Learning about the CCR!

Last week in class we learned about the Creative Critical Reflection we have to submit along with our Portfolio!

The purpose of the CCR is to reflect on the planning, production, and final product correlative with the portfolio project that we worked on for almost two months! Cambridge has four compulsory questions that we must answer thoroughly. This reflection has to express our personality, which is what I think I'm going to struggle with the most. The CCR in general has to be a creative presentation that showcases the unique approach we took to taking on the portfolio project. 

Apparently, we need to create two media products that respond to the questions. Our options include:

• Presentation with voiceover which we export as a movie
• director commentary - combination of director speaking on camera which includes examples from the production
• talk show - a "host" interviews the director
• enhanced podcast - discuss responses to questions with contextual sounds edited in to ensure engagement.
• other: develop another creative way to respond to prompts and illustrate technique

There are four questions we have to answer:

1. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
2. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

For the first question, we have to start by discussing the genre conventions. I have a whole blog post on this! - I learned that it is very important for us to cite our information. Next, we have to dicuss why we chose to challenge or not challenge typical genre convections. Because we chose romantic comedies and this genre typically never challenges the "rom-com formula," I'll probably say we didn't challenge any norms. We have to end the first question with a discussion on representation. 

For the second question, I have to discuss how we arrived at the chosen target audience. Romantic comedies are enjoyed the most by women of a wide range of age - some information I'll likely incude in my CCR. On the topic of target audience, we have to discuss why our content and production techniques correlate to our intented audience. This project continues to remind me of how much of a newbie I am to media, so my reponse will definetly show our disadvantages when distributing the film to audiences. Realistically, this will likely be uploaded on platforms like YouTube. 

For the third question, I have to reflect on the portfolio process and how I evolved throughout the production. I have to go through the research and planning phase, the filming phase, and the editing phase. I also need to talk about the changes and adaptations that needed to be made. When answering this question, I have to go through the entire process of how the production started and how it ended.

For the last question, we have to discuss all the technology that we used - this includes the hardware (cameras, lighting, microphone, etc.) and software. 

The ending has to include a final statement, what I learned, what I would do differently, and how I could improve.

Some tips for the CCR:

- Write a script

- Made sure the media is creative and engaging

- Incorporate research!!

- Don't just be a talking head

- Provide thorough responses, not general ones

Whew! This is gonna be a lot. I have to start planning this fast. Until next time!