A2 Media Studies Creative Critical Reflection (CCR)

1. Pukaar
Creative Critical Reflection
Advanced Portfolio
Media Studies
A-Levels
Qasim Ali Zaidi

2. Before starting my final media project, I took a survey,
asking my friends what type of movies they like to watch.
The response included action/thriller and comedy. I knew
that pulling off a short film with a comedy genre would
have been quite difficult as the facial expressions along with
the dialogue delivery of the actors need to be on point,
hence I dropped the comedy genre. I already had made an
opening of a short film in my As-level portfolio with a
horror genre, thus I decided to go with the action/thriller.
The action/thriller genre requires a really good story line as
you need the audience to remain focused and interested in
the film, and for that I decided to make a story board,
putting together my scenes and trying my best to cut any
scene out which does not carry the intensity I’m looking for.

3.  I believe that most of the action/thriller films do not
challenge the conventions and I myself did not
challenge any conventions of this genre. Instead I used
the conventions which helped me create the effect and
drama I wanted the audience to see. Some of the
conventions I used were the thriller music, the close up
shorts(covering the facial expressions) and the location.
Keeping these things in my mind I started my
portfolio. Starting off with the name, “Pukaar”, itself
represent a clichéd plot story, which automatically
catches the audience’s attention that either the film is a
horror or action one. The first scene in which we can
see the boy sitting and the thief asking for ransom, the
audience gets to know that the story portrays
kidnapping. The action/thriller film usually carry's
tzvetan todorv’s narrative theory and can be seen in
Pukaar aswell. The five steps of this theory can be
found in Pukaar in order. Starting off which initial
equilibrium going all the way towards the new
equilibrium.

4. Location (Garages)
The Breaking Point (An
angry fight scene)
A vague short scene
capturing only the shadow
Conventions of
Thriller/Action used
in my shortfilm

5.  From the start I wanted to make a short film which
shows a social issue. Kidnapping and asking for
ransom is one of the issue that is going on right now.
People kidnap young one’s and ask for money from
the families. The rate of kidnapping can be seen
growing rapidly across the country and hence I felt
that choosing this issue for my shortfilm would halp
me raise awarness. There are many hollywood movies
based on kidnapping such as “Taken” or “Kidnap”..

6. Pukaar itself is based on a social issue and wants
everyone to pay more attention to this. People in our
society who do not earn enough do such type of
things. It doesn’t matter if you’re a friend or foe, this
world works with money, and not having enough of
it makes you do the things you can not imagine.
Pukaar shows a boy kidnapping his friend’s younger
brother as he needed money. This reflects the
problem in our society, in which money is
everything. The struggle and tension of Shahzaib
looking for his brother makes the audience feel what
families go through when such things happen in
reality. Such issues needs to stop and if one
understands this by looking at my shortfilm then I
guess I have succeeded.

7.  The most essential element to
make a media product is to
create an intriguing and eye
catching movie poster. In my
poster, I have included the
main cast Shahzaib (The
elder brother) and Shaheer
(The younger brother). The
sun rays on shaheer’s face
reflects the ray of hope as he
can be seen hugging his
brother

8.  The film also has its own website and a film
festival poster where the movie is going to be
published. To create a sense of branding, the
website I have created has the same
background as the cover of the film. The name
of the film is written in bold letters and in a big
font, to directly catch the audience’s attention
towards it. The website also includes the name
of the film festivals the movie is going to be
published in. Synergy is used in these three
elements (cover, website and poster). Also the
font colour used on my website and the film
cover is the same to make things look relatable.

9.  A short opening short of the film is also published on
my website which creates a bit of excitement in the
audience’s mind that something big is coming. The
dates of the film festival are given along with the
option to buy the tickets online directly from the
website.
 Looking at the festival poster, the film poster can be
seen in the side as it is published as the years best hit,
which makes people look at the film poster atleast once
when they look at the festival poster.
Using these 3 things together I have created the sense
of branding for my shortfilm.

11.  Since my short film reflects a social issue, the
film targets a wide range of audience. It would
interest many social groups, people who have
children or even teenagers as they can relate to
it. They can feel what it would feel like losing a
brother or a child to such scenario. The topic of
the film is such that every group ranging from
13-60 year old would enjoy it. It is also a pg13+
and would be considered a family friendly film
which can be watched for a movie night in.

12.  To distribute my film and market it, I have created
a website which gives an insight about the film
and have also mentioned a downloading option.
The web page is published on the internet and
everyone knows that internet is a platform that
reaches out to millions of people around the globe
in a short period. It is easy to access and gives
people the opportunity to shed light on how the
felt about the film. This medium is best for
youngsters who are more comfortable with using
the net to survey upcoming films, compared to old
age people who would prefer a news paper and
therefore a movie poster that was created will also
be published in the newspaper to attract and
inform audience about my upcoming film.

13.  The film will also be exhibited on several films festivals
such as Pakistan International film festival for the
national views and festivals such as London film
festival and Newyork film festival, to reach out to
people outside Pakistan and reach the maximum
number of audience it can reach. The exhibitions are
going to make the critics give their reviews and make
audience anticipate the release of the film on larger
screens. Trailers of the film would be posted on
YouTube and Facebook, as millions of people use these
networking sites on daily basis. These trailers would
also be sponsored, to make sure they remain on top of
people’s newsfeed and catch as many people as it can.
The movie would be distributed on my own and no
such companies would be asked to publish it.

14.  Since my As-Level portfolio I have become well
acquainted with different technologies combined
to make a media product. Moving towards the
hardware first, keeping the shots and lighting in
my mind, I used my Canon 600D along with my
Iphone to capture the shots in HD. No tripod was
used while shooting, shots that required better
frames per second, as the close up on the tire while
the car moves were shot by my iphone for a
smoother effect.

15.  After completing all my shots the next step is editing the film.
Looking a year back, I edited my movie intro on windows movie
maker as it was the first time I was editing a video on my own and
windows movie maker was the most user friendly software I came
across. This time I wanted to challenge myself and add things I
did not add in my previous portfolio. For this along with
Windows movie maker, a new software was downloaded and
Pukaar was edited. The new software I used to edit was Adobe
Premier pro and Adobe After effects. It was a better and more
professional editor than the last one. The film’s intro where the
letters build up to make Pukaar was made on Adobe After effects
and the phone call shot ( which shows two different people in a
single shot at the same time ) was edited on Adobe premier pro. It
took me time to understand the software at first but this was a
challenge I had to face to make the best possible film I could.

16.  Last but not the least comes the online
technologies. Last year we had made a blog and
this time we were asked to make a website for our
product. There are many online free sites which
help you make a website of your own but I chose
Wix.com as it carried all the elements required and
was the most user friendly comparing to other
sites. This was a new challenge for me but as we
were guided by our teacher we finally learned and
I had created a website on my own for the first
time. I detailed it and made it look the way I want
it to be. Wix.com gave me all the options infront of
me and step by step I turned my website into a eye
catching one.