A Day In Your Shoes
Every day, we follow a certain routine that consists of various activities and tasks that keep us occupied from sunrise to sunset. Most of the time, this daily routine often includes designated intervals for work and recreation, with us designing our schedules to accommodate not only our school and job commitments but also our relationships with friends and family.
For this assignment, students will be utilizing their cinematic vision to create a 1–3 minute film that showcases their daily routine. While working on this assignment, students will reflect on both the reasons they follow this routine and how they feel while performing it. Additionally, it is also my hope that students will be able to identify what they appreciate most in life and why.
Supplies:
- Paper
- Pencil/Pen
- Phone with a camera
- Computer/laptop
- Basic video editing software: If you have an Apple computer or iPhone, I recommend you use iMovie to create your film. If you have a Windows computer or anything other than an iPhone, I recommend the following free editors:
- (Simple & easy to use): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/movie-maker-10-free/9mvfq4lmz6c9?activetab=pivot:overviewtab
- (Powerful but complex): https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/edit
Questions to Consider While Planning/Making Your Film:
- What’s your favorite part of the day? What are you doing? Why is it your favorite?
- What’s your least favorite part of the day? What are you doing? Why is it your least favorite?
- How can you use certain camera angles to help express certain emotions such as enjoyment or boredom?
- How can other elements like filters (black & white, sepia, etc.) help in communicating emotion?
Steps:
- On a sheet of paper, make a list of the activities that characterize your daily routine.
- Think about what kind of film you want to make. Will you make a documentary-style film where you use a voice-over to describe every scene? Or will you make a silent film that uses short captions to describe every activity? The possibilities are endless, so be creative!
- On another piece of paper, outline how you want to shoot each scene. Use a variety of shots to make your film interesting and to communicate certain emotions. For instance, if it’s your least favorite part of the day, you may want to use a close-up so the viewer can clearly see your expression of boredom/discontent/etc. You can also make this scene black and white to emphasize that emotion. Likewise, if it’s your favorite part of the day, try to show it by focusing on your facial expressions or the color of the scene. Neither this nor the list in Step #1 will be submitted. This is simply to make the shooting process easier.
- Shoot your film. When using your phone, be sure to film all scenes horizontally, not vertically.
- Edit your scenes together. During this part of the process, you can use features such as filters, sound effects, and music to make your film more engaging.
Reflection:
- On a separate Google Doc, type up a 3–5 sentence paragraph answering the following questions:
- How did you feel while making your film? Did you realize anything new about yourself and your routine?
- Reflecting on your daily routine, what are some activities that you should do more of? What are some that you should maybe do less of?
Submission:
- When you’ve finished creating your film, upload the video to YouTube (mark it as unlisted) and email your teacher the link. Additionally, make sure to also share your reflection paragraph with your teacher.
Need Inspiration?
In case you need some inspiration on how to compose your shots, below is the link to a film I made last year during the first couple weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s about my personal daily routine during this very hectic time. Note that in this film, I use clips that were not recorded by myself. However, for your own films, please only use clips and videos that you have created yourself. If you wish to use royalty-free music, that is completely fine.
Quarantined State of Mind (Dir. D’Andre Jorge): https://youtu.be/eQBUhyfJefE
