"Mind Chase" Short Film

Critical Reflection

How do your products represent social groups or issues?

My project kind of represents everyone in some way. But the huge social group that is represented in my product are teenagers and people that are struggling with mental health, specifically stress and depression. It is evident through the dark and sad tone throughout the main product and the supporting products used to promote the main product.

I wanted to represent my character as someone that is broken and always thinks they are fine while still being aware of their problems. This is represented throughout the short film. As well as the main postcard design with the broken shards of glass. The main fonts style that I used are also glitchy and shatery which supports the look that I was aiming for. The darker colour palette as well as how the character is styled with simple outfits and just a straight face throughout all products. All of the elements take into account Barthe’s theory on symbolic and semantic codes. Create meaning for those that get the symbols as well as create a mystery to interest the targetted audience.

While it’s quite dark to convey the sadness and stress of the character, I also wanted to show that it’s not always like that. It’s not always constant depression and sadness so I used binary opposition to show that despite everything, there’s still happiness at moments. So in some scenes, the palette is completely opposite to the main colour tone. It’s bright and shiny, showing off a happy side to the character.

How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

Branding is the process of creating a distinct and coherent identity for a product in the mind of the target audience. All of the elements of my production work together to create a sense of branding.

The main theme of my product is very dark and mysterious, which is conveyed throughout the main short film, postcard and social media page. All have the same distinct black colour to them. Following that, there is a consistent insert of the “smiley face” symbol which can be seen on the postcard, and social media page and hidden throughout the duration of the short film.

The main genre of the film is psychological horror. Neale believes that films of a type should include features that are similar, so the audience knows it is a horror film or romance, but also include features that are different, to keep an audience interested. I kept the distinct horror characteristics through the dark colour palette seen in all products. The short film contains a lot of tense and non-diegetic sounds to stick to the horror genre. But I was also able to differentiate it by having features of drama and some action. I aimed for a “dream-like” story where nothing makes sense, like dreams and it is evident in my final product.

There’s also a touch of vintage vibes which is seen in my branding. The slight intentional grains in the short film. As well as the graininess in the postcard was complimented by a creamy white colour. The washed-out colour of the main picture. The posts on my main social media page also feature vintage, old-looking looks. Which I was able to incorporate by editing elements to create the distinct and cohesive look that I’m aiming for. The most noticeable is the paper-textured black background incorporated with the pictures of tapes.

It was also important for me to find a unique font that I could use throughout the film, social media page and postcard as the title of the short film. As well as incorporate the same styling into the posts on social media. The main font that I chose has a shattered look to it which I like and it goes well with the shattered picture on the postcard which also has a hidden meaning that relates to the main short film. Which the audience can denote, adding meaning to them. It’s a way to hook them in according to Barthes's five codes theory, specifically the enigma code.

My initial idea of having a “dream-like” and mysterious product was able to guide me effectively in designing my whole brand. The inspirations of scrapbooking and mystery solving, interrogation room vibes and many pop culture media products surrounding me have also helped to shape the main branding and concept that I aimed for.

How do your products engage with the audience?

The main audience of “Mind Chase” is young adults going through their own struggles in life. To engage with this audience the best, I thought it would be best to use Instagram as the main platform. Having eye-catching and well-designed social media posts. While still sticking to the main theme to make it mysterious and interest the targeted audience.

I started my engagement with the audience by releasing sneak peek/teaser photos of the short films. They are screenshots throughout the film and I blurred the picture to make it even more mysterious to be able to hook them and interest them in the final product. It is encoded full of small details that have hidden meanings which can be interesting to some that can decode the meaning. The captions are simple and give little detail to make it even more mysterious and match the branding.

There is also a countdown until the short film comes out and each day has another sneak peek into the main product to get the audience excited. I used the grid style and used a black background in different paper textures as the background in the post designs to make it more uniform. So all of the posts look cohesive throughout the page. There are little few opportunities for interaction between the product and the audience to be more on-brand as mysterious and sticking to the depressed character. For example, there is little text in the captions and the focus is more on the pictures and visuals rather than reading.

How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

I researched many different award-winning and well-respected psychological horrors and found many of the same conventions. It is clear that the dark and blue tone is present in most of the products. Psychological horrors usually consist of little to no paranormal details, unlike horror movies. There’s a present struggle that the main character goes through and an “evil” force that they have to overcome.

In particular, I researched the 2021 film “The Innocents” by Eskil Vogt. It is more of a horror and thriller however it has many elements and conventions of psychological horrors that I wanted to incorporate in my film. The darkness is seen throughout the branding of the movie. Which is seen through the trailer, poster and website. The storyline also has details similar to my story. Broken children, silent battles between each other and hallucinations.

Besides that, it is clear that I’ve also taken a lot of inspiration and did a lot of research on Moon Knight (2022). Not only that, the Marvel Disney+ series, was also the reason why I came up with the main idea for my short film in the first place. The conventions of psychological horrors are more evident in this tv series. I was inspired by a lot of the scenes and scenarios that one of the characters went through. Experiencing the unbelievable and waking up believing that it was all just a dream. And these switches from intense scenes to “reality” making him believe that he is hallucinating. The dark theme throughout the series is also one of the conventional psychological horrors. As well as the dark and intense sound drones.

I was inspired by quite a lot of different products and through the research I was able to see the typical conventions that create a good psychological horror. Most of the products that I researched were surrounded by supernatural powers which isn’t typical of the genre and is something that I did not include in the short film.

I tried to challenge the conventions by having a limited amount of characters in my final product. There are also some lighter scenes in the film which is the opposite of the typical dark tone in psychological horrors. The story also doesn’t really fully gets resolved as the character doesn’t fully get away from the “evil” forces.

"Mind Chase" Official Social Media Page

https://www.instagram.com/mindchase.official/