The document provides an evaluation of a media studies project by Hiba Kausar. It summarizes how her opening movie sequence uses conventions such as building suspense through subtle shots to engage audiences. It discusses her target teenage female audience and how the movie could be distributed through Paramount Pictures or online platforms. The project helped develop Hiba's production skills in areas like inspiration from movies, editing techniques, and use of technologies like iPhone recordings and DSLR camera filming.

1. AS MEDIA STUDIES EVALUATION
BY HIBA KAUSAR

2. 1. How does your product use or
challenge convention and how does
it represent social groups or issues
 Firstly I would like to start off by identifying my movie 's genre, my movie's opening sequence Showcases
that it is affiliated with the thriller/mystery/horror side of genres. In my piece I have definitely used
conventions such as usually in mystery movies they build up the suspense slowly and subtly to increase
the tension factor, how I've implemented this is by showing shots (see below) that signify or establish
someones perception of the character from corners and hidden spots (as shes getting ready) while the
rest of the start of the scene carries on in its unnerved tone of girly and happy and lighthearted. Another
convention that these shots simultaneously show is that of letting the audience in on whats going on or
what's about to happen before the character discovers his/herself.

3.  ……The reason behind this is that it is used in
movies to hint to the audience that things
are about to take a turn for the worst. Such
an example can be seen in the horror movie
"The house at the end of the street".
 Another convention that I have followed in my
movie opening sequence is that of starting
with a rather happy laid back and 'good life'
tone for lack of a better word using colorful
shots……..

4.  I have also followed a few conventional shots inspired from the tv series eye candy on mtv that
revolves around a similar idea of a girl being stalked through use of hidden and surveillance cameras
by an unknown mysterious person. Below is a side to side comparison of the shots.

5. The character shown is a happy
independent popular girl with a bit of
an edgy style in clothing (matched
to the character on the right in terms
of appearance). I've shown her to
be very typical of teenage girl
caught up in petty things like
popularity and who possesses not
the highest level of IQ.

6. 2. How does your product engage
with audiences and how would it be
distributed as a real media text
 My product would probably have a rating of 14+ due to the fact that it contains subtle horror rather
than the very paranormal, graphic type. Also I feel the storyline is comprehensive enough for the young
audience.
 My target audience however would be young teenagers mostly females though due to the fact that
the storyline revolves around a female character and thus it is more relatable to them.
 With this movie I hope to attract my audience using a combination of things such as high level of
realism as the plot will be very carefully thought out and wont have any plot holes thus implying the
ideology that it could happen to them (which really emphasizes the thrill factor)
 With the use of innovative shots that keep the audience thinking and are quite captivating as to make
the audience feel like a part of the movie
 The right tweaks of suspense and subtly here and there (in the script) to keep the audience guessing
and finding themselves discovering things that they did not see coming which accentuates the shock
factor.

7. I think paramount pictures would be most appropriate for the distribution of my
movie because it has produced a wide range of movies from transformers to
cinderella to horror movie 'Paranormal activity' therefore it gives me reason to
believe that they just might consider my movie.
Another reason why I think its most suitable is because I feel that my movie
could be widely appreciated however firstly it needs proper exposure and
being a huge conglomerate, paramount would provide just that.

8. However in the event that my movie is turned down by
Paramount I would be most likely to distribute it over the
internet via youtube and other social networks I believe this
would also be an effective way to market the movie as the
target audience is the teenage population who are all
about spreading information via social networks that they
are so keen of.

9. 3. How did your production skills
develop throughout this project
 My production skills have developed quite extensively. After taking
media studies. I am more aware of the techniques used in making
videos and I am also more aware of the common problems that
usually come along in the process of production. Not only this but the
process of taking inspiration from movies has improved a lot, since now I
watch movies from a critical point of view and that helps while making
my own videos as I have more knowledge of common shots with
derivative meaning for eg low angle of someone establishes that they
have some kind of power or are feared , I also know how to make my
shots more innovative taking inspiration from the script, the set etc. I
have also learnt a lot of technical work involving editing software and
with my current skills I am able to achieve a satisfactory outcome of my
ideas.

10. 4. How did you integrate technologies
(hardware, software and online) in this
project
 For this project I integrated lots of technologies together to form my video
into what I had imagined. Firstly the sounds effects had to be very
carefully administered in my project since it has kind of a three layered
audio; background music, narration and diegetic sound. While this
project I discovered the wide range of audio music easily accessible for
download on websites and I made use of that choosing different music at
different points to elaborate upon the feel of the scene. Besides this I also
learnt a lot in terms of editing, I used transitions and fade outs and fade
ins to ensure the smooth flow of my video both in terms of cuts and music.
I chose windows movie maker as my editing software specially because it
is very user friendly and the ample amount of tutorials on the web also
make it more convenient to use.

11. 4. Continued….
 Instead of using a microphone to record the narration I instead
opted for the more convenient choice which was to record from
my iPhone and load that recording onto that video.
 To film, I basically used my standard dslr camera which had
average quality and so I chose to shoot in the daylight in order to
improve the quality of the video and make it more pleasing to view
but there were cases where light was needed and my phones
flashlight came in handy as long as it was at an angle that didn’t
make the light look fake on the character's face.