One Word Film Project but with amateur actors and cinematographers

  For this project, the objective was to create a 60-90 second short film representing a word randomly chosen from a mug, along with a brainstorming sheet and storyboard. The film also had to have been able to happen in the span of a minute in real life and exclusively had to be filmed at school. My partner and I had gotten the word "loving," for our "One Word Film" Project.

 Our first idea was to tell a story of a couple reconciling after a break up, but it was rejected, which is understandable since it did not convey the message very well as well as being long and complicated. However the second and final attempt was a story about two characters learning to accept and give love, which was accepted. In the story, two characters are put in a dreary situation. One stays blank and emotionless while the second is overwhelmed with negativity. The pair balance each other out by showing and accepting love respectively. 

We had planned this with a brainstorming sheet, consisting of each of our shots and parts of our story into squares, which helped organize the project. It was also easier to make alterations to the film like this.

The sheet with my definitely clean and organized handwriting

 Similarly, the storyboard helped visualize the shots before we started filming. The storyboard also gave us a clear timeline of events that we could visibly follow. Mostly, it guided us on the composition of the frames and camera movements, when needed.

 My partner and I used Adobe Premiere Pro to compile the footage we gathered during our filming period. The film turned out good overall. I believe we did a good job making it feel continuous and fluid between cuts. Furthermore, the material we included is solid. The setting we chose I believe is perfect for our story and adds to the "act of love in a bleak situation" theme, and drives home the "loving" aspect. 

 However, the camera positioning can also improve. Any crooked clips we found were fixed while editing, but we cannot fix when the actual camera is not centered in real life. Moreover, the acting is bad. Realistically this would not be a major issue, but the theme is supposed to be emotional. I never act, and this is my first time making a film where I get to be in front and behind the camera since approximately 7th grade. Although, I was working with someone who makes pieces like these for fun, so it could have been worse.

Project link:
One Word "Loving" Film

Good afternoon good evening and goodnight.

Watch The Truman Show if you haven't already.