Zoë's Film Coursework

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as 'an original motion picture that has a running time of forty minutes or less, including all credits', but this definition is flexible, as it has never been agreed exactly where the boundary lies. Most short films will use a narrative structure, but this will often be more basic than one in a feature film. For film-makers attempting to get into the highly competitive film industry, short films are highly beneficial, as they provide a cheap and easy way to expose their work to the world, and this is even easier in the modern day due to video-sharing sites such as YouTube and Vimeo. They also take up less time to make, allowing amateur film-makers to work part-time on another job. Finally, they provide a good learning-ground for film-makers to make mistakes and attempt new techniques.

I first watched 'Home' two years ago when it was released, during the midst of the UK refugee crisis, now unfortunately this film is once again shockingly prevalent. By following a British couple (Jack O'Connell, Holliday Grainger) and their two young children, Mulloy portrays the journey that refugees have had to take to reach safety. The twist is, the story is told backwards; the characters begin their day by, what looks like, preparing for a holiday, and end up on the front line of a war zone. Within twenty minutes, the tone of this film changes dramatically, as the second half of this family's journey becomes increasingly disturbing, especially as the audience understands that everything Mulloy has featured is the reality for millions of families. Here is the trailer for Home (the full film is available on Amazon Prime, I highly recommend watching it):

Welcome to my blog! Over the next seven months I will writing about each stage of my A-Level film coursework, eventually leading to the creation of either a screenplay or a short film, which will include posts reviewing several short films, research of narrative structures and details about my own screenplay/film.