Critical Reflection

 Critical Reflection on, A-GAME

My documentary, A-GAME, develops to show how dance is a form of art and the beauty of it. Growing up and changing your perspective of viewing this sport is really captivating, and this film is capable of showing that! Although this documentary is ok, it most definitely could be better so it’s time to criticize my project!  

The topic I decided to choose was broad which made me get to a point thinking, “what should I film next”. Now, this wasn’t good because my documentary had to be around five minutes long. Moving on from that, let’s talk about research. For this film, I did a ton of research because, getting the style of dance to fit well with the theme is so incredibly important. Personally, my favorite style of dance is contemporary because, I think hip hop is a little too harsh, while ballet is too soft so, I like something in between. After watching numerous amounts of contemporary solos on YouTube, I had my master plan. A great number of the videos I watched had a darker atmosphere with good lighting. The camera movement was considerably smooth and slow, even though the movements in the dances were normally fast and upbeat. Dance challenges the limitations of the human body as well. Dancers push past their limit, so they are able to influence others about their physical capabilities. It also challenges other conventions because it shows how dance expresses emotions, and feelings. There aren’t really any films that show dance this way. The constant use of stars in the film, is to show the endless possibilities when it comes to dance.  

The target audience for this film must be around the ages of 15-30 years old. Normally there wouldn’t be such an age gap but, many people in our gen z era don’t realize what dance truly represents. The age group would start at around fifteen years old because a contemporary piece appeals better to a younger demographic. However, with all the different styles and forms of dance, things like ballet could be more appealing to an older age group. The bright neon colors also capture the teenagers’ attention as it looks exciting to watch.  

The brand created for the documentary was mainly to get the audience's attention. The title of the film, “A-GAME”, is an expression many people used for athletes since the early 2000s. This meant to try your best or, to bring home a win. I used this title to set the mood for the film. The color choices as well as the imagery create a cohesive feel which most teenagers are used to seeing, which lead them to finding out more about my film. One thing I will say is that I’m not too happy with my social media presence. When it came to marketing my film, I chose Instagram as my top pick since that’s where most of my target audience belongs. Getting to the bad stuff, I forgot about it a lot which meant it only has a few posts up. Most of the marketing I did was created by my posters. The posters I made (which can be found on my magazine and my blog posts), advertised when everything was coming out and what the film was. Since my film is about visually pleasing the audience, I wanted to show that with the usage of my posters.  

Dance represents social groups in a variety of ways. One of them being a cultural/gender identity factor. In all the different countries throughout the world, dance takes place. Costuming and movement are sometimes tied to an ethnic group. In dance, there are gender norms people think of being girls. Since we are in 2023, this isn’t the case anymore. In most dance classes nowadays, there is normally at least one boy or man in a class. This form of art has many social aspects we should work towards in the future.  

Ten weeks later, the production of “A-GAME” has finally come to an end. If I chose a smaller topic, one which wasn’t as broad, maybe it would have been easier to identify things. I also had to do better with my social media. Saying this again, my film was ok but, much more could have been better with more effort and time.