As Anakin Skywalker once said...

I'm pretty sure I've made that same reference in this blog already, but whatever. We don't have the time for that. 

So this is going to be the first post of many about the A Level Portfolio Project. I've actually been looking forward to this for a very long time, and I've given a lot of though into what project I want to do. In order to explain my choice in project, we are going use our good friend Abraham Maslow. 

You see, Maslow is most famous for the modestly titled Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. 

The basic idea of the pyramid (if I remember correctly from AP Psych two years ago) is that these five levels represent the needs that humans strive to fulfill. The lowest levels are basic needs such as food and water, while the highest level is self-actualization. The narrower the area on the pyramid is, the less people reach that point. 

That's kind of the way I see the different choices for the project. I may be extra motivated and make a graphic to represent what I'm explaining, but most likely I'll get lazy and just explain it with words. This project basically going to be my final big project in all of high school, and because of that, I really want it to be my best. I've been taking TV Production for four years, Media Studies for two, and I would love this to reflect everything that I've learned throughout the course of high school, to really reach what I have dubbed my "media self-actualization". 

 Let's take a look at the project choices:

The first one is the music promotion package. The main reason I don't want to do this is because you need to promote a real artist, and I don't know that many. However, I've also already made four different music videos in high school, so I feel as if I wouldn't be trying anything new with this. I'd put this at the lowest level of my theoretical media fulfillment pyramid. 

The second choice is the film promotion package. This is actually a really fun looking project, and I would love to create trailers for a theoretical full length film. The idea of having to come up with an entire two-hour movie plot would be a really fun challenge; it definitely reaches higher on my media fulfillment pyramid. However, knowing myself, I would probably get a little too attached to my story, and be upset I can't make the full thing. So, we're going to pass on this one.

The third choice is documentary. I'm going to be honest, at the beginning of this year I would have been very split among this choice and my ultimate one. A documentary requires so much effort in storytelling to properly deliver your "slice of life". However, I now know that the doc would only be a theoretical excerpt from a longer piece, I would have the same flaws as with the movie trailer. Now I do know that I could finish the rest of the doc on my own time, but not being able to share it in the same capacity keeps it on the second to third level of my media fulfillment pyramid. Besides, I don't think I could possibly ever top my documentary from the beginning of the year (which I may or may not still be finishing).

Which leaves the fourth and final choice. The point of the pyramid. The short film. For this, I would need to create an entire full story with a beginning, middle, and end, then actually see it all the way through. For as long as I've been making stuff in media, I've never really made a full film like this. So I've decided that in order to fulfill my little imaginary pyramid for media fulfillment, or in other words, just be happy with what I create, this is the project I should choose. 

Okay that was a probably a little convoluted for something I could have said with "I want to make a short film". And my analogy was terrible. But I feel that my reasons for wanting to make a short film will hopefully be reflected on the choices I make while making the story, so I wanted to explain that. Anyway, now that I know I want to make a short film, it's time to figure out what the short film will actually be about.