Critical Reflection Questions

 1. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?  

   Our music video challenges conventions because it takes on a different perspective from a classic pop music video. We mainly wanted to focus on the message of the song rather than the actual music video. The only convention that we did include in our video is that we wanted to express our happiness, which is very common to see in pop music videos. We dance around for a scene and did our makeup, all aspects that could be seen in today's music video. Seeing girls get ready to go out and pick out their outfits are common conventions. One example is Iggy Azalea's music video to Fancy, the entire music video was inspired by the classic rom-com Clueless. She began the video by picking out an outfit and getting ready for school, a common introduction to see in pop music videos by female artists. 

    Like we mentioned, the most important part of our product was the message that it conveys. Our message was that no matter what your skin color is, your age, or gender they are not aspects in relationships. Even though we have come so far inequality, there are still people today that have issues with POC. Being black in this country already comes with many disadvantages. You are seen as a target and are constantly being monitored by authorities. It can be draining to see all the things you hear on the news. Another black man being killed because he was in a white neighborhood, black men being falsely accused of crimes he didn't commit, white women bashing black women because of the clothing they wear. All enormous issues that don't receive that much attention on the media as it should. That's why my partner Suzie and I wanted to make a video showing that there can and one day will be harmony among all races. The main issue here is that as much as we want to change and need change. It won't be easy to achieve, we live in a white man's world. A world where the only people that are benefited are rich white men. Minorities are constantly being belittled and shamed for being who they are, knowing they can't change that. At the end of the day, we all bleed the same. Instead of hating each other, we should work together to make this world a better place. When I look at my friend, Suzie I don't see her skin color. I see my best friend a person I can go to for anything, a person I can share all my secrets to. People, especially the older generations have stuck with the stereotype that race determines who you are inside. Black people are criminals, Hispanics are illegal immigrants, Muslims are terrorists. All of these stereotypes are clearly making it difficult for people to break their barriers and get to know people deeper than what they look like on the outside. It's way more common to see interracial platonic relationships as they are seen as less "harmless." Being in a romantic interracial relationship is much different, people criticize men and women who are in a romantic relationship with a person of a different race. It can be seen as disrespectful to the older generations because they want to preserve the race. Meaning having "mixed" children ruins the bloodline. This criticism could be seen for both parties. 

    The social group that we targeted for our music video is anyone who doesn't care what a person's race is. The younger generations clearly are more acceptable and don't see race as a factor. What should be a factor is a person's personality. If they are kind to others, respectful, have morals, care for others. All things you should consider rather than their skin color. Beliefs and politics also can be a factor.  In today's world, people are confusing political views with morals. For some reason, people think equality is a political view when it's clearly a human right. At the end of the day like Michael Jackosn once said, it doesn't matter if you're black or white. 

2. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text? 

    Our product engages with audiences who have the same view that race is so often looked like a negative thing. This shouldn't be the case. It's so unfortunate to see people's experiences with being black in this country. Even in the song, Michael Jackson wrote it because he wanted to share his experience with racism. Black men and women often have to act a certain way to ensure their safety. Act polite, speak like this, don't wear this. They have to tiptoe in today's society just to make sure they live another day. It makes one realize how much privilege they have. Our music video could also appeal to people who also have interracial relationships. They might have experienced events where they were bashed for the people they had in their life. Told things like "they're bad influences" or "watch your things when you're around them."All hurtful things that could ruin a person's self-esteem. Our music video would be distributed as a real media text on any platform that wants to spread awareness on the topic. This could be Youtube or educational websites. Potentially even celebrity or influences social media pages. It's important for large users to use their platforms for good. Sharing news that wouldn't typically be seen on your news channel on TV. 

3. How did your production skills develop throughout the project? 

    In the last couple of projects, I feel like I defiantly took the safe and easy route. I didn't go out of my comfort zone and didn't do something revolutionary. I am still very proud of how my commercial video came out. Throughout this project, my skills developed because I had used the prior knowledge I've gained from previous projects. Also, I learned how to take my partners and I's ideas and come up with a topic that we both liked. Making sure your team are all on the same page is important. You don't want to clash ideas and end up making something not everyone agreed on. Also, the most important thing that I learned was to always double-check your work. Unfortunately, my partner and I filmed our scenes vertically rather than horizontally. We noticed when we began editing and couldn't turn back and refilm. We now both know to make sure we are doing everything correctly. Sometimes small mistakes like that can be very jeopardizing. Overall, with what I've learned from this project I can now take to any future projects. 

4. How did you integrate technologies-software, hardware, and online- in this project? 

    Firstly, I used online websites to figure out what song we wanted to use for the project. Once we figured that and were on the same page we began to research conventions on our genre. For our research blog, we looked into Jackson's reason for writing his song and looked more into the message.  Further, into the project, we kept using Youtube to research and learn more about other music videos. We looked into popular pop music videos to get some inspiration. However, we wanted to do the opposite of a stereotypical pop music video and make it more educational. Focusing more on the message than the visuals.  when we began filming we used our cell phones to film all our scenes. The software we used to edit was Cute Cut Pro, I've used this software for previous projects and I definitely love how easy it is to use. The editing process is fun, quick, and easy and allows us to be creative when editing our videos. Overall the experience was great, there are defiantly improvements to make but that's how you learn and take in consideration your knowledge for future projects.