a few words of advice

Titles or any kind of wording that refer to "life, love, despair", or anything else that purports to be all encompassing and "deep" in one word or sentence.

Topics of boredom, superficiality, (exploring boredom, superficiality by boring the viewer or being superficial i.e. flipping the t.v. channels).

Stereotypes, mass media issues and icons: these are some of the toughest topics to tackle. You will not have much of a grasp in a short piece and will feel dwarfed by the magnitude of the task at hand.

The generic: the action or characters are simplistic (what you see is what you get - no layering or implications). There is no specific history behind what you show - that is what you spell out when you just present me with the plainest view/people/situations.

Stories of women being chased after or humiliated, but also those that just describe typical oppression of women through advertising. Without extended research and time, you will only skim the surface of the issues involved.

The *look* of films: that would only lead you to clichés or superficial content (the inspiration should come from within).

Most acting that will generally ring false (most likely to happen if the actor/actress spells out the emotion). Acting vs. being.

Heartbeats, clocks ticking, alarm clocks buzzing, cemeteries, jail bars, weapons/razor blades, people or cameras running down corridors, playing cards/pool/chess, drinking/vomiting scenes, waking up/falling asleep (too easy a way to induce "another reality") - all of these can be shortcuts which prevent you to be resourceful and creative and to express what stands behind those symbols).

Your dorm rooms, corridors and campus buildings. They lack character, and your piece will suffer as a result.

Any image that is too much like a snapshot because there is no sense of composition, lighting.

Images that are too dark, without key elements like the eyes being highlighted enough to stand out.

Words that appear anywhere (on clothing, buildings, billboards...) that will be read. Because they cannot be ignored, they become key elements of your narrative.

Deep red clothing: it will have a tendency to bleed when played on a television.

White clothing: it will bleach out. In fact avoid any washed out areas (bright backgrounds/sky) that show up in the camera with the "zebra" pattern. Video cannot handle well that high contrast.

Repetitions (of sounds or pictures), they weaken your impact. Modulate them, surprise us with variations.

Filters and too much variety in the fonts/colors and types of video transitions: special effects and lack of unity can confuse the audience.

Dead-center text with the plainest white or black fonts, especially onto black backgrounds (except if you are trying to imitate a "silent movie").

Swear words and expletives, even if you think they feel more realistic and forceful. They represent a short-cut and, as often is the case, the longer, oblique road will be actually more effective, richer and require your creativity.

Do not be afraid to delve inside yourself and expose parts of a/your world that might not have been expressed until now: surprise yourself! Go to the Frozen Sea essay, and read it again and again. Also to engage your deeper self, you might try to write without censoring yourself that long list of words I speak of in class.

One possible route to investigate is to write all that you can be thankful for. You might end up climbing a very solid tree.

Your image(s) should definitely be worth a thousand or more words.

Find oblique ways of saying what you need to say. That will bring much more richness to your story than "going for the throat". Suggest, intimate, let the viewer guess.

The more elements you pack into you frame/moment (without creating clutter), the more history your story/characters carry with them. Individuals are made out of the context in which they live (people, city, work).Without it, they are just stick figures. Emphasize those relationships. This will add depth to your characters and give more chances for creative tensions.

Your desire to reach out to the universal in the human condition will only succeed, paradoxically, if you are able to become particular and not "big". Leave soapbox speeches to politicians.

You might be on the right road if you feel uneasy about what you are doing and that you might reveal too much. The excitement of the exploration and discovery will be felt by the viewers too.

You can use yourself as a source, but also you can take off from the tightest definition of who you are and create some kind of delirium based on yourself, or an amalgam of the people close to you. ---> Hanif Kureishi: The family is a place of very many misunderstandings...The relationship between what I write and my biography reminds me of a dream. You know, sometimes in a dream, you see places that you've been, where you once lived, you meet people who were part of your life and have passed away, and you talk to them. This is the material of your biography but it's not literally your biography. That's why I think the dream metaphor is a good one for talking about this relationship between what I write and my biography.

Your images could reflect you and might represent your ideal self. Present us with a reality that reflects the way you navigate within the world/yourself.

Assess the type of work you are creating by watching similar pieces, and see how you might forging something different. Challenge the viewer with a new way to say what you want to say so it does not end up rehashing something already said elsewhere.

Just like some package that is carefully wrapped, we will unwrap your surprise with utmost care. Show precision in your compositions, acting, cuts and your soundtrack and we as viewers will reciprocate the amount of energy you contributed..

Tell your actor/actress to move through space rather than portray an emotion. The movements (try a variety of pacing) are more likely to convey the ring of truth than what is generally thought of as "being emotional" (remember the Kuleshov effect).

Try to get a variety of faces, ages, locations, times of day, and sounds and see how you can integrate "real life" elements into your piece to anchor it away from the artificiality of a fiction project.

There should be depth, not just of content, but whenever possible, visual layering (foreground, middleground and background). This allows the viewer to travel within your frame and adds complexity and, possibly, mystery.

When you consider your images, do not duplicate them through your usage of sound, text. Add, create contrast in your juxtapositions of sound, picture and words. Think of counterpoints and surprises. Only those will keep the viewer/listener on edge.

Use sounds that puzzle and intrigue you. In other words try to create those sounds that cannot easily fit in a catalogue,

If you use a sound you like, vary it in pitch, volume, rhythm or texture. Do whatever you can to prevent your sound from becoming redundant, and having to be ignored. You are trying to stimulate the senses, not deaden them. Your goal is an active audience.

Place your text in a strategically suited place with colors that reflect or contrast with the background, and preferably enhance the mood of your piece (like choosing the paint for your favorite room). Similarly, choose the appropriate font to reflect your film's particular personality.

Without tension, there is no story, no surprise and no reason to watch. The clock needs to be ticking somehow to keep us interested and make time precious in the viewing. As viewers we need to be excited by what could be coming next. Every image should count!

A tight golden thread: strength will emerge out of conciseness and cohesiveness. Look for those thematic elements that could tie the whole piece whether visually and/or aurally, and exploit them like the recurrence of a insistent but evolving leitmotiv.

I NS U M M A R Y w h a t I l o o k f o r
1. Authenticity, a voice that comes from the deep self, necessary images and sounds - away from fluff (read and re-read The Frozen Sea)

2. Conciseness that comes from having a unifying principle tying it all together preferably visually, aurally, and through rhythm.

3. A conflict that emerges from #1. Life without it is a lie.

4. A compelling soundtrack that has an organic feel, away from what can easily be described as "this is the sound of...".

5. A movement in time with plenty of surprising ups and downs, in other words, many contrasts and mysteries.

6. A merciless way of editing that lets go of weak images and sounds.

7. Intriguing titles/words (visually and conceptually) that can be seen even if you reduce your window so it is a clip screen size like those on the web. And a title that does not explain the movie.

For your final grade, technique/form/content will each be assessed as strong or weak: Solid technique (bars/black, clean edits, focus, etc...), formal accomplishments (each image is compelling), and content that is NOT the expected nor the one-liner, but complex and evolving.
"A" level will be achieved by those pieces that stand-out; that is what an A stands for: "outstanding".

*People ask me, "Why didn't you use music?" ... I used daily life sounds, because those are the sounds that surround us. If you can relate to the sensory experience of someone on-screen, then you can begin to tune into the story. Emmanuel Finkiel interview.