Cinematic Storytelling
I could be wrong about all of these or am interpreting them incorrectly, but:
1.
An underlying theme/motif of this movie is the in situ presentation of the children as though the movie were a nature documentary. The odd wording of the title cards is more likely in reference to the movie being an adaptation 'of' Lord of the Flies, but it also reads (to me, anyway) as though the story were actually occurring, and the movie is just Peter Brook's film of this reality.
2.
A series of zooms and pans over still pictures begins the movie. The pictures are reminiscent of those in textbooks (black-and-white, slightly grainy), strengthening the movie-as-found-reality motif.
3.
Throughout the movie, the children are given prominence and weight through the use of low angles as well as having the children in the foreground in many of the shots. Trees, shrubs, weeds, and often the island itself appear small in relation to the children. Despite the setting being a (presumably) remote island inhabited by only children, this will not be a story about man vs. nature, but about man vs. man.
4.
Shots like this appear throughout: poking through the weeds, voyeuristic. This is not a story; the man vs. man/individual vs. collective struggle is occurring in our own realities and we are watching it.
5.
During much of the first half, as the children are working together, they are shown in groups and rarely as individuals.
6.
As the groups begin to splinter and as individual safety concerns and preferences move to the forefront, more children appear on screen alone as they speak their mind.
7.
This scene, with Simon stepping through the jungle, is very long and there are several seconds where there is no movement before Simon finally appears. We are watching nature and natural behavior.
8.
The boys chase after a pig during the hunt. They are shot from a distance, tiny and swarming. . .
9.
Sort of like the flies on the pig's head, which is followed by a match cut of Simon's staring visage with the haunting buzz of the flies as a soundtrack. This overtly foreshadows Simon's fate as that of the pig's: swallowed up by the Flies.
10.
As the boys reach the height of their frenzied madness and embark into the woods and kill Simon, sparks from the fires ascend skyward and resemble fireflies. The boys are full of animal desire and have completed their transition into ferality.
