Why I chose media
Media studies, according to me, is a very vast subject; there are so many topics and so many different aspects to study, which are beyond anybody's capabilities to entirely cover. I aspire to one day secure a PHD in one of media studies' many sub-subjects. I feel a sense of achievement learning about media because it is a subject that entirely deals with communication. Knowing that I have the power to represent my ideas on various platforms and that I have the ability to convey my knowledge to the world is very humbling; just the thought of it leaves me in awe.
Why I chose short film as the media product, for my coursework?
Initially, I had planned to make a music video for my coursework and found myself departing with my choice rather than dwelling on it. I then started thinking as to why I found it so alien. It then occurred to me that it felt like I had a boundary to how much I could create in a music video, as all I could produce was a video that had something to do with the music I'd choose. But I didn't feel this way towards short films because I had the power to not only direct the film as I'd wish but also to create a story that is entirely mine and built out of my own thoughts and views.
This is my current storyline, However it did not always look like this.
My short film's story:
My short film starts with a film opening shot, establishing our lead. We see how the lead is confused and aimless in life as she rants about being alone and bored with her current state. She then talks about her love interest who she explains as, ‘the one who changed my life’.
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​The plot only starts now, all of a sudden, we see that the lead is in an interrogation room. She’s being cross examined by a cop of her boyfriend who seems to be missing, to which she doesn’t react too bad and in fact calmly explains what she had been doing and where she was on the day he was allegedly claimed to be missing. She says that, “I had stayed over at his place the previous night, since we had college that day we had to get dressed and leave and so we did, we then went a coffee shop to just grab a little something and this was ta around 10:00 AM. Finally, I had left him and I was off to my college.”
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​The next part of the film is simply used to organize the structure of the film, that is the join the part of two different scenes. We see our lead head back home from the police station. She gets home and start removing her jacket, just when she does her father calls her on the phone.
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Her father asks about her as he had been called regarding her being called to the police station, she tells her father exactly what she had told the cop, word by word. That is, “I had stayed over at his place the previous night, since we had college that day we had to get dressed and leave and so we did, we then went a coffee shop to just grab a little something and this was ta around 10:00 AM. Finally, I had left him and I was off to my college.”
The film then ends with a shot of the lead opening her wardrobe to keep her jacket just when the camera pans to the bottom of the wardrobe where we the dead corps of her beloved boyfriend, who had quite literally changed her life. The game changing factor of the film is that the first time when the lead recites her chain of events on the day her boyfriend going missing, the visuals is that of her boyfriend and her doing the activities as she recites. Whereas in the next time when she recites it to her father the visuals are that of her 1. Cleaning blood from her boyfriend’s house and collecting evidence of murder, 2. Changing his phones locations as well as deleting some call logs and chat history in a coffee shop and then finally 3. Dumping his body and his personal belongings with her DNA, then leaves to her college.
click on the flowers to see the document
I had initially chosen a completely different story to make my short film about and since I changed my story in the last moment, I had created a soryline template for my previous story as well.
click on the picture to see it clearer and bigger.
ABOUT ME
My interest for media
I've never really been very interested in academics. I mean, I did secure fairly good marks in all of my exams throughout my tenure in school. But I have never truly enjoyed it. When it comes to media, honestly, it was very new for me—the whole concept of media studies and 'vis-com' and all. However, despite all this multimedia being alien to me, I decided to put in the effort to learn about it, thus choosing it as a subject for my AS and A levels. Despite learning the subject for the whole of last year, I'm so intrigued by all of the sub-subjects and further topics that the subject has to offer. But one of the most interesting aspects of the subject, to me, is everything related to 'film-making'. That is one of the reasons why I chose 'film-opening' for my AS level course work and'short film' for my A level, because I felt as if last year's film opening was just the basic and a more vague understanding of the whole concept of 'film-making'. But with this year's short film, I feel like I'm much more aware of what I'm going to do, and I have a deeper intention of going through the whole process of making a short film. The short film requires more complex work, more attentiveness and an eye for detail, more innovation and creation, more fine tuning and, lastly, more work and time. Which, to me, is just like the right set of circumstances to truly get out of my comfort zone and just 'create', create whatever my heart desires, to just make my thoughts into something real, something people can watch and understand.
My contribution towards media
So, I've never really voluntarily done anything to be recognized on social media, but ever since 2020, I've had an active reputation on various social media platforms. As far as the media is concerned, I'm an Instagram influencer and promote genres of fitness, food and fashion. I am a brand ambassador for over 10 small-time companies and for one 5-star hotel chain, The Hyatt, contributing to their advertising and marketing by featuring in one of their advertisements that plays in their hotel and is on all the' hotels billboards (all over India). I have also been recognized by big-time brands such as 'Nike' and 'H&M' and asked to feature in their brand. I
have done two internships in two entirely different industries: 'Fipola'— a meat retail company, where I did an organizational study and 'The Park'— a hotel, where I worked in the PR department. I was termed one of the youngest influential people in Chennai in 2021 and featured in an article in the 'Deccan Chronicle' newspaper. I also feed the stray dogs and cats that live on my road on a daily basis ever since the deadly pandemic, COVID-19, which has been going on for the past 3 years. For which I have been recognized by many animals enthusiasts.
My achievements
I am an athlete; I run long distance, of 400 and 800 meters on track and play tennis professionally. I've secured state championships in 400 and 800 mts in the under-16 category. I've also won a national meet held by 'Reliance-India' in the woman's category in 2022.
I've been playing tennis for the past 6 years and throughout my tenure, I've won numerous prizes. Some of them are nationals under the age of 16; in 2020, I won the entire championship. I also won a state-level championship held by the 'Jhavar Olympics' in the under-18 category in 2022. I have won all of my school's sports day's
track, relay, and long jump events in the last four years. Apart from
athletics, I've also learnt both Carnatic music and Bharatnatyam for almost 8 years. In Bharatnatyam, I finished my Salangai Pooja at the age of 13 and secured 98% marks in my 'Annai university' exam. I also went to Madurai to
sing 5 songs for the Navratri festival in 2019. Apart from singing anddancing, I write. I am obsessed with writing and take every opportunity to write for any event. I used to write for my previous school's magazine, 'Manjari'. In my current school, I wrote for the MUN newsletter as well as for our cultural program in school, I was a part of the school's media team.