The document discusses the creative critical reflection of a student's film project. It summarizes how the film both uses and challenges conventions of romance films. It shows the main character excited to go out with her boyfriend, but then challenges conventions by not clearly showing their relationship before her plans are disrupted. It also represents a social group in Pakistan where dating is not typically accepted. The film aims to portray how life can suddenly change for the worse. It would be distributed in theaters with marketing like trailers and publicity events. Through the production process, the student learned to pay close attention to details in shots and work with actors. Windows Movie Maker and online sources were used to edit the film and add music.

1. CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION
M. FARAZ AMIN

2. HOW DOES YOUR PRODUCT USE OR CHALLENGE
CONVENTIONS AND HOW DOES IT REPRESENT
SOCIAL GROUPS OR ISSUES?

3. Conventions basically refer to the general way things are accepted.
This of course meanings the norms of it. For horror movies for
example the connotation would be secluded locations or the
characters forgetting about a threat and a whole lot of other
things.
My film which is romance of course both uses and challenges the
conventions of a romance film. It uses them in the sense that we
see how Zahra is overly excited to see her and she gets dolled up
and ready to go with her boyfriend.

4. The conventions have been
challenged in the sense that
the movie doesn’t really
show her bond with her
boyfriend or how much he
means to her yet still we see
her reaction and how
everything seems to just be
downhill for her.

5. It also shows her from a different group of society for the country
where this is based Pakistan, the concept of dating or going out
isn’t understood or accepted by most of society due to religious or
cultural reasons but she has a different take/opinion on that.

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

7. My product is basically what you call sad romance for some and for
others harsh reality. It focuses on how from one second everything
is picture perfect for you and you life is perfect and the next it
comes tumbling down around you. For many members of the
audience it would just be something they can relate to and they
understand for when things all of a sudden take a turn for the
worse. This would also have the USP of the film i.e unique selling
point , because that’s what would attract the audience and make
them relate to and understand the movie.

8. The distribution in my film would be like similar to other romance based
films. Distribution basically consists of when and where the movie will be
released and along side that the marketing of the product. So first and
foremost I would choose to release my film in spring break as all college
students are free then and it’s the start of the year right around after the
Academy Awards and so people would need some new films to watch after
they’re done with the oscar nominated films. The films release date would
be preferably be on a Friday just as the weekend starts so as to attract
maximum audience and generate maximum revenue.

9. Since such movies are still watched by a mass market it would only make
sense for a cinematic release only so that the audience goes and watches it
in theatres rather than a simultaneous release across all media platforms.
I’d of course market the product by releasing a series of trailers with intervals
across the web. Other publicity stunts as well such as the cast randomly
showing up at homes or different public locations so as to campaign the
film. Other then that id also get sponsors such as a shopping mall or a café
to give out posters for the film which would have a synopsis. A lucky draw
could also be set up to gain free tickets to the premiere.

10. How did your production skills develop
through out this project?

11. The production phase of any product be it a good ready to be sold or a film
ready to be viewed. If the production lacks a good touch and isn’t of high
quality then you cant really sell your product to the customer. When I was
shooting my movie opening I realised that first and foremost you cant get
any scene done in one shot. You need to take shots again and again to get
the perfect angle and along side that you also need to watch out for the
smallest of errors. Whether you’ve left enough head room or not, are the
facial expressions fine, if the actress looks into the camera. Every tiny
detail has to be taken into account.

12. Its this part of production that actually takes a lot of effort cause you need to
take out a lot of time and along side even keep a track on shooting so you
can edit the product later. The on screen looks and the expressions of a
cast are also very important. Due to this reason only I had to alter the story
three times and experimented with quite a few actors so as to know who
would be able to act best in my film. So its pretty clear that you need to be
able to adjust quickly and easily in the production stage of a film.

13. How did you integrate technologies -
software, hardware and online - in this
project?

14. For my film opening, I used my Canon EOS 600D which had an 18-55mm lens.
The entire shoot of course was done with the use of a tripod. There weren’t
any other hardware technologies but more software and online.

15. The software I used for my entire movie editing was Windows live movie
maker. The reason for this was because it seemed fairly simple to use and
had all the necessities needed to edit a good film. I used all its feature such
as the cut and trim tools, adding music and editing video sound and the
animation effects available at our disposal. The online web portal was of
course used to download the movie opening sound from the website
www.soundbible.com and other songs used in the movie were downloaded
from the website www.mp3lio.co .

16. END.