Critical Reflection

  This is my critical self reflection

In this particular project, we were instructed to make a crime documentary ranging between 3 to 5 minutes according to the brief shown by my subject Teacher, Mr Nick. The basic synopsis of the documentary would be that Bagus (my real name), a boy in high school who has feelings for her best friend, confessed to her but got rejected. And from then on what was originally a happy person turned to a sorrowful and miserable guy who ended up disappearing alongside his crush.

Before the whole project, each one of us did our own individual research on crime documentary openings. Same with everyone, all of us in the group did 5 crime documentary researches. Doing all this research was particularly challenging but everything was fun at the same time. Through the extensive research I have done, I have understood the aspects of a true crime documentary and its conventions. Camera wise, through my research I learnt that the camera angles in crime documentaries usually use close up angles in order to focus the shots to the emotions of the speaker, enabling the viewers to make a connection and experience the emotion that the speakers are going through. Medium shots are also used frequently in order to show the viewer the body language that the speaker shows, this too is also done in order for the viewers to further figure out the emotion that each of the speakers are feeling. We applied this finding to all of the interview scenes. As for the reenactment scenes and the establishing shots, we used long angles with static movements and longer shot durations to create more mystery through stationary movements, in which this creates the sense of nothingness, and gives the direct clue of the question,”did the crime happen here”, this is also done to create an eerie feeling through silence and the absence of activity in the shots, this was used in the filming of the establishing shots in Bagas’ house. 

Through Mise En Scene, research of these documentaries pointed out the typical convention of dark coloured themes, from props, scenes and clothing. Conforming to these conventions were the best decision as we had all of the necessary equipment. The best examples of the mise en scene conventions are shown through Nicho’s interview scene, the dark lighting was intentional in order to create a sense of seriousness and an eerie feeling of the descriptions that Nicho has mentioned, this is further supported by the dark clothing that he used, this is used in order for the viewer to feel the negativity in Nichos’ emotion and description and create a further image of mystery and somewhat confusion. By doing this, we have successfully Applied a media Theory which is called five narrative codes by barthes in which we applied hermeneutic codes that involve the use of mystery in order to enhance the suspense aspect. This further supports the use of early research. On the other hand though, the two other interviewees were dressed to represent social groups and the general setting, which will be discussed in another paragraph. We still forced darker colours on each of the other interviewees. In which both Louis and Saka was wearing dark coloured clothing. An additional aspect was through acting, in which Nicho was instructed to talk at a slower pace as the scene builds on, this is also done to add the suspense aspect.

Through sound, I personally have researched documentaries particularly in American Murder, in which the music will intensify throughout the documentary itself the longer it goes, this will add the sense of suspense And mystery in which the viewers can feel some sort of anticipation. Youtube also helped our research as it enables us to identify that this is a somewhat fixed convention in crime documentaries. I, alongside the other people in our group, have used this information to give feedback to the sound of the documentary.  Furthermore, our teacher has given extra feedback for us to build on and perfect the documentary.

For the part of editing, we have discovered from research that these crime documentaries use actual images and videos of the crime scene in order to add to the aspect of a realism this also gives the viewers a chance to visualize what has happened. This can enable them to guess what will happen next,  this will keep the reader attached to the documentary and this will make them keep watching. We have used this research to our advantage as we haved used actual footage of me as the criminal. 

For the things that we subverted, it is safe to say that the use of camera angles, as the typical conventions of documentaries include  more movements e.g random movement have been shifted to more static shots, this can also, as mentioned, get the aspect of mystery and nothingness and could be as effective as random movements. 

In our future project, I personally would add 2-3 more mini researches in order to know the broader aspects of crime documentaries. 

Moving on to representations of social groups, we have decided to represent Indonesian teenagers with the age range of 17 years and in high school. We also aim to target both female and male audiences. The preferred reading that we strive for the audience to understand would be the fact that people handle rejections in different ways, not everybody can accept it, and that boys are stereotyped as naughty and deviant. 

Through the visible elements, to represent the age range of 17 year olds, we picked young actors which are actually 17 year olds, and to represent the Indonesian side, we used Nicho’s part as a prime example of the use of the technical element of sound, in which he speaks fully Indonesian in the interviews. Furthermore,through Mise En Scene,  Saka was using grey long pants, in which this only applies to Indonesian high school students as only they wear it. For gender in the aim of both genders being represented alongside their stereotypes in which girls are innocent and boys are deviant, we have a teenage, innocent girl playing as the girl who was murdered, And me as the deviant psychopathic boy. 

We have decided to make the issues of murder and kidnapping as the main reading, in which we used Stuart Hall’s reception theory as we want to suggest that this is a very risky thing to do that will literally have very bad consequences, we wanted to raise awareness, that anything can happen and anyone can be anybody and not to trust everybody, we want them to decode the meaning that kidnapping and murder is obviously not a good thing to do. All of these visual and technical aspects mentioned above contributed to the building of suspense in the intro. 

In audience engagement, similar to the psychographics and demographics of audience representation, we wanted to engage with Indonesian high school students who are 17 year olds, in which they like crime and mystery as their main genres to watch. This particular documentary will appeal to them as firstly as they are young, hormones will go crazy and teenagers will eventually learn how to date and fall in love, this failed and horribly wrong love story can relate to what is happening in their lives right now. This also goes in line with the issues of mental health awareness of teenagers right now, that rejection can take a heavy toll on their mentality and how they think of love, as proven by Bagus in the documentary. This also relates to the aspect of being Indonesian, as usually here, love stories are almost always romanticised in a very good and happy, or just borderline sad and emotional, but it does not always end that way. 

In the topic of the uses and gratification theory primarily suggested by Bulmer and Katz, in diversion, as Indonesian love stories are usually very lovey dovey or just sad. We have conformed to diversion as we added the aspect of murder in a teenage scene, which rarely happens in Indonesia. This makes our product more unique and exciting for the Indonesian public to watch. And more generally all over the world, teenage love stories of 17 year olds dont usually include murder, we have included murder. Through personal identity in our product, we tried making Bagus a role model, this is evident through the accounts of his friends saying that he was a very good friend, but with a twisted turn in the end that he was a murderer. Through social relationships, we can prove that people with the same problems should be able to talk about it with a professional, or a friend to talk it out of their emotions, and through surveillance, we wanted to raise awareness of the insane things that people can do, and to look out on our lives. 

Through thumbnail, we have used red, bold colours and black and white to attract the attention of the viewers, red connotes to blood and bold connotes to seriousness, in which this will catch their eyes almost immediately due to the slightly bright red and the contrasts of colours in black and white, and through hermeneutic codes, we did not even mention what even happened to them both in the intro. 

Lastly, through the aspect of branding, firstly, branding is somewhat like a collection of our production output, packaged in an attractive manner to our audience. It is very important in communicating the value and credibility of the documentary. A good example is the thumbnail of the documentary. For the storytelling, we subtly hinted at the plot by portraying a smiling Bagus (me) as a main character with a black and white background that represents happiness. As the background gradually turns black, it reflects his transformation into depression and rejection. The slowly developing visual aspect of the thumbnail was in line with the flow of the documentary, starting with slow-paced dramatic moments highlighting the joyful experiences of Bagus:. His smile flickers out when the lighting reduces and the mis-en-scène itself takes on a generally darker hue as he takes on more serious themes. Since a thumbnail simply showcases what is to be seen before watching, attention is key from the very beginning.

This is one of the hardest parts of the project, I am not looking forward to doing this ever again. I dislocated my left shoulder while doing this and needed to do all this with one limb. Regardless, this somewhat helped me so i know what will be coming for me in the next project.