Creative Critical Reflection - The Comedown

CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION

By Sabika Noor Ali

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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,

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.

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.

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.

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.