Filmmaking 101 homework

Your assignment for next week is to finish last week's assignment (pasted below) and edit it together into a little film

LAST WEEK'S ASSIGNMENT:

This week's assignment is to write a little story (i.e., make up a little story) and film it. If you don't have a camcorder, film it with cell phone, or as a series of stills. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it's important to get the experience of visualizing a story and recording it as a series of images. Your story can be serious, dramatic, silly, ridiculous, anything. (If you don't have any kind of camera or camcorder, write it up as a shot list.)

Try filming the story through first as a master shot (or series of master shots), then filming the key story points again as medium shots and closeups. Then edit it together into a short film.

The story can be about anything, but it should have a definite beginning, middle and end.

It can be about anything you want, but if you feel blank, choose one of these scenarios. It's fine to change the gender of any of the characters, and fill in or change details as they occur to you. If these feel too complex, choose something simpler that seems filmable. Aim to get it filmed and edited by next Sunday, and bring it to class with you.

(If you don't film it till the "student get together" on Saturday, and don't have time to edit it, bring a few shots you've filmed so we can take a look at them). (You can put the finished film or shots on a DVD or thumb drive, whichever works for you.)

A man or woman wakes up in the morning, gets out of bed, gets dressed, brushes his or her teeth, walks into the kitchen or living room, sees the horrific state the room is in, and goes back to bed.

Your character is alone in her apartment. The doorbell rings. She goes to the door and opens it, but there's no one there. Then she notices a box on the floor at her feet. The box is shaking or wiggling a little, as if something inside of it is moving around. She lifts it up and carries it into her apartment, sets it on a table, opens it, and... (write your own ending)

Your character walks out of his house, looks around furtively, hurries to his car and gets in. He starts the car and drives off. He drives for a few miles, then the car pulls up in front of an industrial-looking building. He gets out of the car, stands waiting. Another car drives up. A woman gets out. He goes with her to the trunk of her car. There's something large and unwieldy inside. They take it out of the trunk of her car, puts it in the trunk of his, then drive off in different directions.