The document discusses a student's 2-minute drama movie opening project for their media studies class. The student aimed to follow conventions of the drama genre by portraying realistic characters and situations. They drew inspiration from a family member's experience with divorce and its impact on children. The student hopes to raise awareness about how divorce affects entire families through their film. They plan to distribute it online and through social networks to reach broad audiences. Through this project, the student developed skills in filming, editing, applying techniques like shots and lighting. They integrated cameras, tripods, and movie making software to complete their film.

1. BY MUSKAN JAWWAD

2. How does your product use or challenge
conventions and how do they represent
social groups or issues?
The genre of my two minute movie opening is drama. Conventions of a drama
movie are the fact that Drama's exhibits real life situations with realistic
characters, settings and story lines. They portray journeys of character
development and add intense social interaction filled with climaxes to keep the
audience emotionally attached to the ongoing tension. I have along with the
conventions of a typical drama movie and tried to make an exact replica of real
time drama. I have tried to capture the expressions of the people acting as
usually in almost all the dramatic movies, getting the expression right from the
actors and being able to capture it is the key. Moreover, the usage of ordinary
lighting and high key lighting can be seen throughout my movie opening. The
audience can also hear the non-diegetic sound of suspense oriented music to
keep the viewers connected to the movie and to create a sense drama and
mystery. Throughout my movie, I have not challenged conventions of a typical
drama piece like catchy music, detailed actions of the actors and so on.

3. I am inspired by a real life incident that took place in my
family. My paternal cousin is very close to me ever since our
childhood. He was only 5 years old when he had to see his
parents split up. And not just that, a few days later, his father
met with a terrible accident in which he almost lost his life.
My cousin was deeply saddened about all this happening in
his life. He shared all this with me that how he was mentally
disturbed as he had to witness the divorce. He further
carried on that his studies were being affected and that he
just wanted to sit and cry because he missed his parents.
The scenes shown in my movie are the ones he
narrated.

4. The social issue that can be discussed by my movie is the
whole idea of divorce. It is not just two people agreeing on
living without each other, it is their entire family that has to
suffer. In my opinion, the discussed topic of divorce should
be avoided as much as possible and if the case is not that
simple and worthy of being resolved, then the rest of the
family should be provided with moral and emotional
support because at the end of the day promising financial
support is not just good enough. Society should also stop
regarding this topic to be not discussed in front of children.
I believe, children of broken families have to suffer a lot so
of given briefing from before, it might just help them get
out of it in a relatively easy way.

5. How does your product engage with
audiences and how would it be distributed
as a real media text?
Everyone has a very busy life and it is difficult to take out
time for those who are suffering because everyone
thinks that their life is tough and others would not
understand what their going through. With this movie of
mine I would like to spread awareness that not people
still care. My movie will also be a source for the
audience to connect to the happenings around us. If
someone in my audience has gone through all this, they
might think about their past and might as well just try to
get back. The movie will cater children as they need to
know what is happening around them and will obviously
deal with adult needs too.

6. According to statistics, in UK alone, in the year 2013, there were 9.8
men divorcing per thousand married males and 9.8 women divorcing
per thousand married females. This represents a decrease of 27% for
men and 26% for women compared with 2003 when divorce rates were
13.4 for men and 13.2 for women.
I feel that I would upload my movie on social media and with the help of
my friends will spread it to as many people as possible. I will do this and
then hope that one fine day a production house will see my word and
would ask me for copyrights of the movie. I will take this step because
my movie will be made on a small scale with relatively less resources so
the big production houses might refuse on screening my movie.

7. How did your production skills develop through
this project?
I chose media as a subject mainly because of the interest I had in this
field and because of my interest in movies and my dream of becoming a
movie director when I grow up. However, media is much more than just
a subject. Before studying this subject little did I know that the way one
takes a photograph, it has a name too! Nonetheless, Media Studies has
made me what I am today, able to actually shoot a film, direct it, edit it
and present it for my audience.

8. TYPES OF CUTS
We have learnt many types of editing cuts
primarily.
A jump cut is basically an abrupt cut in
which shots of the same subject have been
taken from camera positions that vary very
slightly. Its used to give the dramatic effect of
jumping forward in time.
Parallel editing also known as cross cutting is
the technique of alternating two or more
scenes that often happen simultaneously but
are in different locations. If the scenes are
simultaneous, they occasionally culminate in a
single place, where the relevant parties
confront each other.
Slow cuts are shots of longer duration with the
same subject. However, such shots that go up
to 15 seconds may be called a drag as it would
come across the audience as annoying.

9. RULE OF THIRD
The rule of thirds is a guideline which applies to the process of
composing visual images such as designs, films, paintings, and
photographs. The guideline proposes that an image should be
imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally spaced
horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines, and that
important compositional elements should be placed along these
lines or their intersections.[2] Proponents of the technique claim
that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension,
energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the
subject.
The photograph to the left demonstrates the application of the
rule of thirds. The horizon sits at the horizontal line dividing the
lower third of the photo from the upper two-thirds. The tree sits
at the intersection of two lines, sometimes called a power point
or a crash point[citation needed]. Points of interest in the photo
do not have to actually touch one of these lines to take
advantage of the rule of thirds.[citation needed] For example,
the brightest part of the sky near the horizon where the sun
recently set does not fall directly on one of the lines, but does
fall near the intersection of two of the lines, close enough to take
advantage of the rule.

10. HEAD ROOM
It is known as the headroom, which is the space between the subject’s top of the head and the
frame. It is used to include the sense of space on both sides of the frame. Also, what we have
to take care of is that there should not be too much headroom in the picture or no headroom
at all. If for instance, our subject is a human then the human’s nose should not be the middle
of the frame incase of a mid-shot

11. TYPES OF SHOTS
Extreme Wide Shots (EWS) act to establish
the area.
Wide Shots (WS) show the entire person or
area. They’re great for establishing the
scene and allow for good action of the
characters. Sometimes this is known as the
long shot.
Medium Shots (MS) frame the subject from
the waste up. This is the most common
shot and allows for hand gestures and
motion.
Medium Close Ups (MCU) shots show the
subject in more detail and are often framed
from just below the shoulders to the top of
the head.

12. Point of View (POV): This is an effective shot that gives the
audience the feel that you’re seeing it from the eyes of the
performer. It is taken from near the eye-level of the actor
and shows what he might see. It could be used to give the
perspective of other animals too like a frog, a bird, or a fish.

13. LIGHTING

14. SOUNDS
DIEGETIC SOUND NON DIEGETIC SOUND
• Sound whose source is neither visible on the screen
nor has been implied to be present in the action:
• narrator's commentary
• sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect
• mood music
• Non-diegetic sound is represented as coming from the
a source outside story space.
• The distinction between diegetic or non-diegetic sound
depends on our understanding of the conventions of
film viewing and listening. We know of that certain
sounds are represented as coming from the story
world, while others are represented as coming from
outside the space of the story events. A play with
diegetic and non-diegetic conventions can be used to
create ambiguity (horror), or to surprise the audience
(comedy).
• Another term for non-diegetic sound is commentary
sound.
• Sound whose source is visible on the screen or
whose source is implied to be present by the
action of the film:
• voices of characters
• sounds made by objects in the story
• music represented as coming from
instruments in the story space ( = source
music)
• Diegetic sound is any sound presented as
originated from source within the film's world
• Digetic sound can be either on screen or off
screen depending on whatever its source is
within the frame or outside the frame.
• Another term for diegetic sound is actual
sound

15. How did you integrate technologies in this project?
In order shoot my video, I used my DSLR, nikon D500. I also
used the handycam Exmor R. Along with these two cameras,
in order to set them and use them efficiently and effectively,
I used a tripod stand and a gryostand.
Before working on this project, I didn’t know how to use
these devices that well. While working on this project, my
skills of being able to use these enhanced at a great level.
This is all the hardware, I used for shooting purposes.

16. The software that I used to edit my video is the
microsoft movie maker. I chose this software
because it is easy to handle and I know how to
use it to the best of my ability.

17. All in all, media studies has taught me a lot
useful things and I am super satisfied with my
subject selection and I hope that one day my
dream of becoming a film maker will come true
and my skills will be enhanced even more. I