The Life & Go Dept. Clinic is built on the backs of inspired productions such as The Tatami Galaxy, Mind Game, and World of Tomorrow. These specific productions were researched since they explore similar themes, and together, each helped form a concise way to explore ‘Life & Go’s’ central message. Specifically, The Tatami Galaxy features its protagonist spending endless hours trapped in a universe made up of only his room, which impacted how ‘Life & Go’ would demonstrate its protagonist doing the same but in a more grounded setting. ‘Life & Go’ was also inspired by Stephen Spielberg’s use of staging, particularly in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Spielberg uses staging to tell a story of its own, forming connections and disconnections between characters and their environment. The use of staging is evident in the pan/tilt starting on the Life & Go Dept. Clinic’s business card then sweeping up to Jim and Cricket, forming a strong association between the prop and the characters.
Many productions with similar themes often use a voiceover to dive deeper into a character’s psyche, like Mind Game, but ‘Life & Go’ challenges this convention by conveying the Protagonist’s internal struggle using only visuals with the occasional dialogue. This is seen when the Protagonist refuses to call his grandma; through context clues and the darker lighting alongside the Protagonist writhing in bed, the audience can assess the reasoning behind his behaviors. This is also seen when the Protagonist reflects on his life with the montage of childhood pictures inspired by The Bear. Being a ‘dramedy,’ The Life & Go Dept. Clinic does conform to the conventions of certain comedy productions, like The Nice Guys. Both productions feature an abrasive, comedic buddy-cop duo: for ‘Life & Go’ this is found in Jim and Cricket. Neither character carries much dramatic depth, but in terms of genre, they aid in the film's comedic tone in balance to its dense messaging.
The Life & Go Dept. Clinic’s target audience are young adults in the age range 17-25, finishing or starting a new education, likely having a mid-range socioeconomic status. It is common, especially modernly with the abundance of distractions and instant gratification, for life to feel aimless or distant at this age. For the average first-world citizen, that is the time when one finds what they are going to do for the rest of their lives, a daunting task that can lead someone astray from experiencing life as it is. ‘Life & Go’s’ theme is most likely to connect with young adults facing similar struggles to the Protagonist.
Already engaging its audience with its themes, ‘Life & Go’ continues to engage with its target audience through its Instagram page. Not only is Instagram a platform that young adults typically use, but also ‘Life & Go’s’ postings emphasize engagement with younger adults. Spotify and podcasts are popular with this target audience, so a cast and crew curated Spotify playlist was created to promote engagement, and the film itself, alongside featuring the cast on the 'FilmCast' podcast and posting clips to the Instagram page. Through these and through typical social media marketing postings, like posters, behind the scenes photos, trailers, and audience participation activities, the Instagram page can engage with its young adult audience.
The film’s postcard continues to engage its audience with its straightforward and intriguing iconography through Jim and Cricket’s faces front and center along with their business card and a striking image of a hand holding up a heart on the back. The Instagram page also featured on the postcard continues to engage the audience.
‘Life & Go’s’ brand consists of its striking iconography alongside its theme of experiencing life. The film can develop the brand to its furthest extent through the business card and heart iconography alongside the messaging explored throughout, hitting its peak in the childhood montage sequence. The film itself is a development of its brand. The social media component does develop the brand but to a lesser extent. The most that the Instagram page can develop the theme is through the tagline, “The meaning of life is the verb,” being featured wherever possible (account bio, posters) and through the trailers. This could be improved through postings discussing the theme more in-depth at length; like interviews with the cast on what they think about the messaging. However, the film’s iconography is developed adequately, with many posts featuring the heart and business card props alongside promoting the characters.
The postcard faces a similar issue with the social media page as the film's theme is difficult to develop in the medium. Although the tagline could be used here, its inclusion may clutter the postcard too much and make it much less engaging. Still, the film’s iconography is strongly developed through the grand images of Jim and Cricket and the heart. What lacks in the theme branding, these components make up for in the iconography branding through the striking props and characters. All components are successful in working together to develop the brand; this is most evident in every component using the same font (Garamond), keeping the production's branding consistent.
Regarding representation, ‘Life & Go’ does little to represent diverse minority groups. Representation of these groups was not an inherit focus of the film, still, stronger strides could have been made in casting a more diverse cast and changing how they are represented because of it. The main subject the film does represent is the struggle of many young adults to get out of self-sabotaging habits that limit their life. While they could go out and do fulfilling things with their time, they are instead trapped in a perpetual cycle of ‘rotting’ and self-pity. ‘Life & Go’ is successful in addressing the dangerous habit of doing nothing not only by depicting the Protagonist ‘rotting’ but by also addressing the issue as a life-or-death situation. This extreme way of illustrating the issue is effective in depicting the people influenced by the represented mindset, as to them it really is life or death; either they help themselves and live life or they do not do either.
After working on the film and its components for about two months, I am fulfilled to say The Life & Go Dept. Clinic was a success. It has its flaws: the postcard and Instagram page could have developed the brand of experiencing life better, and with more time I may have been able to do so. Still, I believe that each component was a success, I am modestly proud of my work. I was able to communicate what I wanted to communicate through the film.
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