed to gear our promo pack towards a young audience (13-25) through the colours, language and fonts. As a production team we brainstormed ideas and played word-association games to spark up ideas for our brand name, slogans and tagline.

It is important to engage my audience as this helps create better and more relevant content for the ‘Tru 2 U’ brand. We have done this by posting clips, stills, bloopers and BTS stories. Engaging with the audience can benefit our brand. By understanding our audience better, we can communicate with them through different channels. For instance, I used TIK TOK to engage audiences. I added some fun BTS videos and exclusive insights to the film. TIK TOK allowed me to maintain the film’s unique visual style by incorporating the film’s bright colours; the colour scheme that represents our brand. This is also evident on the film website and Twitter feed. Our signature style is unique and differentiates us from other brands. We have used high-quality videos and photographs to give our promo pack a professional edge. In order to continuously engage audiences across all platforms, we have diversified our content to ensure that it is not repetitive. We have further engaged with our audiences by liking and replying to their comments. This will give the audience an incentive to keep checking in our posts.  Furthermore, we made a live video on TIK TOK to give audiences an opportunity to ask questions about the film. It also helped us grow our audience further and engage and interact with followers. Arguably, the most crucial and creative form of marketing is breaking the thought pattern of your target audience. As TIK TOK users scroll through the app at a fast pace, we have used humour and desire in order to capture their attention and draw attention to our videos. 

Using the ‘STICKYBRANDING’ website, I researched how to challenge conventions. I learnt that even when two production companies use the same strategy, they will likely achieve two completely different outcomes. The outcomes differ depending on their creativity and execution. For David Aaker, ‘the best ideas not executed well and consistently will fail.’ Successful branding breaks away from the status quo and funds a new way to be interesting and relevant. As a film company, we have pushed boundaries and tested limits to immediately stand out. As TIK TOK is a reasonably new form of marketing, film companies are still testing the waters, leaving an opportunity for us as a film company to enter an unsaturated market. We have challenged conventions by creating TIK TOK’s addressing what the film is about, and explaining how it differs to other high school films. Even though I found myself being fearful of the unknown and how my initiative will be received, fear is a sign that I am taking a risk and consequently challenging typical industry conventions. Doug Kessler ‘Exceptional Content-challenging the invisible convention of marketing’ elucidates a concept called ‘invisible conventions.’ An example is the idea that as a production company we may decide to stick with traditional conventions such as a website and YouTube because ‘we have always done it that way.’ For Kessler, invisible conventions are powerful as they constrain us without us evening knowing it. By following my instinct and using other forms of marketing via social media, I have challenged the invisible conventions. Traditional marketing is all about the brand, whereas, content market focuses on the audience.  I have used content marketing as it delivers value to my audience and builds trust in a new and unexpected way.