1. CREATIVE CRITICAL
REFLECTION
By Sabika Noor Ali

2. How does your product use or challenge
conventions and how does it represent
social groups or issues?
‘The Comedown,’ is a short two minute film opening,
focusing on the emotions of a teenager, Hamza Khan,
who is put into a lot of pressure from all sides of his life.
His life surrounds the sport of basketball, he has the talent
and the passion, but it is not enough for those who
surround him. It is basically a movie to reflect a teenager
in an immense amount of pressure and how this pressure
leads to the fall or the ‘comedown’ of his basketball
career, which he really loved, but it was also evidently the
root of all the negativity in his life. The message I wanted
to portray through this film was that happiness is the key
element you need in your life to be successful.

3. Using artificial means like drugs to either pretend to be satisfied
with life, or to boost your performance, is in itself, a lead to an
artificial life. Your own happiness is crucial for success, not the
happiness of others. If passion for your job is present, then
nothing can stop you from owning the world and gaining respect
doing the right things in life. An example of this kind of real-time
media would be One Tree Hill (2001-2012) as its storyline is
quite similar to mine, as is the genre.
A comparison of Hamza Khan
from my movie opening and
James Lafferty from One Tree
Hill.
I think my movie has used and
challenged conventions of the genre
of drama simultaneously. A typicality
in the genre of drama is that it
portrays a character’s journey and
developments. In my movie opening,
the journey of the character’s fall or
‘comedown’ from fame is shown, but
instead of his developments, his bad

4. habit (drugs) is shown, which was a way I have challenged this
convention. Usually, in the films of the genre Drama, most
people sympathise with the character while he conquers the
battle against evil. However, in this film, the character does not
win the war against his evils but people generally would
sympathise with the character due to the harsh attitude of his
mother and his coach. Thirdly, in dramatic movies, there is
usually a happy ending, for example, The Titanic (1998) which
did not end happily but was still a movie from the genre of
Drama. In my movie I have left it open-ended where people
conclude the movie themselves. Did
Hamza get caught because of the
drugs? Will he ever be able to play
again? Is he happy or is he sad if his
basketball career did end? Therefore
there are a lot of questions left
unanswered.

5. Also there is usually dull lighting in dramatic movies, and it
usually portrays nature. This is a convention I have used as my
movie is shot in daylight in a park, showing nature. I have also
used a typical prop of my genre, drugs. Drugs are used in a lot
of dramatic movies, sometimes including teenagers as well as
adults. For example, The Basketball Diaries (1995)
starring Leonardo DiCaprio where he spirals
from life’s path and finds himself caught in the
grip of drug addiction. Also, He Got Game
(1998) starring Denzel Washington, is a
basketball movie where we see him
play basketball due to the pressure put on him
from his father’s side, similar to my movie
opening’s concept.
The social group my project represents is
mainly teenagers, as I wanted to show that
it is not easy for a teen to sway from the
right direction towards wrong-doings.

6. It is very easy to go from right and wrong, and because teens
are at the most vulnerable emotional state as they are at that
kind of age, they can very easily get into the wrong things. It
was not hard for the character of my movie opening to lean on
drugs for support as he was not getting any from the ones who
should care about him, like his family. Just because he has the
talent, no one has the right to push him into things and say that
he is not good enough and never will be good enough.
Therefore the social issues in my movie would be drug abuse
and a high level of parental pressure.

7. How does your product engage with audiences
and how would it be distributed as a real
media text?
In my opinion, the movie opening firstly caters to teenagers,
because nowadays, drug usage and abuse is very common,
especially at this age. This opening offers them the sight of how
drugs can eliminate a happy life and how pressure from
parents, teachers, friends and fans is to be ignored if it gets too
much to take. Working hard for yourself and being in a state of
content is ideal, working hard for others is just a bridge which
you cross to reach that level of satisfaction with yourself. .
Along with being a message for teenagers, I think it also caters
as a message for adults like parents, teachers and coaches as
it shows that too much pressure just makes a person break. Of
course, a little pressure to make your children work hard is
good, but too much pressure in turn results in a detrimental
effect on children like drugs.

8. I think the Unique Selling Point of my movie would be that it
revolves around the idea of basketball and how a player’s career
can easily be taken away from him, so the storyline is definitely
one to attract people as it goes against the conventions of
dramatic movies and shows the fall in someone’s life instead of
the rise.
Columbia Pictures is a prominent production company, and a
part of the Big Six. The main reason I have chosen it to be my
production company is because most of its films surround the
theme of drama. For example, Groundhog Day, Annie, The
Shawshank Redemption, etc.

9. This added to the fact that such a famous company is
associated with my movie opening, would immediately, without
question, spread the word around for my movie. Also, it is such
a big conglomerate, that I would not have to worry about getting
a different distribution company to work with me, or another
exhibition company, as it would cater to all my needs and I
would not go through different researching processes to look for
different companies for distribution and exhibition.
In terms of marketing, I would first set up a website and
accounts on different social media websites and applications
with a few pictures of my actors and an overview of the plot. I
would set a release date for example, the 4th of June, 2015. I
would release its trailer and as the movie opening a Columbia
Pictures production, the other upcoming movies by Columbia
close to my release date would exhibit them in theatres, making
my movie opening’s name and story known.

10. For example, the trailers would be shown in the beginning of
Paul Blart: Mall Cop which is to be released on the 17th of April,
2015, and Aloha, which is set to release on the 29th of May,
2015.
I would also take another step
towards getting my movie known
and attract the audience by
synergising with Spalding, the
company, to sell basketballs in the
name of ‘The Comedown.’ I would
also go to press conferences along
with my actors, mainly in the USA, as the headquarters of
Columbia and Sony Pictures are there. The NCAA March
Madness, which is a basketball tournament which basketball
fans really look forward to. During the half-times in their matches,
I would have my movie played, as it also
surrounds the theme of basketball.

11. Also, I would approach arcades in selective big states
of the US, like California, with a deal making them put
pictures and play my movie opening on a screen with their
basketball game like the ones shown below to the right.
This way of marketing was inspired by the strategy of
Indiana Jones, where they made a pinball game to market
the movie.

12. How did your production skills develop
throughout this project?
Before I took this class, I always thought making movies
may be lengthy, but the process would be fun and easy as
well. When I carried out my practical projects, I realised that
it is fun, but it is not an easy task.
I learnt about camera angles, shots, and interesting
things about the production process that I never knew
before. It is easy to say now that I cannot watch movies in
peace without critically viewing them as well.
This project was actually one I had a lot of fun doing.
From the point of thinking about a story till the pressing of
the ‘Save My Movie,’ button was a journey to remember as
the first film I ever made. I went through difficulties, like
every other movie maker would, and I realised and learnt a

13. lot of small things I had to do which seemed so easy
when watching movies before. Sound, editing, the recruitment of
actors etc. is not an easy task. It is actually taken very lightly by
audiences while they watch a film to enjoy, but after you learn
about the production process, you start seeing movies in a
different light. The main difficulty I went through was the sound.
Trying to find the perfect kind of music required a length of
research, until I finally came across ‘We Knew Him Well’ by the
metal band called Down. It was perfect to reflect the amount of
tension Hamza was in during that time.
Since I did not have a microphone, I had to extract the
dialogues from the camera shot I took closest to the actors. The
placement of the audio to match the person in the video talking,
was quite hard, as was putting two different audios (background
music and dialogues) into the same part in the video. As I was
using Windows Movie Maker, I had to save the movie repeatedly
to do so. So the importance of sound is definitely the most I have
learnt about during this process.

14. Editing is also a skill I have improved, and mostly what helped
me in all the small difficulties was Google. It was very helpful in
the little things I needed help in, therefore it played a very
important role in my project. Finding a location was also a worry
as I myself do not play basketball much, so I did not know where I
could shoot my movie opening, but then I was suggested the
location of The Neighbourhood Park as it was a peaceful park and
not overly crowded. It was perfect for shooting a movie but I had
to keep in mind that usually, if you shoot in a public place,
onlookers keep staring. This does not look good in a movie
opening, and thankfully, that was a problem I did not have to face.
Also, it was hard to set a time where all three of my actors, Hamza
Khan, Moiz Mobeen and Asad Mehdi, could come at the same
time. They had classes till late in the evening, and as I needed to
capture my shots in daylight, I needed to set a time convenient for
everyone. Added to this problem, was the problem of the political
situation in Karachi, as on the day I had set to shoot my movie,
the 11th of March, it was announced to be a strike, as well as the,

15. consecutive day, the 12th of March. Therefore, the date of my
shooting had to be postponed. Through this difficulty, I learnt
about the management of time, and the significance of pre-
planning the shots and camera angles I wanted to use.
Spontaneously deciding the shots to take then and there can be
a hassle, and is an unreliable way of shooting. I was glad that I
had organised my shots from before, which, in the end, did save
me some valuable time. I also learn that it is very important to
have a lot of footage, as it is always better to have more than to
have less. This enabled me to present quite a wide set of camera
angles in my project.

16. How did you integrate technologies
(hardware, software and online) in this
project?
As I mentioned before, google played a pivotal role in my
research for this film. Any difficulties I went through, I went
straight to google. As I was having problems with extracting
sound from one type of shot, I googled how to do it, and I found
his amazing website called www.audiomicro.com. It was exactly
what I needed to extract the dialogues and edit music. I also
used www.freestockmusic.com to download the sound of birds
chirping to show that it was a peaceful park, which in turn did
contrast with the actions and the emotions of Hamza in the
movie. To make my logo, I first tried www.logogenie.net but that
did not enable me to download the logo I made, therefore I then
used another website called www.logogarden.com, through
which I made my present logo.

17. I also used www.7tutorials.com/editing-video-windows-live-movie-
maker-2011 as a website for reference and tips about the editing
software I used, Windows Live Movie Maker. I used a Canon EOS
1200D DSLR camera with an 18-55mm lens, which was very easy
to handle and I was glad I used it as I got an end result of videos
of good quality. I also used a Velbon tripod.

18. I hope through this critical reflection, you see my
point of view of how I wanted this project to be seen
as. I am sure the crucial message of this movie
opening is recognised, and I hope people realise
that being successful is not just about the money
and the fame, it is most importantly about yourself.
And if you compromise your health and happiness
to earn this success in the wrong way, then it is not
worth it. In the end all that matters is your
happiness. You can view my movie opening at my
blog www.sabika-noorali.blogspot.com.