My first post

Self Portraiture in Film

My Purpose

I am the kind of girl that highlights phrases in books, rereads chapters, and jots down notes on the margin. One of my latest reads, Still Writing, by Dani Shapiro, talks about the perils and the pleasures of living a creative life. The most insightful chapter about creative experiences mentions the brilliant tenets of writing, by poet Jane Kenyon:

"Be a good steward of your gifts. Protect your time. Feed your inner life. Avoid too much noise. Read good books, have good sentences in your ears. Be by yourself as often as you can. Walk. Take the phone off the hook. Work regular hours."

The purpose of this blog is to escort me through the creative process of creating the opening a short film for the AICE Media Studies AS level course. I add these words by Jane Kenyon because I think that following her principles is the the first logical step I must take for this project to be meaningful and fruitful.

First I should briefly introduce myself. My name is Veronica, I am a junior in high school and in short, everything about film, creating visuals, especially when it comes to art direction, is of high appeal to me and it is definitely what I aspire to do in the future.

My class has been aware of this project since the first week of school back in August, and I have been excited about it since day one. However, to be completely frank, I had a million ideas back in August and November and January... But now that the time has finally come I feel very overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with the images I want to show and with the messages I want to come across. It is difficult to know where and how to begin.

As a first step, I have made the decision that my film must be a self portrait, perhaps self portrait is not the correct term, but what I mean is that I want the film to be personal. I want my own experiences and my daily life to be the main source of inspiration. I could think of a thousand stories happening in remote parts of the globe, with people of peculiar nationalities, ages, and ethnicities. I could think of stories from other time periods, past, present, future, maybe even from outer space. But I think the real challenge would be to create something honest and substantial. Something about me that appeals to others, something worth sharing. I want my film to be genuine, and my ultimate goal is make the audience feel, and for that, the director (me) must feel as well.

When I think of films that have made me feel, there is few of them on the list, but they are definitely the most memorable and meaningful pieces.

Richard Ayoade's Submarine, for instance is one of the films that I have watched several times, and still find absolutely splendid. The peculiar characters, the secluded setting, the awkward love story, the overly dramatic tone, and Alex Turner's voice.... Everything works together so cohesively, coming together to create magic. In essence a surreal collection of images and sounds that make you feel something deep inside. 

                                                                                                                Still shots from Richard Ayoade's Submarine


That is exactly why I want to make movies.

Now, when I think about me, my voice, my movie, I know that I want to nurture this piece as if it was my own baby. But I am still not quite sure what I have to say. What can I share that is genuine and special and meaningful?

Mrs. Kenyon, I hope your advice helps me.