MORE AND MORE INSPIRATION

 As i said on the last post today is all about more research but this time I am researching short films that have to do with sports and everything that comes with it. The topic of sports is as broad as the beauty standard topic. From becoming obsessed with being the best to the point where it affects you mentally and physically to having no motivation to do the sport you love because of different reasons. 

The first short film i watched is called “Game Night” by Joel Fendelman and it won many film festival awards. The short film itself was very heartfelt and you could feel all the emotions as you watch it which is the goal for this project, we want people to watch it and feel a certain way. The story is that a taxi driver falls upon a football team and it  brings past memories of when he played football. The shots and techniques used were absolutely phenomenal I would love to incorporate and used these shots as inspiration for our short film if we decided to do a sports short film. 

This is a screen recording of my favorite part of the short film because in my opinion it caught the raw emotion of missing the sport you did as a kid but can’t do it anymore because of the age and physique and although this is not really the route we would go if we do a sports short film, catching the raw emotion of it all would be the ideal situation for our project and i think we can use the technique they use of fast cuts to demonstrate it as well. 

Another short film that I watched is called “LIGA” by Toby’s sports and they took a different route that I hadn’t think of when it comes to sports. Their short film was about a guy on a basketball team who has a lot of talent but since there is someone better than him he is in the shadows like the coach wont see his potential and hardwork until the best player gets hurt and the coach finally sees him but in the end the real message is that it doesn’t matter who scores it is playing as a team that matters. Personally, our ideas for the sport short film were a little different but in a way kind of the same. Like our ideas for the sport short film were mostly about pressure and how you can lose the love for the sport and I think this short film has a little bit of both because the main character was working so hard to be noticed and have his chance but that moment could have never happened which would have made him lose interest in the sport and when he finally got his chance he felt the pressure to do good so he wouldn’t mess it up so we could use this as inspiration on a different side of sports. What I really liked and i thought we could implement in our short film is the fact that even through it was about a team it focused on the main character and it had voiceover for when he was thinking and how he was feeling and i thought that was really nice because it gave us the chance to see how he was dealing with everything mentally that is a big thing in sports but incredibly hard to show and understand. 

The last one I checked out was called good sport and something i really liked the shots they used to show each sport that the kid played. For example, when the kid tried basketball they used a low angle to show the ball not going in. Like that and i thought that was really nice. I also liked the pacing of the film as well i thought it moved nice and all the jump cuts made the film incredibly nice. Lastly, this one is another one that shows a different side of sports because the kid tried every sport but the last one he tried was the one he loved which means that it takes time to find the sport you love. 

He loved dance and the shots they used at the end were spectacular and i think we could use them for our short film as well. 

These are what I’m talking about, the shots do such a good job showing how happy he is where he is and dancing. In addition, i loved how he is still the main focus and you can still see that he is the main character. 

Well that is enough about sport short films, in the next blog we will talk a little about genre :))

RESEARCHING FOR SOME INSPIRATION

 Now that we have narrowed it down to two topics (beauty standards or sports) I have decided that it is time to research short films about these topics to get an idea and some inspiration for what we could do. In today's blog, we will talk about short films about beauty standards. 

I came across this short film that I really enjoyed because I think it describes the topic extremely well and it is a good representation of the beauty standards girls and women in today's society have. 

"Not enough" a short film by Emily Liu

 The thing about beauty standards is that it is an incredibly broad topic with many things to talk about. The creator of this short film focused on the eating disorder part of this whole phenomenon and I thought she did it very well. What I really liked at the beginning is that she puts a picture of a model which is the goal of what she wants to look like up on the wall, this is important because it lets the audience know that the goal of the girl is to look like that which is why she slowly starts developing an eating disorder and she shows the process extremely well. At first, she shows how every time the character ate she would see derogatory words that would make her not want to eat yet she still did. Then she does something about which is when she starts counting the calories she intakes and exercising more which later the whole process becomes obsessive and it ends in an eating disorder. 

I feel like watching this short film gave me a sense of direction on what I could do with this project and this topic. I think it can really send a message to those girls that struggle with this to keep up with everything that they see on the internet. I saw many things that we could incorporate in our short film such as my favorite shot when she is eating her food and all we see is her eating her words but then right after we see the food like nothing happened. I thought this was a really nice touch added because in a way she is saying that she is eating her words but at the same time everything is just in her head because, at the end of the day, it's just food. 

Beauty standards are nothing new. But how have they changed as a result of social media? Annie Harmeston's fashion film

This short film was not really a short film but I really liked the aesthetic part of the video. Here are some screenshots I took of the parts I liked. 

You know I really liked the whole vibe that this part of the video had because they combined old-school women or how women were dressed in the past with modern technology of beauty which I really enjoyed because I interpreted as beauty standards have been around for a long time and they are still very relevant today. In a way, it is like they combined the past with the present regarding beauty standards which I really liked, and would love to include some aesthetics like this in our project. 

This is all I could find for beauty standards that I liked to use as inspiration for our project. Tomorrow in class we will discuss more about the topics and hopefully decide what we are finally going to do!! you will find out all about it in my next blog. 

What will it be about…

Today in class we discussed a lot about what we wanted to make this short film about before we start any research. The only thing we knew at the beginning was that we wanted to pick a real topic but make a fictional story about it if that makes sense, we want our short film to convey a real message so there are the topics we discussed…

      -        Beauty standards: 

• How to keep your authentic style yet being influenced by all the fashion trend in social media. 
• Trying to keep up with the beauty standards in today’s society with social media. 

-        Sports: 

• Women in sports (the topic that we have done all year) 
• The different factors tat makes an athlete lose the love for their sport
• The pressure of parents to succeed. 

-        Social media and their influence:

• How social media is affecting the youth taking them away from reality.  

-        How schools drain people: 

• How school can be harmful and overwhelming to kids and how it affects their mental health. 

After further discussion and talking to Ms. Stoklosa we narrowed it down to two topics which are beauty standards or sports. Now it is time to do some research on both topics to make the final decision of what our short film will be about. 

STAY TUNED FOR MORE!

Following a schedule

 Today in class my group and I came up with a whole schedule of how we want these next 10 weeks to go. The importance of having a schedule or a planner is to always stay organized and stay on track. Here is what our schedule looks like…

Portfolio Project Timeline Schedule – AICE MEDIA STUDIES A LEVEL

 

Week One (2/7-2/13):

·      Choose project

·      Think of ideas

·      Create timeline

·      Research project genre

-       two blog posts (transition and project schedule)

Week Two (2/14-2/19):

·      Continue project ideas

·      Research components to project

-       Four blog posts (research, planning, class meetings)

Week Three (2/20-2/26):

·      Continue project ideas

·      Start to create script/outline

·      Create storyboard

·      Plan days to film with people in it

-       Four blog posts (research, script, outline, storyboard, planning, class meetings)

Week Four (2/27-3/5):

·      Continue planning

·      Create ideas for print

·      Create social media page

·      Possibly begin filming

-       Four blog posts (planning, production, progress)

Week Five (3/6-3/12):

·      Film

·      Print

·      Post on social media

-       Four blog posts (production, key moments, changes)

Week Six (3/13-3/19):

·      Continue filming if needed

·      Print

·      Post on social media

·      Begin editing

-       Four blog posts (production, key moments, changes, editing)

Week Seven (3/20-3/26):

·      Continue filming if needed

·      Print

·      Post on social media

·      Begin editing

-       Three blog posts (production, key moments, changes, editing)

Week Eight (3/27-4/2):

·      Edit

·      Finish print

·      Post on social media

-       Three blog posts (production, changes, editing)

Week Nine (4/3-4/9):

·      Finalize

·      Post on social media

·      Create critical reflection

-       Three blog posts (production, finishing project)

Week Ten (4/10-4/12):

·      Finish

·      Critical reflection

-       Three blog posts (final reflective comments, embedded link with short reflection, critical reflection)

This means that in the week ahead of us you are going to be seeing a lot of research post because we need that main factor to come up with the whole idea. But first we have to come up with a general idea for the short film but you have to wait until the next blog post to find out what our short film will be about. 

A NEW ERA…

 Well well well… long time no see. I’m here to tell you that I’m backkk and with some exciting news. It is that time of the year again!! Portfolio project time but this time it’s a new project but for A level. I’m so excited to start this new chapter and although we’re going to have up and downs the end result its what matters. So buckle up for the next 10 weeks. Me and my my friends Ana  and Sasha decided to take on this ride together and do a short film along with all the other components included. 

This new chapter begins now…