One Word Film Reflection

Creating my One Word Film project around the word "appreciative" was a creative challenge that required conveying the theme visually in over 60 seconds, using only two students (myself and my partner Simon, who was the actor) and no dialogue. My goal was to show the emotional journey of a student who starts his day feeling indifferent and gradually becomes more aware and grateful for his surroundings. To achieve this, I chose locations around the school campus the 400s building, the courtyard, and the 100s building to represent his changing perspective. Finally, there is a moment where he reads a poster that reads: "A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart" with an Eye of Providence, which with a match cut symbolizes the sudden gratitude felt by the main character.

During brainstorming, I sketched out ideas for shots, focusing on how different angles and compositions could reflect the protagonist’s internal shift. The storyboard I created on Storyboardthat.com was very useful in creating a clear guide for every scene. 

For editing, I used Adobe Premiere Pro, where I implemented techniques like match cuts and color grading to symbolize the character’s change from apathy to appreciation. I tried a match cut transition from an Eye of Providence poster to the protagonist’s eye to show his moment of realization. However, achieving this was more complex than expected. The actual zoom in / zoom out sequence between the poster and Simon's eye was difficult to do with just a stabilizer, and editing it was also hard, making the epiphany at the end a lot less effective.

Looking back, I think I effectively used diverse locations and visual storytelling to support the narrative. Simon did a good job capturing the emotional transformation I envisioned. However, I realized I need to simplify complex shots or spend more time practicing them before shooting. There are also many rules in filmmaking, like the rule of 30 degrees, that I have learned about on my own but did not get to incorporate, that would have made the film a lot better. I want to learn advanced editing techniques as well to better execute. Next time, using a tripod or gimbal would also be good to learn and could've made the final match cut sequence easier.

Overall, this project was a valuable learning experience that taught me the importance of planning and aligning creative ambitions with practical skills.

Here's a link to the project: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XstsMuwetEXxX3KEHkM0JkEBEHo84Knu/view?usp=drive_link