Oh, don't cry Glorp, you'll see me again. I'm not allowed to post until Cambridge grades this project. But once I get my grade, I will update you. Pinky swear.
Can't access our short film? We also posted it on Youtube :)
Can't access our social media? We made a video for that :)
As teenagers, we wanted to create a piece that represented the social pressure to perform well academically that we felt. Throughout the production of our short film “Sprouting,” my team and I used several elements and techniques to transmit a message of hope that is personal to our experiences as teenagers.
Sprouting was written with countless coming-of-age short films in mind, like Bitchin’, Sew into You, Mrs. McCutcheon, and Crush(ed). The string along all these films is that growing up can feel daunting and is occasionally uncomfortable. These films inspired my writing because, within them, I noticed a pattern.
Coming-of-age films develop in two different forms: they either cover important themes of growth or serve as vessels for entertainment/nostalgia. The film “BotherGirls”—a coming-of-age comedy following three girls as they get revenge on the protagonist's ex-boyfriend—is meant to portray the simplicity of the friendship between the girls, reminding the audience of something they lived or are living. This serves as a contrast to the film “Reply”—a film about a teenage girl concealing her attraction to the same sex—which represents the silencing of queer teenagers due to pressure to conform. Regardless of the central theme, the films always ended with a character having a realization or showing growth.
Mimicking this, Sprouting has the serious theme of academic pressure but closes the story with the protagonist, Dahlia, learning a lesson and finding a new hope for the future. This is noteworthy due to Sprouting’s focus on academics. By focusing on academic pressure, a topic I haven’t found much on throughout my research, “Sprouting” also breaks the representation of teenagers as lazy and rebellious. Where, in most films, they are seen to be bordering on devilish, here our protagonist, Dahlia, is focused and scared.
On the technical side, coming-of-age films carry montages within them, since a story on change is nothing without time. We decided that a montage would serve us so the viewer can see how Dahlia’s quality of life decreases as time passes. Unlike other coming-of-age films—which attempt to accurately depict reality—Sprouting had occasional creative lighting meant to mimic Dahlia's state of mind during dramatic scenes.
Sprouting was written for people like us, and therefore, the target audience is similar to us too: people aged 11 to 21, typically female, and hardworking yet mindful.
Through our research, we understood that authenticity is valued by our audience, so them relating to and valuing our film encourages interaction. To achieve this, we wrote character traits that humanized Dahlia. For example, Dahlia forgets where she left her phone, drops her expo marker, and leaves her room a mess.
Aside from that, we kept our Instagram Reels unprofessional enough to encourage the audience to humanize us too—that way they no longer see the Sprouting Instagram page as an ominous title but instead as a portal to talk to other creatives through. Take as an example this video, where I’m laid on the set’s bed while my teammate explains our filming process to the camera.
In hindsight, we could’ve introduced a website or polls that allowed the viewer to directly interact with creative decisions around the set. Since our generation is so media literate, perhaps we could’ve had some sort of note written out by the characters. Maybe the actors could’ve pretended to be their characters for a reel.
As for our brand, we followed the Brand Identity Prism. I created the physique of the design, opting for something clean, simple, but still very colorful to attract our young audience.
As for personality, we wanted to give our brand an indie short film type of element. Thus, we modeled the brand after Sprout, using leaves and plants combined with a joyful font, so there’s a cohesive look to the brand. This plant theme also bleeds into our script, where both of our characters—Dahlia and Melia—are named after flowers.
Likewise, we understand that our audience cares for mental health, so we used a quote from Melia’s dialogue during our short film (“everyone’s just growing up”) for our promotional work. Such an emphasis on personal growth aligns with our target audience; through research we know they wish to be consistently emotionally healthy. Although we never found a chance to represent our audience in our promotional work, we would’ve done so with that regard in mind—ensuring to represent them as careful, intelligent, yet open-minded and unique people.
My group and I felt a need for a realistic representation of social pressure felt by teenagers to perform and to reassure teenagers that challenges will help them grow. Our message was represented in our short film through Dahlia, as she makes mistakes and struggles with balancing work and her friendship with Melia. Likewise, her plant, Sprout, represents the growth Dahlia goes through despite her hardships. Our final message of the film is that, despite all the ways one person will change, at our core we will always be the same person—just with more experience. This is represented at the end of the film, where Dahlia changes Sprout’s pot.
I haven’t worked on such a large project in so long, and I’m proud to put such a hopeful message out into the world. There are a few things that I will work to avoid in the future, like properly exposing shots and planning more thoroughly. But, as Melia put it, we are all here to learn. I’ll get it right next time.
Whoops Glorp! I just realized I never once talked to you about my postcard.
Glorp, you will never ever know how deep my passion for good audio design is. It makes or breaks a video. Audio is so personal for me. No two people will edit audio the same, or use the same sounds-- especially not when they get creative with it.
I've finished the line edit!! Isn't that so so amaze? (I also watched Project Hail Mary today, it was soooo gooood)(you should read the book if you haven't)
Hey, Glorp! Have you ever filmed for 9 hours with one break? Well, we did! We filmed on Sunday from 12 am to 9pm. I've never filmed for so long, and two days after, I'm still exhausted. But, hey! We got it done!
Hi Glorp! Very busy this week, we are doing a lot for the project. So, if you don't mind, I'm cramming two topics into each blog, instead of talking about one thing like I usually do.
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