First of all, why the changes?

The challenge has been an enormous success to date, but I feel that it can only go so far. What I've been seeing in too many of the more recent rounds are rather hastily-made frames that show the theme in an annoyingly direct way, with little thought for the aesthetics of the shot, or how it would work in a film. I think a lot of people need to work on creating images that have more planning and more work put into them, and that consider the nature of cinema as a time-based medium.

RULES]

1. The judge (as before, this will be the winner of the previous challenge) will post a theme or objective. It can be a concept, but it could also be something like a line of dialogue, or simply a mood or environment that should be recreated. Please be both creative and considerate in what you choose; "sadness" is probably too simple, but something like "intelligence" might be too abstract. Feel free to give additional guidelines, for example "portray X, but without the use of Y".]

2. Entrants will create 3 to 9 frames in clear chronological sequence in accordance with the theme. The judge can allow deviations from this number in certain cases, but there should be a clear reason for doing so. People should plan out a plausible shot sequence, and execute it in a way that shows both consistency and quality across all frames.]

3. Each round will last for two weeks, and can be extended by a week if the judge feels that there are not enough entries of sufficient quality.]

4. Captions are not allowed. Feel free to talk about behind-the-scenes aspects, but the entry itself should be purely visual.]

5. Entries must be created specifically for the contest. You can certainly use the setting or characters of a current project for the challenge, but taking frames that were made for a different purpose is not allowed.]

GUIDELINES]

Don't make too many entries. It makes you look like you're desperate. Even if you show talent in all of them, it's unfair towards those who may have worked especially hard to create one sequence.]

Display your images clearly and in the correct chronological order. If there are particularly large versions of your frames, link to them. Thankfully, we're mostly past the days of 56k warnings, but it's polite not to clog a page with images that are too large in format or file size.]

Don't show the theme in a ridiculous way. It's so tiring to see endless boring frames of two people shot directly from the side that have no artistic merit whatsoever.]

No judge can be completely objective, but try to spend time and back up your rankings with explanations of what you liked and didn't like. In-thread critiques are welcome.]

Don't quote images.]

Work carefully; don't build sets or take pictures on the fly.]

Enjoy! I expect this to be a challenge for a lot of people, but a very rewarding one.]

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The first challenge is to create a sequence that conveys a situation of realization. You have two weeks.