Midterm Submission

I was overall reasonably particular about the use of long takes and minimal sound to evoke a sense of boredom. This effect was important because it improves the audience's understanding of the motivations of the two characters, and what they would eventually set out to do. I wanted to include a couple of extreme shots in composition because it adds a light instability to the normal order of the opening. This is beneficial to the effect I am trying to produce because it promotes the psychological element of the film. Additionally, distantly-given dialogue, like a phone conversation, is occasionally given more interest when the camera angles are changing. I decided to use close-ups to focus on the openness in the conversations seen from the characters. Whenever the camera angles deviate from character's faces, it is known that they are concealing some unwanted truth to themselves or to their friend. The lighting for Jacob is darker to foreshadow the future events he will be put through, and Alex is in a brightly-lit area to express his change in emotions that would emerge in the later progression of this film in theory. There were sound effects utilized for when Alex dropped his flash drive because it would provide narrative importance and signify that Alex has some well-hidden secrets of his. There was a purposeful absence of movement because these characters are both supposed to portray an obvious disinterest. The abrupt phone call also provided an additional mystery to the story, which is supposed to build upon minute details until Jacob makes a particular realization later in the film (not in the opening). This makes some type of conflict known, but not especially not known for the characters involved. This use of dramatic irony would add to properly developing a realistic set of events and a realistic world in this film. The combination of a library and office room in total provides a great effect because it provided a great location for informal dialogue between the two main characters and it fit into established conventions of psychological thrillers. The font I use matched with the one I had envisioned on the storyboard. This sharp font is effective for the film opening because it provides enough clarity and instability that would indicate to viewers that they are watching some type of thriller or horror film. I improved the clarity of the font even more by providing a slight drop shadow. I also varied the location of the credits which is something I saw in a few film openings. For the phone conversation, I varied shots and audio between on-screen audio and off-screen audio. This provided a good and dynamic effect to the opening, to prevent it from becoming too repetitive. The audio for dialogue heard from off-screen is given an audio effect that resembles a recognizable phone line.