CCR

   The short film 'Campaign' is loosely based on the Second world war. Despite the numerous restrictions we had involving the location of our filming set and actors, it still manages to showcase several of the hardships that soldiers endured during the grueling six yearlong conflict. That gets us into our first social issue, which is war. Conflicts between nations and within them have occurred throughout history. As technology advanced, weapons of destruction advanced to become more efficient as well. Due to our product being a short film, there is not enough time to get into the politics of the time. Fate also comes quick and unexpectedly for those who were unfortunate enough to be in the heated part of the conflict. Originally, I planned for more to be shown and hoped that everything would go smoothly. Many things had to be changed from the original plan due to things that happened with outside groups which we had no control over. The reenactment group that was going to the event cancelled their plans, so we had to adjust our plans as a result. Mechanized warfare was supposed to be a huge factor behind the making of the film, but we could no longer do this. Instead, a more isolated and personal reflection of war had to be shown instead. The main soldier who we saw in the beginning was created to represent the blind sidedness and arrogance of one who was acclaimed to conflict. The other soldier was one who shared arrogance with his comrade at first, but in the face of danger realized that it was not worth dying for something not important to him. Another social issue that out film covers is prisoners of war, but only during certain parts. It is a directly caused by war and it happens when a soldier from one army surrenders to another. This occurred in Sicily (the battle which this short film is loosely based on) with a lot of soldiers from the Axis giving up to the Allied forces. The scene where the American soldier captures the main character at the end showcases a scenario like this.

  Our short film does create a sense of branding. Firstly, it is a period film that takes place at a time period of much historical significance. As a result, there is a lot of potential of more films like this sprouting out. Perhaps, our production company can make another film in the American perspective of the same battle. The main character mentioned Africa, so another short film could take place there as well and act as a prequel. Different parts of our editing such as the naming of all the actors and people who took part in production make them know. If they appear in future films, they could be recognized as actors who took part in prior films and become more well known to the viewers. The same can be said for the production company. The name of it is CMJS, which is culmination of the first letter of the first names of everyone involved in the main team. Combining these two aspects of our film, reproduction and stating the name of the production company and those involved, can contribute to a sense of branding. 

  Engaging the audience with a short film may seem like a difficult task, but it is certainly possible. The simplest way in doing this is to edit your film appropriately and not create an environment that underwhelms or overwhelms your audience. In other words, edit your film to have a good balance of realism and enough effects to keep viewers entertained. Of course, there are other ways to engage your audience outside the of the film itself. We made a digital postcard showcasing the release of 'Campaign'. It was created to make our project seem like it expands beyond just the realm of film. It reaches potential audiences who may have an interest in a film based on a historical event or war. Also, a website was created to compliment this. The website contains all the links and information regarding the short film. It is important to create websites so that information about our film is readily available. Lastly, we created a social media to reach audiences who use social media platforms. One of which being the Instagram app. Broadening our target audience to those who use social media can increase viewership. Especially in the modern world, where high numbers of people use social media to search for means of entertainment. This also raises the publicity of the film and could potentially make it more popular. These kinds of apps have sharing features, so if someone likes a post about our film, they have the option to share it to a friend or family member. Despite us not making our short film with the sole purpose of entertaining the audience, it is still very important to maintain a balance between catching our viewers' attention and getting the purpose of the film across to them. Most of the well-known production companies and film franchises have their own social medias. Further on down the road, the production company would make its own social media that displays its works. Since we have only created one film, the page created was for the short film only. It is in theory run by our production company. If and when we make future content, we could change the name of the Instagram page to match the name of our production company rather than 'Campaign short film'. This would match the work of professionals who make short films about similar topics and gives viewers insight into every project. To finish off, we used whatever editing skills we had and made a digital postcard, website, and social media page to show our products off to our audience and engage with them.

  In the making of 'Campaign', there was a lot of research conducted before going on set. Personally, I wanted to respect the whole background behind the war the film is based on while at the same time doing the most with the little we had. At first, we had a good plan that included much of what the Invasion of Sicily had, but we could not rely on other people to go through with our plans. Most of our research was for historical accuracy purposes and making out short film decently accurate to what soldiers in Sicily looked like. In a way, this connects to the use of conventions. We managed to follow the format of what many other short films do. One being a limited range of cast members. There were only three characters in the film, not including the dead one from the beginning. Short films also generally contain a plot twist. Ours is not a very obvious one, but instead makes you think. The main character was the one that was expected to be killed off, but the other one who tried to give up early was instead. There was a lot of irony involved in this plot twist instead of being blunt and shocking. This makes our short film unique in a sense that it both uses and challenges this convention.