This document is a creative critical reflection portfolio for a short film called "Wild Dogs" by Mahsam Zainli. The film challenges conventions of action and crime genres by showing accidental deaths not usually seen on screen and using non-diegetic sounds to build tension. It also challenges stereotypes by having a black and white criminal duo and a black character with long hair who owns a cat. To create a sense of branding, the film uses a consistent red and black color scheme in the poster and website, with the gun image communicating the crime genre. The intended audience is young adults and older, as adults enjoy learning about the crime world. The film would be distributed by Lionsgate for reasonable costs

1. A2 MEDIA STUDIES PORTFOLIO
CREATIVE CRITICALREFLECTION
WILD DOGS

2. Q.1 How do your products use or
challenge conventions and how do they
represent social groups or issues?
In my short movie, Wild Dogs, I’ve utilized some of the
conventionals of Action and Crime films and challenged them as well.
The movie is about two friends who were drug lords, but after a while
money shows its power.
• Death- The way death is represented is different as it is more of a
convention to see the people normally shooting with guns or stabbing
eachother with a knife whereas in my film you see two guys getting
blasted off the kitchen due to the leakage in the gas tank by accident.

3. • Non diegetic sounds- I've used Non diegetic sounds at various places
to change the feeling of the viewer and to build up the tension when
the robbers enter the house.
• Another convention that I've challenged is that in crime movies drug
partners are shown as belonging to one social group, usually blacks.
But I used men from both social groups (blacks and whites) to give
viewers a new experience.
• In crime movies, blacks are not usually shown owning a cat and
having long hair, but yet again I challenged the conventions by doing
the opposite.

4. • Keeping Todorov’s Equilibrium Theory in mind, i took
shots from different angles and at different pace in order to
make equilibrium and disequilibrium etc. which is also an
example conventions.

5. • In my AS work, I didn’t challenge the conventions
enough. I shot my movie opening with bad lightings
although the genre was Thriller. I used conventions
where I showed one undercover dark police officer
interrogating a suspected person with very less
camera cuts. This year I've done better in my short
film by using more equipment such as my self made
Jib made with some plastic materials.

6. Q.2 How do the elements of your
production work together to create a sense
of branding?

7. WILDDOGS
Directedby mahsamzainli
I tried to create a sense of branding for my product by
coming up with a unique name and poster with a
consistent theme of red and black.
I believe my poster is a very effective communicator
of the nature of my film whilst holding onto the
conventions of my genre. The main image of the gun
shows what the movie is about .

8. • The color scheme also links to this idea of Crime
and Action through the red and black theme used to
make the web page and the poster.
• I also used the same font size and format to create
the title.
webpage: http://mah329.wix.com/wild-dogs

9. Q.3 How do your products engage with the
audience and how would they be
distributed as real media products?
• Both of my products target audience is young adults
and above 30s. The reason for this is that adults easily
get attracted to crime and action films as they are
always curious to know what goes around in the
crime world.
• Many people can learn from this movie as what to do
when stuck in such situations and the outcomes of
being a part of the crime world.

10. • I would like my product to be distributed by
Lionsgate as it is a well known and affordable,
industry though not included in the big 6.
• My movie being associated with Lionsgate will
result in good profits as the cost will be abit less and
viewership will be more.
• Initially, I would like people to watch my movie in
cinemas, later it would be appropriate to release the
movie on dvds.

11. Q.4 How did you integrate technologies-
software, hardware and online- in this
project?
• I used Adobe Premiere and Adobe After
Effects CS6 in order to present my qualitative
data on the genre of crime films. It provided
me with a platform to use for inspiration.
Adobe After Effects CS6 also provided itself
as an effective and memorisable platform in
the display of data and with the help of
YouTube I was able to add muzzle flare and
bullet hits.

12. • I used YouTube throughout my production in order
to look for sound effects, tutorial videos and use it
to post my final production. YouTube is a very
useful platform as the views it receives from all over
the world is outstanding and could be a very helpful
tool in filmmaking.

13. The hardware that I used :
• Canon X3, yet again with the help of Internet I
learnt a lot about this camera which enabled me to
shoot videos more professionally.
• My self made Jib, I used some plastic materials
which I got from local hardware store.

14. • One thing I enjoyed the most was doing makeup on
my friend’s face. I learnt to make a fake wound from
YouTube and besides that I also learnt how to make
fake blood with the help of Hershey's syrup.

15. Postcard Analysis

16. • By looking at the postcard, my audience can judge
what the movie is about.
• The revolver, which is used in my movie, can be
seen in my postcard which suggests my audience
that this movie is a classic crime movie.
• I've used red color to show the main elements of the
postcard such as the name of the movie and director.
And the second text color I've used is Beige in
contrast to the background.
• And yet again I’ve used the same format for the title
to create a sense of branding.

17. Thank you By
Mahsam Zainli