Chess Film: Brainstorming

First Steps 

The first step my group took towards creating our chess film was establishing our roles. My role will be director. My goal as a director is to listen to everyone's ideas and make sure our film is a collaborative piece. Then, my group selected our genre: thriller. After my group established the genre for our film and selected our roles, we started to brainstorm our plot. The process of creating our plot was much easier than I had expected. We all took turns adding something to an original idea, and within five minutes, we had the basics of our plot. The only thing we must include in our film is the game of chess. My group is incorporating chess in its simplest form— the main characters will just be playing the game, but it won't be an ordinary one. 

Visualizing 

To fully visualize our film, my group looked at our storyboard, which is also required for the portfolio. The closing shot is actually what we established first as it will reveal the meaning behind our film. We will use an over-the-shoulder shot and there will only be one figure present. 

Example of an over-the-shoulder shot in Superbad, 2007

We had two ideas regarding our opening shot. One gives our main character frontality and the other gives our character no frontality. Giving the character no frontality can create an initial sense of suspense, which is necessary in thrillers. However, our opening shot needs to conceal information, which may be easier with a frontal shot. After further discussion, my group will likely use the frontal shot as our opening, but there is still room for debate.