My Short Film - A2 OCR Coursework

So far, a lot of my initial ideas have come from a range of old films, for example Gone With The Wind (1939, Victor Fleming), Roman Holiday (1953, William Wyler), Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz) to name a few. Also from certain songs I listen to in everyday life, for example there is a singer/songwriter named Laura Marling whom inspires me greatly, everything she writes is so raw and there is a stack of emotions behind her songs. One of her songs named 'Goodbye England (Covered in Snow)' is one of my favourite songs because the lyrics relate to certain occasions within my own life. It's the song i also associate with the incident my film my be about.

The definition of a short film would be something artistic and quirky that is around ten minutes in length and faces taboo issues through it's ideology.

In class we watched a short film named "About a Girl" (2001, Ryan Percival), it addressed issues of social realism like teenage pregnancy, relationships, divorce and coming of age. I loved how it showed these issues explicitly, as things like that happen everyday behind closed doors, however society seems to be ignorant about them. For example, the main female in the film is incredibly depressed and that is evident throughout with use of fast paced quick cut shots with a large amount of dialogue in, then followed by long drawn out wide shots with a static camera, displaying the girl's issues, showing that she is vulnerable. This is effective because with her peppy dialogue, you would expect her to be permanently happy, instead she is trying to cover up her irrevocable sadness.

My initial idea came from a dream I have about somebody close to me that I hold very dear being in an accident. However the editing will reflect that of "About a Girl", with long edit followed by more faced paced one's depicting certain elements of not only the accident itself, but the logistics of the relationship I have with this person. I liked this effect from "About a Girl" because the tone reflected similar moods that I would like in my film, coming of ages through certain relationships and incidents that are out of your control. Also the main female character in the film seemed to be constantly trying to put on a brave face, much like the lead character in my film will be.

One of the aspects of cinematography I favoured was the use of daylight for low key lighting. This is because some of the scenes in my short film I wish to shoot outdoors and this lighting technique will be a useful one to emulate. Furthermore I will be using simple rues of composition and continuity to intend that my film flows nicely.