This week we have been deciding what type of film we would like to make. At first, I wanted to do a murder film, but my group did not want to do a murder film.A summary of the story that we came up; This project will be about a small town in Bulowville, Florida. It was a hot, sunny day, but little did people know there was a murder happening. This was one of the first murders. Young boys and girls were its victims, it stalks its next victim for 3 days until it kills them. When it is done, the victim is skinned, chopped up, and buried in a shallow grave. What does it look like? You never know one day it will be wearing a clown suit the next day it will look like you friendly mail man. This continued until suddenly one of the neighbors died and all the murders stopped.
We have currently started to make a detailed short story of the full movie and by the end of this exceptionally long project we will filma 2-minute opening of the short story. The way that we decide to draft our story was: one person does the exposition, one person does the raising action, one does the climax, and the last person does falling action and resolution. For the next few weeks, we will be doing our portfolio and updating my blog 2 – 3 times a week. This project will take over four months to do but we are taking it step-by-step. Next week we will be script writing. Which will hopefully be more fun thandrafting a short story.
A film opening is the first scene that you see at the beginning of a film. It establishes the main characters, the genre, the plot, and basically everything the audience needs to know about the movie.
The opening scene should immediately hook the audience!
One way to hook the audience is to start with a BANG!
There are 6 different techniques used in opening scenes:
Technique 1 - enter the villain - this technique is commonly used in action movies such as "The Dark Knight"
Technique 2 - enter the hero - this techniques introduces main characters and key plot points. While making sure the audience is still along for the ride.
Technique 3 - establish relationships - this is commonly used in dramas
Technique 4 - plot catalyst this introduces the main characters
Technique 5 - Follow genre - used in establishing tone and introduces main characters
Technique 6 - flip genre - common techniques: flashback, flash-forward, bookends, red herrings, McGuffins.
So recently we've been working on opening scenes. We made a list of our top favorite movies and out of those 5 movies we chose 3 to find the length of the scene, the camera movements and angles, and finally summarize the entire scene.
Venom 2018 ( Action/Adventure)
The opening scene to Venom is 4 minutes and 49 seconds long. In this time we see that the scene starts of in outer space, from there we start to see the opening credits and a small white speck that slowly increases in size as it come closer to the camera and is revealed to be a spaceship. There is some dialogue exchanged between the astronauts and the people on Earth. Then, the tone of the dialogue starts to sound like panic. We then see the spaceship start to crash through the atmosphere and then eventually crash in a forest. The camera then cuts to a different location that looks like mission control. A man in a suit exchanges dialogue with a women that likes to be a scientist and a women in front of a computer. He asked a women," Did we at least retrieve all of the samples." The women response with, " No, we have three of them, one of the organisms got out of containment and it's missing. We don't know which one." The camera then cuts back to the crash and we see and container being carried by two people in hazmat suits, we also see the bodies of two dead astronauts. When a women yells something in a different language and we see that one astronaut survived the crash.
This connects to the overall plot of the story because it shows where these organisms came to Earth, how they can go from person to person, and it also show us some important characters.
Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift 2006 (Action/Drama)
The opening scene to Fast and Furious: Tokyo drift is 4 minutes and 37 seconds long. Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift is an action/ drama film. At the beginning of the openingscene, we hear hip-hopmusic and see high schoolers walking around and going through metal detectors. Then we see the main character of the movie enter the shot and stat getting a pat down. He makes eye contact with a boy in a mascot costume also gets pat down and smirks. The camera then cuts and zooms out revealing 15 different screens that seem to be from security cameras. We cut to a classroom then a parking lot where students are hitting an Indianpiñata, thenback to the main character who looks very amused by this action. The camera then cuts to an automotive garage where the main character is underneath a car. He sees someone getting dragged out by 3 boys and gets up to see what's going on, he sees the boy getting car paint sprayed on him and walks away, the camera then cuts back to the parking lot where he sees a girl painting her nails while going to his car. Dialogue is exchanged and the girl’s boyfriend comes over very upset, the main character gets in his car and drives away when the girl's boyfriend throws something through his window, so he stops the car and gets out with a wrench, the two men share looks and the opening scene ends.
This connects to the overall plot of the film because it tells the reasonwhy something will happen to the main character.
Guardians of the Galaxy 2014 (Action/Sci-fi)
The opening scene to Guardians of the Galaxy is 1 minute and 51 seconds, its a action/sci-fi movie. The scene first open to the main character in what looks like a cave. the main character then puts on headphones and music and starts singing and dancing while kicking alien rats around. he then looks over a large gap and uses rockets in his shoes to get over it, he then comes across two large doors and opens it to reveal that he is trying to steal something the object is a sphere looking object.
This connects to the overall plot of the film because it shows the main character and it shows an object that might be important to the movie.
Recently in class we've been learning about genre. The definition of genre is "kind" or "type." After learning information about the topic we did a PowerPoint presentation. There are many different genres. Such as, horror, sci-fi, action, comedy, drama, detective/crime, romance, thriller, and western. Every kind of genre has it's own conventions that make it the genre it is. A horror film give the audience a sense of fear. Sci-fi gives a feeling of something beyond our current means. Action gives a feeling of stress but it is short lived. Comedy gives a feeling of happiness and laughter. Drama can give a feeling of hurt or guilt. Detective films can give a feeling of vicarious thrill. After learning about different types of genres we were told to make a PowerPoint presentation. My group chose to go with the detective/ crime genre. On the presentation we had to be able to define the genre, analyze the genre, the history of the genre, and the social functions.
PowerPoint - file:///home/chronos/u-ddc92013bcfddb3e29f8e747f09b93d879b43f2f/MyFiles/Downloads/Presentation9.pdf History - The crime genre first started in the 1600's. This genre has progressed from "Sherlock Holmes" in 1900 to "Law & Order: SVU" which first aired in 1999. Social Functions - The crime genre gives the audience the ability to process emotions through characters without having to go through the pain themselves. Specific Characters - the one who solves the crime, the one who committed the crime, and the victim(s). Camera Techniques - High and Low angle shot, close ups and extreme close ups, dolly zooms, and handheld shots.
