Brainstorming Ideas

Hello! In this blog post, I will be brainstorming ideas for our short film. To start off, I was able to find an article called, “30 Ways to Brainstorm Short Film Ideas You Can Actually Produce,” where it offered different ways my group and I can create a story and easily produce it. After looking through the article, I used two of their tips that will allow my group and I to come up with ideas for our short film: 

1. The first tip the article mentioned was “look in your backyard.” It’s important to create a story about what you know as it will make it easier to film. By choosing locations near you and that you are familiar with, makes filming easily accessible and cheap to use. It also allows you to create a story that is personal and unique from the others. The article gave an example of a short film called “Dig” that was shot entirely in the director's background.

https://youtu.be/gCXQrDqic1s

This helped me come up with an idea about a young girl who is ignored by her family. The girl is the youngest of the family and simply cannot get their attention during summer break. Thus, she decided to take action into her own hands and entertain herself. The film will show her within her own fantasy as she creates fun obstacles and attempts to swim on her own in her background until she is called in by her family for dinner. 

2. Another tip that was mentioned was “find the essence of classic films.” The article explained that it’s important to look back and uncover the “lost cinematic treasures.” After reading this tip, I decided, instead, to look at all the films I truly admired rather than just the classics. One film that I immediately thought of was “Amelie.” I truly feel in love with how the character of Amelie discreetly orchestrates the lives of the people around her. This character trait is illustrated in the scene where she finds a box of memories and makes it her mission to return it back to the owner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWqs2hDO4Eg

By looking back at the film, I think it would be really nice if my group and I focus on a character and an obsession he or she embodies. For example, we can focus on a guy that believes the music from his ukulele solves everything. Thus, maybe when he is in a coffee shop he hears a couple arguing. However, after he played his ukulele, the couple stopped and listened to the music.

Overall, the article allowed me to come up with ideas and stories that will be easy and entertaining to film. The next step is discussing these ideas to my group members and deciding on one in the following days.

Citations:

Miramax. “Amélie | 'The Hidden Box' (HD) - Audrey Tautou | MIRAMAX.” YouTube, YouTube, 1 July 2016,    

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWqs2hDO4Eg.

Muehleck, Chance. “30 Ways to Brainstorm Short Film Ideas You Can Actually Produce.”StudioBinder,  

19 Feb. 2018, www.studiobinder.com/blog/short-film-ideas-you-can-actually-produce/.

Rock Candy. “DIG.” YouTube, 19 Jan. 2014, youtu.be/gCXQrDqic1s.