Critical Reflection

When coming up with ideas for our short film Sprouting, my team and I really wanted to create something that represented us and the point of our lives we are in. Our film is about a high school junior named Dahlia, and how she explores the overwhelming pressure of school and its strain on her friendship. The takeaway is that even through fears and stress, you keep growing, which is also shown metaphorically in the story through a plant named “Sprout”. 

   From the very beginning we wanted Sprouting to be of the genre coming of age. In order to achieve this successfully, we had to do a lot of research during the scriptwriting process. I researched the specifics of the genre's storyline first, through websites like “Studio Binder”, where I learned how to properly introduce conflict. In most genres the protagonist goes through

an epic journey, fights a “battle”, and then overcomes the conflict to defeat evil. But in the coming of age genre most of the battle is internal, which is why we decided stress should be the source of the protagonist's conflict. Then, watching pieces of the
same genre, like the animated show Win or Lose (2025) and the film Ladybird (2017), helped in developing Dahlia and her struggles. For example, Win or Lose portrays anxieties and fears through metaphorical representations like a giant blob of stress. This inspired us to do the same with Sprout the plant, but instead of representing the stress it represents the growth. In Ladybird the protagonists conflicting relationship with her mother helped us explore character dynamics and friendships. We wanted our main characters to have a close relationship, confront a conflict, and reconcile at the end.  

After researching, we heavily focused on our branding and products. Our target audience would be ages 11-21, as they are the demographic for our genre and can easily connect with our main character, Dahlia, which was the goal. Our whole reasoning behind the story was not only to create something that only represented my teammates and I, but most individuals our age. We exhibit this in the story through Dahlia’s main internal struggle (stress). Junior year (11th) is known for being the most overwhelming year of a high school across students in the United States. Moreover, we made sure to write in moments that felt real and relatable, like having a messy room and falling asleep at your desk.

Additionally, we designed our social media in a way that was engaging to our demographic. We posted short form videos, designs with limited text, and lots of photographs, as our target audiences' attention is retained through short form content and limited text. We posted multiple stories on the account, which easily notified followers of new posts and updates of the production. All story content was kept accessible on sorted highlights. For our promotional postcard, we kept the text limited and straightforward, while including engaging graphics and colors that matched our established branding. The combination of graphics and photos keeps the visual appeal interesting. Our tagline, “everyone’s just growing up” and the featured young actresses also acknowledge our genre, and that the film is about teenagers.

Branding was an important priority for our group. We wanted all branding to look and feel cohesive across all elements. For the social media page, we decided to use Instagram as it is the most popular among our target audience, and typically the desired platform to promote student short films. We looked up and researched a handful of accounts for inspiration. Some of the social media pages we viewed felt cluttered and lacked branding, so we kept those in mind as examples of what not to follow.  Before creating any posts, we decided on a definitive color palette, fonts, and backgrounds. Using these elements, we created a set “template” for each kind of post (meet the cast, behind the scenes, etc.) that way all postings could maintain the same look and feel. The color palette was important not only for the socials but for the short film, as lilac represents Dahlia's character and Pink represents Melia's. During research, we realized that keeping our target audience in mind was crucial. We looked for pages with the same demographic as ours and noticed a lot of content came in short form video format. From influencer style vlogs to funny clips, we made sure to post a handful of “reels” on the social media page as well. 

Our goal throughout this process was to represent teenagers, specifically in high school, and the often overlooked issue of academic stress and the strain it can have on mental health and relationships. Through Dahlia’s character, we highlight the pressure many students face, shown through her exhaustion, disorganization, and distance from her best friend Melia. Additionally, the use of the plant “Sprout” serves as a symbol of development, and the idea that personal growth still happens even in periods of stress. We focused on the friendship dynamic between two young female characters, which is not fully representative of all teenagers but still reflects real life experiences.  

Creating our short film, Sprouting, allowed us to combine research, study demographics, and establish a brand in order to produce a cohesive and meaningful final product. By following and adapting standard conventions the coming of age genre, we created a story that is both personal to us, and relatable to the audience. In the end the pacing of the story could have had more beats and pauses, especially before the ending. There could've been more of a pause to take it all in before Dahlia called Melia. As the director, I also could've had the actresses practice beforehand as some of the delivery in the conversations were off. But that all comes from gaining more experience. While there are areas for improvement, particularly in the story and technical execution, the final product successfully communicates its intended message. I had an amazing experience working with my team, and I'm satisfied with our final product.  

Sources: 
PoCCulture. (2024, December 5). Review: Pixar’s “Win or Lose” is a hilariously fun story about the value of perspective. https://pocculture.com/review-pixars-win-or-lose-is-a-hilariously-fun-story-about-the-value-of-perspective/