Break It is the name of an app concept I made in a group project for school. To show off the emotional journey of using the app, I wrote and shot a short film on my own trusty Fujifilm camera.
Watch the full video:
the tagline for the break it app
The Assignment
The goal of the school project was to create an idea for an app and show it off in a short video. The app and video had to convey a certain emotion, which for us was satisfaction. We ended up designing a productivity and to-do listing app which allows you to automatically "break" large tasks into smaller ones to make them more approachable.
the user metaphorically and literally breaking apart their tasks
the app reflecting their progress
As I already had some experience with filmmaking and always really wanted to make my own short film, I immediately jumped at the chance to make the video as cool and as professional as possible. I didn't want to put too much pressure on my groupmates, so I decided to take most roles upon myself, including everything from screenwriting down to the camerawork and editing. So in this project, I was essentially writer, director, cinematographer, cameraman, editor, and soundtrack composer.
The Making of
I wanted to make sure that my great ambition didn't add any extra pressure to my groupmates. So I really put most of the work onto myself, which also allowed for a great amoun of creative control over the final output. I wanted something that was really mine, so I meticulously planned out every single shot I wanted in a large spreadsheet, specifying exactly what I wanted for every second of the video. Then I made sure my groupmates only had to be present during the shoots where I needed actors, which we wrapped up in only two days. Then in my own time I planned and shot the rest of the footage, some of which required some creative setups. For example, I filled a large glass jar with beads and swirled them around to create shots similar to the movie Oppenheimer, when he is visualising the breaking apart of atoms.
reference from Oppenheimer on the right, my version on the left
To really sell the idea of satisfyingly breaking something into little pieces, I also filmed some shots of me and my dad crushing old glassware in a garbage container. All in all it was really fun to get all this b-roll footage to use in the final edit.
glass breaking to really sell the idea of crushing tasks into tiny pieces
