Final Project: Mother Am I a Woman Yet?
For the final presentation of the project, I decided to combine all of my films (11 in total) into one large film. Originally I did this for presentation purposes, but I really like how it turned out and can stand alone as a short film itself.
I found that the films varied entirely by when I filmed them. The ones that I completed in late March looked completely different than the ones I had filmed the weekend prior to turning in the project. This is possibly one of my favourite things about the project and one of the reasons I am happy I decided to use film as a medium because I can see the growth and improvement from the beginning of the semester. I feel much more comfortable behind a camera, using PremierPro, and would have a much more clear starting point for directing a short film in the future.
During the critiques, the film received generally positive feedback. Most people could say that they related. I must keep in mind that the majority of my audience was young women my age, but I wanted to find a way for this film to relate to everyone, even those who do not share these life experiences. My goal was to convey feelings and emotions — ones that are integral to humans — as opposed to merely documenting different scenarios. Travelling alone from one place to another, talking on the phone with our mothers, drinking coffee with a loved one, feeling socially awkward at a party, cutting yourself shaving, unintentionally hurting a friend, trying to get the perfect photograph (or watching others trying), buying unnecessary but beautiful gifts for yourself, feeling a moment of reflection… these vignettes, although featuring young women in Paris, can be ageless, genderless, and location-less. They can happen to anybody anywhere.
If I were to do the film over again, I would ALWAYS USE A TRIPOD. The clips that I used a tripod for turned out much cleaner and more efficient to edit that the ones I filmed by hand. I also think I would experiment with a sound mic to have two separate audios – the dialogue and then any music/background noise – so I can control the levels of what people hear. I could definitely see myself taking this project further in the future, a part two. For this, I would want to explore more the relationship that a young woman has with herself, explore her internal world and universe. Perhaps I would also try to shorten each one, no more than two minutes, which I wanted to do but some of these spread to 3-4.5 minutes. It is difficult to tell a story concisely in a minute or two.
It is amazing to look back at the beginning of the semester to now. I think this a project that has been on my heart and mind for a few years now, and it’s a story I’ve been wanting to tell on a personal level, but I didn’t know how. It is really satisfying to see the film as a whole, and to have been able to collaborate with different people while filming. From now, I’m really looking forward to seeing if this project continues to evolve on my own time, and how.
