My final media product is a short film titled “Palimpsest”. The film beautifully blends the genre of speculative history and Magical realism, which are developed through deep philosophy which you will find in every element of the product. The title Palimpsest is chosen very particularly which itself narrates the concept that history is layered by a deceptive past and is constantly rewritten not to validate the factual details but to question the present ideologies which are based on past events. The narrative follows a young boy who meets a British colonial disguised as a royal member from a different time line, leading to the discovery that certain historical events could now be reshaped with magical realities and decisions of individuals. Through this concept the film examines the unique themes of history, time and fantasy. Primary target audience for this film are young adults aging between 16-25, who are interested in thought provoking narratives, historical reinterpretation and fantasies. By combining these elements the film addresses a point that history is always about what has happened but always ignore what could have happened. And so it explores the what if side of the battle of Plessey. How does my product represent social groups or issues? My film mainly represents the social group of young individuals, who are eager to question and challenge the traditional ideologies. As in post colonial states, every failure is blamed on the colonization which now no longer exists. The meta narrative about colonization is always accusing colonizers of whatever failure the nation faces today. The protagonist of my film represents today’s youth who consider that their ancestors fell to the colonizers but they will change the after effects of what happened in the last century. The film Palimpsest presents an exaggerated form of anger where the young boy representing the youth felt about this so hard that he decided to change the history. Here the representation of narrative is manipulated as at the same time it shows that the post modern audience is an active consumer of information that they value the independence without fear and at the same time these post modern audience are shown passive as the boy took this decision without understanding that blaming the colonizers, or in fantasy, changing the history wont fix things because history always holds a what if side and only active interpretation will understand it. To establish this concept several codes and symbols were used. The most important symbolism was of costume. As two characters were from different time lines their look must portrait their reality. The modern day character was wearing casual attire which reflects the everyday identity while the character from the past was in a royal attire which clearly showed the binary opposition between past and present. The location was another significant representation. All the scenes took place in everyday urban locations like parks and apartments. It may conflict with the passive audience that if the plot is about history why it’s completely taking the palace in the present. But this mise-en-scene emphasizes that historical forces are not any distant concept but are connected to our contemporary life. The audience may decode the message of the film differently but the coded narrative is that people should criticize the dominant historical ideologies and should not accept them with interpretation done in another time. How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of branding? Overall I have built multiple branding elements which compliments the sense of branding in my film. But in most elements I have deliberately gone against the conventions of branding. You will find completely different styles of theme in each product which are Trailer, short film, bloopers and behind the scenes. In the post modern market, instead of copy right restrictions, free culture licences are encouraged which results in a simulacrum of the product. The typography, background music and editorial pace displayed in each one of them are different because I deliberately wanted to break the sense of unity so my each product individually looks like a simulacrum. What benefit will this type of branding be if my products don’t even look like it belongs to the same producer or production house? This is exactly what this idea is about, I don’t want my product to look like it belongs to producer but it should look like it belongs to audience, as the simulacrum belongs to the public, many different copies with different moods, this what I want my product to be taken as by my audience. So they assume more strongly that they are the actual protagonist of this story, not only the audience. However the color scheme for each product was kept the same through the film, teaser, postcards and posts on social media. The project uses historical and muted tones which includes dark blue, warm and green shades. The reason for keeping the colors consistent was to maintain the connectivity of colors speaking for the message, the visual feel of the film world should be the same. As a result these elements combine to present a unique branding style without affecting the bigger message and visual theme of the film. How do your products engage with the audience? Audience engagement was set as the most important element in production of Palimpsest. The main target audience for the film consisted of age brackets of 16 to 25 who were interested in unique narratives based on history and philosophical themes. The Target Audience survey shows a clearer understanding of my audience (See Target Audience). The Instagram page created specially for Palimpsest along with my personal production page as a director serves as a promotional platform for the film. (see Production) Also plays an important role in audience engagement. Posting of Behind the scenes, Bloopers, film stills and posters give viewers a flair into the production process. While it also maintains curiosity about the narrative. The metaphorical imagery and short but meaningful captions created Ambiguous, encouraging the audience to speculate about the story to keep them connected and engaged. This strategy serves to maintain interaction through likes, comments and shares. Overall these Instagram pages worked as basic marketing tool for the film with its promotional material while building anticipation among my target audience. How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions? Research played a significant role in stylizing and narrative building of the film Palimpsest. Particularly how my film uses or challenges any convention via postmodern approach. When I began my genre research I found Speculative history as a genre that best fits my film idea, while studying genres I understood the key conventions like non-linear narratives, enigma codes and suspenseful storytelling. However, to be more creative and make my product an exception I did not rely on one genre, along with speculative history I researched fantasy concepts, which led me to the discovery of my creative genre of Magical Realism. What made this genre unique as combined was that there was no film that gave magical explanation for history and showed magic as an undiscovered reality. By incorporating conventions from these genres into one story I was no longer bound to style my product for certain genre expectations and had free hand on creativity to present something unexpected to audiences of both genres. I also conducted a director’s research on Martin Scorsese to understand how I can shape my visual storytelling and character construction. His work is however very different from what product I made, but the reason to research his work was to understand solely how he builds the emotional or psychological aura of his characters. My story was supernatural while Martin’s work is based on reality and ordinary situations and emotions. I took inspiration from it so I can show my extraordinary story as an ordinary event to physiologically connect with my audience. Most of this depth in Martin’s work was created by controlled camera language which informs your framing and pacing. This allowed my narrative to feel more immersive and character driven. I also understood that this is how auteur theory can shape a film’s stylistic identity. My conceptual approach was solely constructed by myself but for exploration and better understanding of what I was about to write I also conducted a reference film research (see Film Referencing) on Oppenheimer and Inglorious Basterds. The inglorious Basterds demonstrate intertextuality by rewriting the real events and Oppenheimer presented history from a subjective lens from which I understand how my story should also symbolize real history events and characters while speculating it. Because the narrative is not to reject the real event completely but to illustrate it with a meaningful perspective. As a result the film Palimpsest challenges the traditional realism of history by blending speculation and magic, open to reinterpretation by Active Audience. Finally I presided over a Target Audience Questionnaire to collect the feedback from the audience regarding genre preferrencing, preferred visual styles and pacing of the film. As my film was not having one genre only so along with creative freedom this research ensured that I am also meeting some expectations of the audience of both genres. Overall, the research work I did enabled me to follow as well as challenge codes and convention, resulting in a product that is both recognizable and innovative.