Critical Reflection ❀࿐

Here is my critical reflection for my crime documentary opening project.

CR 1	How do your products represent social groups or issues?
CR 2	How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
CR 3	How do your products engage with the audience?
CR 4	How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

My team was tasked with creating a documentary opening alongside a thumbnail. We then created "Fatal Fixation", within the stalker-crime genre. 

Branding is an important part of media production. It allows media texts to establish a distinct identity that differs it from other texts. In both the thumbnail and documentary, we achieve branding by utilizing dark color grading, bold typefaces, and crime-related mis-en-scene such as the pinboard. These elements set the uneasy tone and reveal genre to audiences. The thumbnail entices viewers by standing out and using hermeneutic codes to raise curiosity, leading to clicks to watch the documentary, which serves as the main text. Stuart Hall's Reception theory explains how audiences interpret the text. Our dominant reading is how stalking is unacceptable. This is reinforced through mis-en-scene such as the girl's pink clothing and white uniform, connoting her femininity, innocence and gender-stereotyped vulnerability. The stalker wears black leather jackets and masks. Those clothes are culturally linked with aggression, secrecy, and masculine gender stereotypes. The juxtaposition between the two, and discordant non-diegetic sound emphasizes the threat of stalking. This all aligns with Barthes' semiotics theory, as together, these elements form a consistent brand identity that audiences can easily recognize.

My research informed me about typical genre conventions in crime documentaries, such as CCTV high-angle shots, phone call audio, female victims and desaturation. My project conformed to most genre conventions, so ensure it felt familiar to audiences. For instance, we used CCTV footage to make crime scenes feel more authentic. We also applied desaturation to create  a serious mood and connote sadness. Phone call audios, especially with heavy breathing, helped create a threatening and uneasy atmosphere. According to Steve Neale, genres rely on repetition and difference, which is why we subverted the female victim stereotype to make our documentary to keep audiences engaged. While our protagonist is a victim of stalking, the kidnapping victim is actually her boyfriend, which challenges traditional genre conventions and societal expectations of female weakness and “hero” males. Research into Netflix stalking documentaries such as Lover, Killer, Stalker (2024) and Can I Tell You A Secret (2024) strongly influenced our choices during production, such as inspiring our mis-en-scene and overall style. 

Our target audience is late teens to young adults (16-30), true-crime enthusiasts and justice seekers. Our text is open to both Indonesian and global audiences. To appeal to them, we place teenagers at the center of the narrative, even using uniforms, to relate to them. We also add elements of drama and relationships — topics young audiences resonate with. The perpetrator’s identity is deliberately hidden, creating hermeneutic codes that attract those who enjoy solving mysteries. Similarly, the obsessive pinboard in the thumbnail raises questions like “who would go this far?”, sparking curiosity. The thumbnail also builds empathy by placing the victim’s face in the middle with a red target graphic, highlighting her vulnerability and making the crime feel personal. This emotional pull encourages audiences to connect with the story. According to Blumler and Katz’s Uses and Gratifications theory, our product fulfills both diversion and surveillance. For some, the suspense and mystery provide an escape from reality, while Indonesian audiences may see it as shedding light on local crimes. Global viewers, meanwhile, gain insight into the psychological effects of stalking and how it can escalate in young people’s lives.

Our documentary includes teenagers, young couples, a stalker, and a detective. We represent the teenage couples using gender stereotypes. The female uses pastel, feminine clothing while the male uses neutral-colored attire. We put photo booth pictures of them in the girl's messy anime-themed room, which are both trending amongst teens. We represented the stalker with a dark silhouette and a lisp. This would make him suspicious and mysterious, raising hermeneutic codes. Additionally, his lisp can make him look more “creepy”, due to the “weird kid with a lisp” stereotype. The detective uses glasses, "girly" keychains, and a "tridatu" bracelet, showing he is a smart Balinese detective and father. We also represented issues like obsessive stalking. Our documentary represents the issues with stalking, and Indonesia's lack of laws for stalking. Our dominant reading is that stalking is dangerous, and without legal protection, it could escalate to other major crimes. This is represented through the detective's dialogue, where he admits it's difficult to get cases like this. The Binary opposites are law vs crime. 

Design by cassandra dominica