Where are we, where are we going?

Unlike the title might suggest this is not going to be a post about the meaning of life, we'll save that for another day. Instead, I just wanted to take stock of what should be done and what remains to be done with your coursework.

What you ( AS and A2) should have completed by this stage are the following:
1. Statement of intentions/ illustrated essay
2. Script
3. Storyboards
4. Mise en scene planning

What you should be working on this week is your one ( AS) two (A2) minute films.

There will be a screening of the films in Next Monday's lesson.

Some advice on what these should include is offered below. This is taken from the CCEA's MIA advice to candidate's document.

What is a Production Exercise?
The Production Exercise is a one-minute piece of video that explores either:
The Theme of your film
•
The Visual Style of your film
•
A Filmmaking Technique to be used in your film.
It is advisable to try and include elements of all three.
The Production Exercise does not have to be one continuous piece of film nor does it have to have its own narrative. It can be made up of several shorter pieces of video exploring the elements mentioned above. Production Exercises do not need written back-up work.
Tip: If your one min experiment is made up of several smaller pieces use your own narration
to tie the pieces together. Similar to the director’s commentary on most DVDs.

After these are completed then you should be ready to start shooting the real deals. My advice is shoot more than you need and make sure it is done before the end of the holidays as the most time consuming process is the editing.

Storyboards are go.

Just wanted to recap on where you should be in terms of your coursework.

AS= redrafed versions of your statement of intentions and your scripts are due in on Monday.

A2 = illustrated essays and scripts are due in on Monday.

Once the scripts are written the next stage is to start work on storyboarding your ideas. First, let’s just get one thing clear, it doesn’t matter if you can’t draw. Seriously. The point of a storyboard is to illustrate your concept, there’s no need to spend hours perfecting every panel. Some of you have been experimenting with software programmes and if you prefer to use these that's fine. Alternatively you can go about it the old school way an simply draw it. Don't forget templates for storyboards are stored in the coursework folder of MIA in the learning resources.

Below are a few sites to check out that may help you with your task.

Storyboards!

Drawing storyboards!