'A day in the life of...' *CHANGED IDEA*

We decided that doing a hopeless romantic would be too challenging, only having a minute long, so we have decided on doing 'A day in the life of a school girl' instead, as it seems more realistic to create a one minute movie on that as the scenes don't have to be as long. I have come up with a storyboard/script (see below), so now we can focus purely on filming, editing and chosing the right track list for the film.

Codes and conventions of short film

Here I have created a list of the typical codes and conventions that you would normally find in a short film to help me when I get started on my transitional piece, which is to create a 1 minute short film before starting our main piece of work for A2. Here is a list of the conventions you would need to follow to create a successful short film:

• Characters - these are one of the main conventions included in short films, as usually the director tends to stick to 2 or 3 main characters. Being relatively short in length, short films don’t have time to create a deep back story or history of the characters involve; therefore, character numbers are kept low to allow the audience to relate to the characters in the small amount of time.
• Music - While looking at some of the existing short films, I listened very carefully to the music, listening to what was effective in sound in film and how music compliments the short film.
• A "twist" - usually Short Films contain a ‘Twist’ to make the story line is more interesting and have a new dimension to the short clip. Without a "Twist" in a Short Film the story-line would simply be rather boring and have no story to it.
• Low Budget - This is based on the fact that most Short Film Directors are independent without the sufficient backing in terms of funding. To ensure their budget is low, they stick to one or two locations for their film as well as only using a few actors. Having such a short film allows costs to be little to nothing in some departments, as some actors will work for free if they really like the story line.
• Length - as the name clearly states "short" film, the clip will need to be made in a small amount of time, approximately 5 to 10 minutes usually.
• Everyday situations - these particular story lines are created so that the audience are able to relate to them and then somehow the story will be flipped it on its head in some way. This allows the viewer to relate to the Short Film, but at the same time intriguing the viewer.
• Lighting - Usually, depending on the genre of film, I noticed that the lighting is normally either dark and gloomy or really bright and happy.

'A day in the life of...' Task

We have been set a task to create a one minute film in the title of 'A day in the life of...'. With this we could be as creative as we want. I had a few ideas, like:

• A chair
• A gutair
• A poster on a wall
• A keyboard
• A mirror
• A bed

However, I eventually came up with '...a hopeless romantic'. I am currently coming up with a storyline. I'm thinking it would be better to do it from a girls point of view and feel would make it a lot more funnier and in some cases more successful. I am gonna have to limit the time on each scene, as I have to fit a whole storyline with only one minute.

Movie trailer

A movie trailer is most likely the task that I am going to carry out. I've done a lot of research on this area, watched a lot of existing trailers, as well as other A2 students work and feel that making a trailer seems a lot more challenging, as you have to sum up the whole film in round 3 minutes, but a lot more creative and fun.

The movie trailer, would either be a horror or a comedy as, whilst researching I found out that these were the most successful genres for a trailer made by students.

Short film

A short film is another one of the options for our coursework. I have been doing some research, watching clips on youtube of some short films, made by other A2 students. If I was to make a short film, the genre I would like it to be is Horror. I watched 'The Waters Echo' which is a students short film, which actually made me want to make a short film, it does look challenging however, looks very enjoyable. Although I wouldn't want it to be a not so successful short film, like one I watched called 'Stranded' shown below.

Music videos

I have been looking at many different music videos, trying to get a feel of what type of music I would like to create a video to, if I do chose this task. I have decided that if I do create a music video, it would be to a pop or rap song. I have looked at music videos by Eminem, Maclemore, Tulisa, etc and would really like to recreate one of their songs and may be put a twist of humor to it.

Intro

Hey, my name is Jasmine. This is my A2 media blog. I will be posting about research I have done for my coursework, which is either: a short film, a music video or a movie trailer. The first task we have been set is to create a one minute film in the title of 'A day in the life of...'. This task will really help me gain skill and knowledge on filming and editing, for when I actually begin my task of a short film, a music video or a movie trailer.