I have an assignment at Uni to tell a winter story. The challenge is to use only one actor and a smartphone. The story will be a short film, that will have between 3 to 5 minutes. Our teacher wants us to use our creativity and come up with something original.

I was thinking maybe of a Christmas story because the Winter Holidays are coming. I am unsure how to proceed because the actor will be me or someone I know, which has a limited acting experience.

Any advice would help me. I am a bit confused and unsure where to start.

It is not a difficult challenge, it is actually an easy one because you only have to focus on one person. The real challenge is in writing the plot. Try using monologue royalty free music to avoid complications with the audio. You can record the audio with the hands free of your phone, the quality is better than by using the built in microphone of the smartphone

A winter story sounds good! Maybe the story of a student who cannot go home to his family for the Holidays and how he feels about it? It can include footage with your character walking on the street and talking to himself about how he feels about this and why he really wanted to get back home. Maybe he can think of something about his family that he will miss this year like his brother or mother. You can film him talking to himself, too. 

I have a similar assignment as well. I was thinking to film my roommate as the actor, as she smokes, as she talks while smoking. She will talk on the phone a lot and use social media. A modern winter story