18th March, Planning our project

From such a promising start I feel like our group has backtracked a lot. Today we had a double period, but we ended the class with even less done than when we had started it. This is mostly due to the fact that we could not decide on a pretext to the reason why our protagonist is being chased. Our whole group had different ideas, and we could not seem to come up with an idea that everyone was happy with. I actually got really frustrated as I realized that all the work we had done on our original idea, which was actually quite a lot - we had planned when we would film, the order of locations, the different portals, everything - was done for absolutely nothing.

In retrospect, despite the fact that I was in quite a bad mood today and we managed to use up almost a whole double period, I think we ended up handling the situation well. I feel like I was a thinker today (see below), as I reached the decision that the only way we could resolve this problem, and with a solution that would make sense (as all our ideas together would spell for a very strange plot indeed) was to let one person decide. I felt that, as Julien is our director/ screenplay writer - and a very good writer over all - we would at least have something to work with if we let him decide on the basis for our plot. After we have the initial idea, the rest will hopefully all just fall into place, and the other members can contribute on other things.

I actually quite like the direction that he has chosen to go in, which is more abstract than our last idea; it is about a boy is very dissatisfied with his life. Although we are no longer going with the Film Noir theme, our protagonist's character is very similar to Noir protagonists. The chase is going to be him chasing an unclear object (for this we will have someone dressed in white, but you will never see them clearly) which represents 'happiness'. The locations that the portals link to are representations of the routine of his life; his bed, school etc. I think we could really do something with this plot, especially with the editing.

As regards sound, however, I feel like this is going to be a challenge. Along with scrapping the old concept of random scenes, I have also decided to scrap the 'different-music-with-every-different-location' idea. I think one constant, appropriate track will suffice; preferably a hollow tune, with a crescendo at the end for the final scene (which is a secret!). We have also decided to go with muting all the action, and only having a voice-over from the protagonist. I'm not entirely sure what the tone of the film will be yet; either crazy, depressed or what, but I know it will definitely be strange, which I find much more interesting to watch than happy movies. I have been looking up some music on freeplaymusic.com, but as of yet, without the definite theme, I can't really pick music that will match. Sound editing comes last anyway.

I forgot to hand in my project evaluation for Plunge today, which I am really annoyed about, as I actually brought to class and everything.

Thinkers: They exercise initiative in applying thinking skills critically and creatively to recognize and approach complex problems, and make reasoned, ethical decisions.