Haseeb Ahmed created a horror movie opening sequence titled "Midnight" for a school project. He chose the horror genre because it engages audiences of all ages and social classes. His movie incorporates conventions of the horror genre like spooky lighting, background music, and disturbing visuals. He aims to distribute the movie through 20th Century Fox for their experience promoting diverse genres. Throughout the project, Haseeb developed production skills like camera angles, lighting techniques, and editing. He integrated technologies like camera equipment, Windows Movie Maker, and online resources for research, audio, and self-promotion.

1. Haseeb Ahmed

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

3. Different kinds of genre:
ROMANTIC
COMEDY

4. ACTION
HORROR

5. 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.

6. CONVENTIONS OF HORROR MOVIES:
 Scary background music
 Disturbing visuals
 Spooky portraits
 Darkness
 Witches, ghosts, zombies and vampires
 An innocent victim
 Spooky make-up

7. 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

8. 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.

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

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. DISTRIBUTION
COMPANIES

13. 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)

14. 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.

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

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. 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.

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

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. 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”.

27.  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