MED 2209

Megan Phillips, Sarah Smith & Neelam Sabir

Digital Shorts

Directors Statement for Selfie.

Story: Selfie.

Define, Selfie:
Noun (Plural, selfies) A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically
one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media.
Origin: Early 21st century.
The selfie, having started off as an internet curiosity has now become an
official mainstream trend. 2013s word of the year, is this vain medium a
form of art or simply a duck faced cry for Instagram attention?
What is the story about?
The story revolves around the lives of three Edge Hill University
students. Initially exploring their University friendship, the film
then ventures on to engage with their interrelated trips home.
Split into three sections we witness the journey, the out comings
and the people involved over a time period of a weekend. A look
back into the past, to where they came from and what they left
behind, however, the story also travels forward as Selfie, is a
photomontage film entirely made up of the modern phenomena
of selfies, taken using IPhones.
Genre?
Categorised as real, Selfie, could fall into numerous film genres, such
as:

Documentary
Biography
Biopic

Our Heros
Selfie, consists of three main protagonists, Megan
Phillips, Neelam Sabir and Sarah Smith, these being
each of the three Edge Hill students. Collectively they
all have the same one goal, to reach home. Once each
of them arrives there, this is when their stories take
their own personal shape, depending on what each
hero does with her weekend.

MED 2209
Megan Phillips, Sarah Smith & Neelam Sabir

Digital Shorts

Inspiration
One inspiration for the project idea came our own
love for selfies and our avid user ship of photo
sharing social media sites. However, the main
stimulus came from a generations selfie
movement and the many celebrities to have
made selfies famous, particularly Kim Kardashian.
Kim Kardashian is the queen of selfies and a
trailblazer for the selfie movement. In her most
recent advert, for T Mobile, she features poking
fun at her career as a reality star. One of the most
anticipated super bowl adverts of 2015.
Her new book, Selfish, sees Kim connect with
her fans through never before seen personal
images as one of the most recognisable celebrities in Hollywood.
How the film will be released?
Selfie, will be released as an internet short film via
the video sharing site, YouTube. Just like many music
videos found on the site the feature is three minutes
long. This length ensures us we are not likely to lose
viewer attention. Its short extent could prove
beneficial and even gain us viewers. If the video was
well received it would also be uploaded onto other video dedicated
sites such as Vimeo.
Selfie, wouldnt benefit from airing on a television channel, with a
given date and time slot. It
would however, reap rewards
from being posted on their
websites. For example,
currently on Channel 4s on
demand channel, 4oD, they
have a whole section dedicated
to Shorts.

MED 2209
Megan Phillips, Sarah Smith & Neelam Sabir

Digital Shorts

In addition to a post on YouTube it will also be despatched

on various social media sites, primarily Facebook. This
gives users the opportunity to watch as it appears on their
Newsfeed and react with either liking or sharing the post.
Being no longer than three minutes long, this is an idea
with a lot of plausibility, as it is more than likely not to lose
viewers attention. The film will strive via this marketing as
it desires the need to be watched time and time again by various
people, at various times and locations, on various devices.
What will the Director bring to the project?
As one of the
Directors, I
bring many
qualities to the
project.
Predominantly,
I am a Producer
and/or a
Production
Manager but
taking on new
roles and
challenges
continuously
gives me
opportunity to
widen my skill
base.
On previous
have been both
front of the
in this case, is
comfortable
camera I am
to take stills
IPhone, to add to
my way around
photo editing
as Final Cut,
Pro and
will come to use
suppressing the
putting them
sequence. It is
that I am an avid
social media
in which I take,
photos on my phone.

developments I
behind and in
camera, which,
perfect. Being
around a
more than able
using my
this I also know
both video and
software such
Adobe Premiere
Photoshop. This
when
images and
together in a
also beneficial
user of the
app, Instagram,
design and edit

Unique vision for

the script

MED 2209
Megan Phillips, Sarah Smith & Neelam Sabir

Digital Shorts

Having split the story into three sections, this has put us in charge of our
own script, giving us the power of being our own lead author. My selfies
therefore all correlate around the subject of family. The idea being that my
own household becomes a symbol for the people weve all left behind.
Only able to visit them on weekends, this is a similar story for the other
two Directors. In pictures it would also appear that although they come
across as a typical British family, the fact that we are all blood related
makes them very unique to just me. This concept will be enhanced
through my choice of sound effects. I hope to make both diegetic and nondiegetic sounds symbolise my own family in ways that only make sense to
me. I may, for example, choose to use the themes to particular television
programmes that we enjoy watching together as background noise. This
vision shall also be enhanced via a narrative script I intend to overlay
being about my family.
Vision
Cinematic style?
All photos will be taken using square framing in order to highlight the idea
of the images being hand held self-portraits, via IPhones. The idea being
that pictures taken will be representative of those that wed usually take
in everyday lives. The initiative is to take them with the mind-set that
theyre being posted onto our social media sites. However, well also be
aiming to make the images appear more aesthetically pleasing than your
average selfie. When taking the selfies, we aim for them to appear
flattering yet casual just as normal photos would, with the inclusion of
people, all taken at arms length. The only difference being that hopefully
a variety of shot types and angles will be explored. With the purchase of a
selfie stick we could use this in replacement of a tripod, enabling us to
shoot images that can fit larger quantities of people in from a higher
angle. We do not want our selfies to have a Snapchat, feel about them
as many of these images are taken and sent for comedic affect and that is
not something we want to achieve.

MED 2209
Megan Phillips, Sarah Smith & Neelam Sabir

Digital Shorts