ok lets go over some of the CR stuff (BOOOOORING AMIRIGHT CAMBRIDGE??? Cambridge? Cambridge, you good? Oh, you didn't appreciate my joke, ok I'm sorry) ( I don't like the French if that helps? I like Manchester United. Are you a Red Devil Fan? I probably got a City fan oooooo I swear if I get a City fan and they give me a C OOOOOOO you will not want to face me) (ok I'm done)
Bang Bang reflection gang, let's go. The essay has to be around 1000 words and answer 4 important questions:
How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?
How do your products represent social groups or issues?
How do your products engage with the audience?
How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
light work no reaction
So first
How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?
The research we did falls into two phases, because our idea changed so dramatically mid-process. When we first landed on the fourth wall break as our core device, we looked at Fleabag to understand how to write a character who talks directly to the camera. We took specific notes on how that relationship between Claire and the audience should feel, less like a performance, more like she is confiding in her only friend. That informed everything about how Claire speaks in the void sequences.
When the story shifted into high school drama territory, our research shifted with it. Mean Girls became our primary reference for how to write the main trio and balance comedy with real social stakes.
We took a lot of notes on how those characters were written, and adapted a lot of it into Claire, Sarina, and Andreina. The Craft and Heathers gave us a guideline on how to be dark and campy simultaneously. Jennifer's Body gave us the central idea that the most popular girl in school could also be the monster. That realization is what made Andreina click as a character.
The research helped us know which conventions to challenge. The standard teen drama is shot naturalistically and handheld. We went the opposite direction, choosing composed and deliberate framing, and built the black void sequences as something with no real precedent in the genre.
ok next
How do your products represent social groups or issues?
W*TCH! is about the social world of high school girls and the pressure that comes with it. It happens very often that teenagers make decisions they don't agree with just to fit in, and that can leave others feeling abandoned. That is the central conflict of the film. Sarina is the clearest example of this. She changed, not because she wanted to, but because of pressure she couldn't escape. Claire's entire arc is built around recognizable acts of social survival: sitting next to strangers, following someone she isn't sure about, pulling a tarot card she doesn't want to pull.
It was also important to us that we represented witchcraft responsibly. There are real practicing witches in the world, and while no character in our film belongs to any specific organization, we wanted to honor the practices we were adapting. We used a real tarot deck on set and performed a spread that is genuinely used by practicing witches.
At its heart, the film argues that the people who truly know you are worth more than any popular crowd. The reconnection between Claire and Sarina is the thesis. True friendship survives. Real people find their way back.
okie next 1
How do your products engage with the audience?
We thought about audience engagement at every level, not just in the film itself. On social media, we drew a direct line between W*TCH! and films our target audience already loves. Posts that said if you liked Mean Girls, watch our film did the work of signaling immediately who this was for: teenagers and young women who recognize that world.
Our postcard, designed to be handed out at the Lightning Film Festival, extended the branding into something physical. The front featured our tarot card visual identity, and the back carried a short description of the film alongside details on where to watch it. It was designed to feel like an artifact from the world of the film itself.
Within the film, the fourth wall breaks are the primary engagement tool. Claire's voice in the void is her inner monologue, and for a Gen Z audience, that voice is immediately familiar. Everyone has felt alone, and that is the emotion we are channeling. The montage sequence works similarly; Claire looks like she is fitting in, but keeps glancing at Sarina, whose smile is too wide. It pulls the audience into active watching rather than passive viewing.
ok last one
How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
Our branding makes a very clear statement about the film. We built the entire visual identity around the tarot cards used on set, scanning the actual deck to create our graphic elements. Every post on social media is either formatted as a tarot card or features tarot elements, creating immediate recognition across the feed.
Font choice was a big part of this. We leaned heavily into a gothic aesthetic, commonly associated with witches and the otherworldly, that runs through every touchpoint, from the social media graphics to the postcard to the visual atmosphere of the film itself.
Within the film, the black void sequences, the candlelit seance, and the shift in music from upbeat to ominous during the montage all work together to build and sustain that atmosphere.
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