New Ideas!

Yesterday during class, my teacher took our class to the media center and placed us in groups of about 6 or 7 people. In these groups, we presented the ideas we had for our final projects, as well as our research, and got critiques and suggestions after we were finished.

This was incredibly helpful in my creative process and gave me many new ideas for how to approach my film.

Initially, I was going to begin my film with the protagonist getting out of bed and doing her daily routine from there. However, my friend Nate informed me that he had read an article about cliche movie openings, and starting a film with a character waking up was definitely at the top of the list. In order to avoid that, Nate suggested I start the film with the main character sitting in front of the television flipping through news reports about the war. This idea was much better than my initial idea, therefore, I now have to change my original storyboard to fit the new beginning.

Another helpful suggestion I received was to watch the movie “Beasts of No Nations” which is about the experience of a child soldier. This will really help me delve deeper into my narrative world by seeing what child soldiers go through as opposed to just reading about it.

New and improved storyboard thanks to Nate's suggestions

Although my storyboard has changed, my script remains the same since there were no critiques on it, and I feel like it accurately conveys the suspenseful and somber tone that I want to set throughout my opening.

Lastly, my next mission is to make the sounds for the film, and get copyright free music for the opening in case the voiceover itself is not enough in terms of setting the tone.

Here is a list of sounds that are needed for my movie so far.

• Remote clicking
• Birds chirping
• Stepping up the stairs (can be done live when filming)
• Teeth brushing (can be done live when filming)
• News reporting music (hopefully can get a version that is not copyrighted)
• Gun shots
• Chanting (can be done on Friday)