Worries of a Rookie Filmmaker

When I chose to take AICE Media Studies, I was looking forward to that "big project" that everybody had told me about. At the start of the academic year, my teacher showed the class a variety of foundation portfolio projects that were created by students from previous years and needless to say, I was, and still am, very impressed by them. I was determined to make my video better than all the brilliant samples we had seen in class. I had a few ideas as the class started but over the months, the ideas disintegrated and now all I'm left with is worry. We have a lot of time to finish this project but currently I have very little idea as to where I want to steer this film or what meaning I want to convey.

Listed below are some of the ideas/themes that I am contemplating along with a lot of doubts and concerns I have, but like I said before, these are extremely rough ideas that are definitely subject to change and my final product might be entirely different. 

- I want to make a character-driven film. I want to create a bright and strong main character. As generic as that sounds, I want to make a character who the audience can relate to. But a major problem with that is that I am not the best writer. For the purpose of this video, I feel like it would be better for me to create a rough sketch of a character and solidify his/her characteristics as we film.

- Being Indian, I really enjoy Bollywood movies. Although our film openings can only be two minutes long, I would like to incorporate some element of Bollywood (a dramatic element or a filming technique that is typical to Bollywood movies) in my video. 

- I am quite worried about not being able to pick a genre. Having researched several genres, I still have no idea as to what I want to do. I am leaning towards drama but I would also like to take the mystery/thriller route.

- One of the biggest things that worries me right now is the sound element of this project. Trying to get the perfect audio for the film, which is free of any copyrights, seems to be a really big challenge. 

- While this sort of breaks the typical mystery/thriller genre characteristics, I want my film to be very colorful and vibrant. I want to incorporate a large range of colors into my film.

I hope that with enough research and brainstorming, I'll be able to finalize on the main elements of this film.

Citations: 
Dirks, Tom. "Main Film Genres". filmsite. American Movie Classics Company. www.filmsite.org/genres.html. Accessed on 8 Mar. 2017.