CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION

Haseeb Ahmed

Q.1 How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represents social groups or issues?

Different kinds of genre:

ROMANTIC

COMEDY

ACTION

HORROR

My product, “Midnight”, is a movie opening sequence with horror as a genre. Genre is basically is basically a category of artistic composition and over here, in my product, I chose horror. I basically chose horror as my genre because I personally think that this genre, amongst others like romantic, action, comedy etc, has something that engages audiences of all age groups and social class and I wanted something that every individual would be able to relate at some point. So from here, what I believe, the concept of “Midnight” originated and happened to be the genre of my video for the Cambridge International Examinations.

CONVENTIONS OF HORROR MOVIES:

Scary background musicDisturbing visualsSpooky portraitsDarknessWitches, ghosts, zombies and vampiresAn innocent victimSpooky make-up

horror movies. As I have shown what is generally expected from a movie of horror genre. Also, in this type of genre, specially horror, where there is lack of capacity to introduce new ideas, challenging conventions is difficult and risky.That’s basically because people find stuff scary when its actually scary so there is a risk of something beyond the standard. But, Paranormal Activity, is one kind of series that actually challenged the convention in its true sense and made a horror movie without the use of any scary background music in its series. Scary background music is considered to be the

My product is not so different from the mainstream

Strength of horror movie but this movie challenged it efficiently. In my movie I used underlighting at my subject to give a spooky and horror effect to my character. This lighting effect is often used in movies to give a scary effect and I used this convention in my movie too. I used a torch beneath the face of the subject and gave it an appropriate position where it looked both visible and scary to the audience with an appropriate background music which will surely scare.

Q.2 How does your product engage with the audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

TARGETED AUDIENCE:• “Midnight” targets audience from every social class and

ethinicity.• Age varies from 15 to 50.• Not less than 15 because horror scenes are not suitable for immature children.• Not more than 50 because people loose interest at this stage and same horrifying scenes may result in medical condition.

My product “Midnight” contains elements that promises entertainment for the audience and has something that accommodates the demands of both classes and masses. Horror is one of those genre which do not have a separate type of audience as it is something that everyone can relate and what is scary is scary for almost everyone. Audience now usually prefer various technological advancements in movies such as use of IMAX, 3D etc. So here, I want my audience to have a real like experience like they are actually in the scene and for this I want my movie to be a 3D movie. This will enhance the experience of the audience and they would be able to have a better experience as the effects would do justice to what I actually want to show to my audience.

DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES

20th Century Fox• American film studio• Since May 31 1935• Located in Century City area of Los Angeles• Founded by Joseph M. Schenck & Darryl F. Zanuck• Member of Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)

For distribution, I would like to join hands with 20th Century Fox. Reason for this is that, the type of movie Midnight is, it needs distributors that have interest to promote and distribute this kind of movie. 20th Century Fox is known for promoting various different kinds of movies of different genre. Moreover, this distribution company is famous for introducing new directors to the world of, movies and promoting low budget movies to a large number of audience. For these reasons I would prefer 20th Century Fox over other distribution companies.

Q.3 How did your production skills developed throughout this project?

RULE OF THIRDS:

 I was taught how to use a camera and how to show something meaningful through it. This was basically taught by the utilization of different camera angles, light, sound and settings.

LIGHTING:

High key lighting Low key lighting

I learnt how to adjust lights according to the scene, mood and the genre of the video. I came across the distinctions between high key lighting and low key lighting and I practiced their use.

While learning this, I came across different views of media and its functions and got the insight of the subject. As the subject basically demands practice over theoretical demonstration, we were instructed to keep it that way. For this specific reason different projects were assigned before the final project to make us aware of the pre-production scenario and to work on our practical stuff.

Mr. Khurram Rizvi is my teacher who helped me throughout the year with this particular subject. Media was new to me as a subject and I could not be able to do all this without his support and teachings. Since the start of the academic year I was taught a lot about media by him and I also did some assignments assigned by him prior to the final project, Midnight. Also, some textual assignments were also done according to the teachers instruction and I was marked upon accordingly.

First assignment was a “Driving Scene” that was assigned to me by the teacher. It was the first project so I found it pretty much challenging but still I did my best and got appreciated for it.Second assignment was a “Monologue”. Here the basic judgment criteria was just around camera angles. I had to show a monologue using different camera angles.

Last assignment I did before the final video was a “Public Service Message”. The topic was decided by the students themselves and I chose smoking as a social issue and based my video upon it.

Then came the final video. For this I actually had to work a lot to bring, what is on my mind, on a limited video frame. As it was a serious thriller movie, I wanted my actors to be good at acting so that they could do justice to the screenplay. I had to shoot on a dark and silent road to provide an appropriate environment for the video and to bring everything outdoor was sort of difficult. I put all of what I was taught throughout the academic year to put it in the video, not everything, but the most of it to give make my product, commendable.

Q. 4 How did you integrate technologies in this project?

ACCESSORIES:I generally use Canon 70D with 18-55 mm Lens and a Sony Handycam.I also use a tripod for video purposes but for photography I don’t use tripod. Due to practicing at many projects I sometimes take shots during a video without a tripod too without jerks and shaky image, thanks to the three projects I was asked to do earlier which made me better at using camera.

EDITING:I used the software Windows Movie Maker to edit my video. I jhave been using this software since I started doing school assignments. This software is quite easy and effective with various different elements that enhance the beauty of a video making it interesting and attractive.

OTHERS:

For research purposes I used www.imdb.com and www.wikipedia.com .

For the background music I used an audio clip which was downloaded from www.soundbible.com.

The last background music was actually a theme music of a radio show related to ghosts which used to air in Karachi on FM 105 by the name “The Late Night Horror Show with Minhaj Ali Askari”.

I also have a blog where I upload all the work and assignments related to media on www.tumblr.com. The link to it is:http://haseebahmed-worldofpixels.tumblr.com