Annaleigh Quinlan - A Level Media Studies Blog

To brainstorm more ideas for my pirate short film, I made a mind map on Canva. Since an actual period piece would be difficult, I plan to use an urban fantasy-type setting if the story requires it. Hopefully, I'll be able to film on a beach without having to include the cityscape behind the beach without having to go out in the ocean. Archetypes for pirates tend to be in the three categories listed below. Using them, currently, seems like it would be an advantage. In the media, piracy has connotations of personal rebellion and rebellion against society along with self-discovery. I want to try to employ those themes in my project. For genres, action/adventure is the most typical for a pirate movie, but it's not entirely something I want to use. I think elements of it would be important for a pirate story, but I want to try diverging from the typical genre and its conventions.

 For my project, I'm picking the short story brief.  The concept for my short story is based on an urban fantasy setting. The story will begin on a deserted beach, although I'm unsure where it will go. I have several ideas, including some focusing more on science fiction/fantasy while others are more on fantasy. Both history and media pirates have always been of interest to me. I also enjoy science fiction, so I want to try and incorporate that into the story.  Discovering and relearning identity quickly became a really big part of my life over the last three years and is a topic I feel comfortable writing about and would like to write about. Fiction writing has always come more naturally to me than nonfiction and that is a large reason I picked the short story over the documentary. I don't entirely know how to combine all of these elements into a cohesive story, but I intend to try to reference Pirates of the Caribbean and the modern era of Doctor Who .