The Creative Critical ReflectionFilm Opening Task (Video)

Title Of The Movie: And The Stars Smiled At Me

A Media Studies Foundation Portfolio By: Sehrish Baseem (2016425)

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

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

3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

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

The product created is an opening of a film. It consists of Opening credits of a movie that Belongs to the commercial cinema. The film is titled as “And The Stars Smiled At Me” and has been categorized in the Romantic genre. The sound track (Background Music) is an existing love theme from the Bollywood ie The Indian cinema. My product uses the traditional conventions/norms of an Eastern society where Both the genders agree upon marrying each other and also portrays their love in a variety of Ways. Later when things are smooth, the female protagonist discovers about her being pregnant, and like every other married woman she is elated to know about this news and decides to share it with her husband whom she loves the most. Another convention used is the male protagonist being stereotyped as a young, rich playboy who marries the girl whom he admires a lot or is infatuated from her and divorces her after sometime of marriage and in the very beginning of the film, though the reason for divorce is not disclosed and a suspense is left on the minds of the audiences. This will intrigue their minds and create curiosity of why and what will happen next. Romance shown in flashbacks is a convention itself if kept according to genre.My product not only uses conventions that are societal norms but however also keeps the audacity to challenge them. And The Stars Smiled At Me challenges traditions of a healthy society in a number of ways that are listed below.Firstly, It shows a couple living together without a family in a Pakistani cultured society where the joint family / extended family system is common and more over it is a love marriage rather than being an arranged marriage (set in the Pakistani back drop). Secondly the genre chosen is not only Romantic but also tragic that leads the movie on the social topic of Women Empowerment or being Women Oriented.Liberty of women and equal rights of both genders will be shown later in the story. It will also portray that this is not a man’s world anymore and women are no more helpless and can easily bare the expenses of a lone parent family as she is shown to be pregnant when receives a divorce from her husband. Another

Challenge is for the Romantic genre that love is not the only thing for a relationship to be stable on and therefore tragic incidents like divorce too take place even when there is enough love between the two. More over, the reason for divorce is not based on assumptions like : extra marital affair, he doesn’t love her anymore , he is financially unstable to have her in his life or that he is to die due to any uncertain disease. In fact it lets the audiences wait for the correct time to know what had actually happened that led the male protagonist to let go his wife. This also marks a question on the viewers mind “Did he love her enough to let her go?” Another challenge, acceptability of a vague divorce in the society and the male protagonist not even looking back at her when she falls,this shows the tough guy in him who once loved her to all extents and now does not even care for her and his child which she is to bear (as he is unknown of it),this side of his also showcases that he may be a careless, irresponsible enough husband who loves her no more or had only used the girl (women stereotyped: beauty with no brains, always falling in the trap of sly men). Lastly, In the Romantic genre, a tragedy is shown challenging the genre itself where there is a love-hate track and the darker side of marriage ie divorce is shown in the very beginning. The social group represented in this film: Male protagonist: A member of the elite class who is highly educated but despite of that, a spoilt,stubborn playboy who lives a luxurious life and has does not believe in the social values on which the society has been running since ages. Female Protagonist: A simple loving natured young girl from the middle class who has learnt to adjust in all environments and situations of life and is also educated enough. The film opening shows her to be married and living in a high profile society and as a part of the elite class (since she is married to him) The story revolves around the two who are once deeply in love with each other. The movie showcases immature love, romance and great amount of infatuation which leads the both of them to marry each other despite knowing the real consequences and how the social class and its upbringings could be a real cause to ruin their lives. The age gap between the two is not much as they both are shown young throughout. An example from the movie are flashbacks, eastern wedding pictures etc. The social issue

Reflected in my product is infatuation leading to marriages at a very young age that leads to divorce. Another social issue is Marrying in a different social class ie: middle class girl marrying an elite class boy which leads to difference of opinions,thinking,ideas,values and culture. More over, the idea of planning a family at a young age when one is not ready to take up responsibilities and then bearing a child who will have to face different issues in the world especially when his/her parents are no more together and is a part of a lone parent family stuck in the poverty trap etc. Another social problem shown in this is the darker side of marriage where the love has struck off and things have come to a level where divorce is necessary between the two especially when the female protagonist is pregnant with her husbands child and he not knowing about it unintentionally pushes her (act of domestic violence) when she tries to stop him. Such social issues are highlighted in the opening of the film but another social factor that will be considered later in the film will be when the female lead decides to be strong and live her life on her own and also bear the child, earn a living with the degree that she has. Such a decision showcases Women Empowerment.

These photographs are shown in the album which sheIs looking at very happily in the beginning of the film. This is an evidence portraying the execution of the Bridal photoshoot of an eastern wedding in the Pakistani society.

Photographs show actor Sonia Jung

and Director Sehrish Baseem

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

The genre as earlier mentioned is not only Romantic but also tragic. It shows the life of two totally different individuals falling for and against each other with the race of time and due to a variety of different plots the movie is based on. The product therefore is very intriguing and leaves certain questions on the minds of its audiences. For example: “Did he love her enough to let her go?” or “What made the deeply in love couple to part ways?” or “Will he ever find out that what she had to share with him the day he divorced her?” or “Will she ever try to get in touch with him to know the actual reason for why he divorced her?” or “what will happen to the pregnant woman who has been left isolated by her husband whom she loves the most?” or even “Did he even love her?” or maybe “Will they ever meet again”? And lastly “Will she be able to earn a living for her child and herself after divorce?” or “Will there be a new/different male protagonist later in the film who would value her?” such questions will boggle the minds and to know the real plot they will decide to watch the entire film. The unique selling point of the film is not the Romantic genre but the genre of it being a Romantic tragedy that puts light on a number of social matters pre and post marriage and how they are suppose to be dealt kept in mind the basic values and ideas of two differently brought up people, one from the elite class and the other from the middle class. The target market for this product is generally the youth, women and feminists.This product will be distributed as a real media text ie A codec for streaming digital video and sound over the Internet. The video will be distributed through internet medium on a blog. A link of it will be posted, embedded through YouTube or daily motion. More over interviews of starred cast in magazines, reviews in newspapers pre and post release f the movie. The planning,making and music source will also be available on the blog with a clear and deteailed synopsis of the film opening task.

Scenes from the film, pictures on set and much more!

3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?Development of production skills took place in various forms throughout the project. Firstly Brain storming for a film opening and then planning the execution part is much tough in real Terms than of what it is thought. Through out the academic year we were assigned 4 video Making and editing projects which gave us (the candidates) a rough idea on how to shoot for our Final portfolio. Firstly planning a storyboard, and how its execution should be was the first thing that hit myMind, next was the genre as my story could have been interpreted in many ways by the audiencesSo I decided to keep it simple, a romantic tragedy. Next was choosing the correct people as theCast for the film and also targeting the correct audience with the powerful message it carries.Choosing locations was easy but getting hold of them was difficult as shooting at public places is Rarely allowed and not very easy. The locations are: A house (i.e. my own house), a private garden(Bridal photo shoot) and The Beach Luxury Hotel (where he divorces her) two of them are privateLocations which were not very difficult to have but for the last one I had a tough time convincing Them for the shoot and got permission for shooting there only for 1 hour and in sharp sunlight..Which made me drop the idea of showing a sunset that is I believe a must for a romantic movie.However, this project gave me the confidence to go up and talk to people whom I would rarely or Maybe never talk to in my life. I even shot scenes which were later realized to be unnecessary and Had to be put amongst the deleted scenes. I shot through different angles repeatedly due to having only one Camera but I did use a tripod to stop the shakiness of scenes. Through this project I got a fair idea on how to Produce a piece of art (film). Not only with the shooting but also the editing part gave me a tough time since My laptop crashed several of times and I had to redo the whole process a number of times, but this proved to Be good in the end because out of so many that I had made, I could choose the best one and always make any Amendments required. I used different back drops, costumes and got the make overs of the casts done through My sister due to having no knowledge of make up. Production skills developed vastly through this portfolio as It allowed me to boggle my mind, wander around and create a piece of decency with my own ideas based on daily life. I used the suitable background music and outsourced it from the internet.

4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

Technology is one thing I've always been friendly with. Being a techno-savvy I have great knowledge on using different soft wares for editing, movie making, choosing sound tracks etc. I used the Windows movie maker 2.6 software on my windows 8. Other softwares included real media player for movie playing, a music downloader and player for sound tracks and Microsoft power point from Microsoft office for the slide show making of the creative critical reflection. The hardware used for this project was a 700D Canon DSLR camera that helped me shoot my entire project, and a tripod with it of course. To export the clips from it for import I used an HP laptop which helped me create my movie. This is how the software and hardware were integrated. An online blog was created in the starting of the year : www.sehrishbmediastudies.blogspot.com which was updated each time a project was made for submission. Music for the video was outsourced from online through a website that offered free download of instrumental music. Online work was rather more integrated with both hardware and software. Working and associating the 3 for this media project was however easy.