CCR Question 1

Now that I have edited my project and am pretty much finished, it is time for the CCR. I’m still not fully sure what I will be doing for the CCR. Possibly, I will be doing a short film, news segment, or informational segment for the CCR. But before I decide all that, I must first come up with a script and answer the CCR's questions.

The first question in the CCR is, how does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues? To answer this question I have to know how my video uses or challenges, conventions, and how it represents social groups or issues. I feel that this is the best way for me to answer. This question is to break it down into certain parts.

First, I have to identify my project, so what type of product is it? My project is a film opening/short film. Next, I must know what genre or style it follows. My film opening is in the genre of romance drama. The style of the film is very dramatic with the feeling of a typical struggling relationship.

Now that I have identified it, I must discuss its conventions. Does your project follow conventions? My film opening follows the traditional sense of romantic dramas due to the craziness of relationships, and the fact that drama always happens. It follows the style that most relationships are of two people, and that a relationship isn’t always perfect. Also, the film's opening creates a story of suspense while also wanting to understand the characters just like in most romance, dramas, like Love and Other Drugs, Waves, and more. Now I must answer, does it challenge conventions? The film's opening has a different feel to it than most romantic dramas. Instead of starting out with learning about a certain character or showing off the relationship in a good state. My phone starts straight in the action of their problems rather than in their prime. I also made the film focus on both characters rather than on just one usually on most romantic dramas. It focuses on one character rather than both. Though in most films it shows the couple and highlights one character mine focuses on both and later highlights both characters. My characters are also younger, and in most romantic dramas the characters are more towards their 20s and 30s while my characters are in the range of 19 to 21.

Representation of social groups or issues is the next topic. Now I must figure out which social groups are depicted in my film. The film's opening has two males and one female. The main couple of the film are both white and Hispanic. The character at the end is a white American. The couple in the film are both in the same economic status as they are both college students and live together in the same house. This means that they both work and provide for each other like paying rent and paying for other needs and wants. How are they represented? These characters are represented as a young couple who are starting their adult lives. The fighting that they are doing is a typical stereotype of most younger people type of fighting. They also reinforce the stereotype of the toxic/toxic relationships of most younger couples and Hispanic couples. What social issues are tackled? In the film's opening, we seem to get introduced to some social issues like mental health, which in the film is shown by the reflection of the argument and the argument itself. Also, the hint towards the girl in the relationship crying. There are also hints of possible domestic violence, violation of privacy, exploitation, and social isolation. Why was this representation important? I feel that I wanted to use Hispanic actors and characters because of my connection to the Hispanic community and because of my lineage. I also feel that there’s not much representation of Hispanic people in film, but it is growing ever so slightly every day. I also feel that most of the time when talking about romance, they focus on couples that are older and a bit more towards the side of marriage, but they never really focus on younger relationships, especially ones that come out of high school. Most people feel that those types of relationships aren’t real or are not as important as ones that are when you are older. But that is not the case because lots of relationships start at high school and then flourish to what they are now so I feel that highlighting what happens before the flourishing.

Lastly, is the impact on the audience. How do you want your audience to react? I wanted my audience to feel the pressure of the arguments and the struggle in the relationship. I wanted people to notice the struggle in the mental health of certain characters as well as the possible issues in the relationship, like exploitation, violence, and violation of privacy. I wanted my younger audiences to understand the stuff that was going on since most of what is happening is things that younger audiences would understand than older or that older audiences could reflect on what happened when they were younger. I also wanted people to notice the actors that I chose and how they represent where they are from. I wanted people to easily tell what race or ethnicity the actors were. Overall, I wanted this film to be clearly different than most romance dramas. Does it raise awareness or challenge perceptions? I feel that my film does raise awareness about problems in relationships. People should look at this relationship and reflect. Especially those who are in relationships, should look at this and feel that they don’t want to get to this point or realize that this point in the relationship could be coming soon. I also feel that this film shows a different perception that most of the time most films show the man overpowering the woman in arguments or fights, but in this film, they both seem to be at a balance of power. The film also shows a person who seems to be pretty happy and has good habits, but as it is revealed, she isn’t as perfect as it seems and has a few issues.

After answering all these questions and breaking down the main question, I feel that I can answer the question better and be able to write it down more easily so that I can put it into my script. I can probably answer the question similarly to how I did in this blog, but of course, I will make it shorter and when doing the CCR I will make it look more presentable.