Week 8 Post 2: The Critical Reflection😟

     A lot of people will look at me and what I make and just assume "oh goofy robbie at it again, gee there's no deeper meaning here" and while that may be true for some of my last projects, it's not for this one. Let's go.

I’d like to start with the branding of Topspin, since it is probably the first thing that sticks out when you look at all the components side by side. My goal was for it to be apparent that the film was a comedy, and that events in the movie weren’t meant to be in a realistic world. I chose bright red and orange to be colors that carry through nearly all aspects of the project, as they are

recognizable and fit the coloring of the film. The red and orange contrast well with the bright blue skies and green grass that are present in the film. The vision I had for the look of the project was a highly saturated picture, which is why for a lot of scenes, I chose to have them outdoors. This made filming especially tricky, having to wait for clear skies to begin shooting. Originally, I thought I’d try and have the vibe of the film tied to a specific genre of music, but as production went on, I put a multitude of kinds of music in the film, all having a certain edge to them that matches the branding. Similar to this, I didn’t stick to any certain pattern of social media posts, rather having a wide variety of posts. I chose to start the social media as the personal instagram of my main character as representation of the film as a whole. The social media shows that there is always more to something that meets the eye, something especially true for my film. 

The issue I chose to represent in my project was the issue of identity. The dilemma between tennis guy and evil tennis guy represents the constant search for identity in our world. How others perceive us is something that can consume us, and some will even go as far as to be untrue to themselves in the search for approval. I’ve spent a large part of this year desperately trying to build myself up to be seen as someone with a respectable amount of talent amongst my CBTV peers. In going to STN, I saw my skilled and experienced friends go up on stage and be awarded for their hard work in their respective categories. And in those moments, I so desperately wanted to be just like them. I wanted to lead a team to victory. I wanted to be just like all of them. Later that weekend, my good friend Matias gave us some unforgettable words of wisdom. He told us all that we shouldn’t aspire to be just like the people around us, but rather aspire to be the best version of ourselves. In that moment I realized that my journey has been unique to anyone else’s, just like anyone else’s is to mine. With tennis guy, I showed that he didn’t need to follow his father’s footsteps to feel satisfied in life. This detail of his character is what evil tennis guy fails to realize, eventually leading to his scheme failing. He assumes that money means as much to tennis guy as it does to him. But as we see, the one thing tennis guy truly values is his friends and family. This aspect of tennis guy is also why tennis guy doesn’t see evil tennis guy as actually evil. He sees that, similar to him, evil tennis guy has experienced loss in his life. This leads tennis guy to give evil tennis guy a chance at redemption.

The audience. Arguably the most important part of any movie. Because, does a movie really exist if no one has seen it? If a tree falls in an isolated forest, did it really fall? Is it really a tree? Or is it a giant DVD of Topspin, falling to the ground in a forest of forgotten movies. Anyways, I wanted the audience to feel connected on a deeper level to tennis guy. I characterized him to be like a good pal that we’ve all got in our lives. In social media posts, tennis guy directly addresses the audience, creating a relationship between the two, adding a level of sincerity to the film. And this isn’t just a hypothetical. The comments on the posts show genuine interest in the film. My audience is practically counting down the seconds to the release of Topspin, and I don’t blame em, its a pretty good movie.

Conventions, ya love em, ya hate em. They’re pretty much inescapable when it comes to filmmaking, and it's fun! Let's start with the stuff I chose to incorporate. Most notably, the awesome training scene. Not sure where it started but Rocky certainly pioneered it. But, I added my own flair to it, with the aspect of tennis guy not really doing anything impressive. It’s a level of laziness that I drew from myself. More importantly, that aspect showed that it wasn’t his tennis skill that makes tennis guy special, but his heart. If anything, his name should be upstanding guy. But that doesn’t roll off the tongue as well. In researching this movie, I looked at comedies like Step Brothers and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, admiring the kind of writing and storytelling present in those movies. With Step Brothers, I admired the look of the movie, having strong coloring and a teensy bit of grain. The costuming is amazing as well, with the two main characters wearing humorously perfect shirts.

evil goon

In terms of tennis guy’s wardrobe, I wanted him to look like the movie itself, with his colorful Hawaiian shirt. It’s such an unwearable shirt that tennis guy ends up looking pretty unique without being over the top. In other research, I saw that movies will typically give the antagonist a goon to yell at when their evil schemes don’t go their way. I decided to utilize this convention.

And thats it, my final words in this journey. Bye guys!!!

this is how it feels writing a critical reflection