A person is walking to class. The person realizes they forgot something in their locker. The person goes to their locker and attempts to open it. The locker does not open. The person notices the time and becomes mildly concerned they won’t make it to class on time. The person attempts to open the locker again and it does not open. The person becomes visibly apprehensive. As the filmmaker, your goal is to build tension and growing panic, using any visual element or device that you can think of.
The film closes with the person finally opening the locker and retrieving what they need. They then hurry to class (no running) and enter the room right as the bell rings. Here, you want to communicate to the audience the character’s feeling of relief.
Students were then divided into groups of 3-4 with each person responsible for a certain job. They chose to be either a director, camera operator, actor or props master. The teams worked together to capture the scenario above. We watched our first take right away and noticed that we had a lot of room for growth! So, we went back to the drawing board (literally!) and began storyboarding. While we created our storyboards we were introduced to a variety of different types of shots. After we decided whose storyboard we wanted to use, we went back out into the halls with our cameras and tripods and shot take 2. We are currently finishing up the last phase of production with editing. Our final cut has to include a title, music, sound effects, at least 6 different shots and credits. Here are some final cuts from this year.