How it all started...

                           Three Directions 

       Hello again! It’s been a while! I’ve been trying to come up with an idea of what I can do. As I last mentioned, I was planning two different genres for my film, well I was, ever since I’ve partnered with a peer of mine things changed. Oh yeah, life update! I've decided to partner with a fellow peer of mine to produce this film opening. Vicky and I were discussing our approaches, but we really didn’t have anything in common. She was more into science fiction and thriller films while I on the other hand was interested in coming of age and adventure films.  

 

      We decided it was best to start all the way from the beginning. We first began discussing our favorite movies and TV shows. Her favorites being “The Hunger Games” and "The Matrix”, while mine were “The Truman Show” and “Anne with an E”. At first it was unclear, but we dove into the genres of each movie we found common ground and in turn helped decide our genre, care to guess what it was? I'll give you a hint try to guess it based off this image, ill give you 5 seconds. 

                                              

 

 

     .....Dystopian!!!! 

 

     You heard that right, we decided to base our film opening on the Dystopian genre. After conducting more research I've actually come to the realization that I know and enjoy a lot of Dystopian based movies.  My favorites being "The Truman Show", "Divergent" and "The Maze Runner"    

 

    I came across these THREE different film openings, and I’m so excited to share to you, my findings.  But before we continue, I want to walk you through our idea for the film opening. Well, we still haven't really established a storyboard or clear idea of what exactly, but we already assessed some clear details that we want to put into it. We want to make it obvious that this is dystopian and something that's being in chaos. In so for our film opening, my partner and I came up with ideas, and we immediately thought of how we would like for our protagonists to be of a society particularly the low class and specifically practicing agriculture. In this society everything revolves about power, and it could be about elemental. We still haven't set up what type of powers, but about the power, everyone that gains this power isn’t for the best. We want it to symbolize something negative. We still haven't established quite clearly what our conflict will be, but it's just like a clear idea of what we want to do. And so, we want to include an illusion of how reality seems sweet but really isn’t. 

 

                                                       Openings 

 

      An all-time classic, “The Truman Show”, l don't remember exactly when I first watched it but I’ve recently re-watched it a couple of days ago. The "The Truman Show" is a film that shows how a salesperson, Truman Burbank (played by Jim Carrey), filmed since birth begins to suspect his whole life is a TV show. 

                                

    The opening starts out with a close-up shot with Christof as he becomes discussing how normal TV shows are boring and the Truman Show itself is genuine. Quickly, it cuts to Truman's bathroom and to what seems to be him looking into a camera. I love how it quickly starts cutting back and forth, telling us who is starring and created it, so we can give contacts that this is a reality show and the people in it. It then cuts back to Christof and clarifies that this shot leaves many viewers in comfort. Quickly, we ran back to Truman, once again looking into the camera. Once again cuts to another feature of Hannah Gill, playing Meryl. In addition, we see the “actor” talking about how the show is her whole life. Continuously, we revert to Truman talking nonsense into the camera, then cutting another actor, Louis Coltrane, as Marlon, then his interview of how the film is all real. For one last time, we come back to the mirror camera showing Truman speaking to himself and rushes out the door.  Moreover, we are shown the text of “Day 10,909”. Afterwards, we seen Truman walking out his home say “good morning’ to his neighbors and his famous line “In case I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening and goodnight”. 

             

    What I enjoyed from this opening is how they conducted interviews to at once introduce the world that Truman lives in and hinting at the great amount of surveillance, he's under and his lack of awareness of it all. It portrays a great tool to gradually unravel the artificial world that Truman lives in. It captivated me and my curiosity to learn more about Truman’s life and discover the truth. By  use of subtle hints such as the “The Truman show” Logo and the “day 10,909” it not only foreshadows but reveals how Truman is not aware of his life being televised and raises questions on whether or not is it right for him to live as a lie or does he deserve to know the truth?

     

    You may be wondering how will I incorporate this into my film opening and what is its significance? In “The Truman Show”, we are shown how this is such a normal day and perfect when it isn't. This person is being held against their will, and they are actually under deception. With the Truman Show you can get subtle hints, and it creates this illusion of how reality isn't as perfect and creates a stark contrast. Symbolic details and subtle hints are really important to incorporate when introducing a dystopian theme, as shown in many, many openings. It's always perceived at first as a perfect world, but then you find there's a deep dark secret that makes you want to further watch. And that's something I really want to incorporate in my film opening. I want to introduce subtle hints and symbolic details such as the TV logo and “day 10,909” because it was such a clever way to illustrate the appearance of the show and foreshadows the truth about Truman's life. Maybe I can make this sort as a project (the film i mean i know this IS a project..)?  Just how in “The Truman Show” shows the symbolic details I can add something like project #625 or society #24, this can illustrate that's there's a deep secret within the film. 

        Next up is "Divergent", this film takes me back all the way to 8th grade ELA class. I remember when I was first assigned the book to read as a project and then I fell so in love that I wanted to watch the film. Normally the film doesn't do the book justice, but I was happily surprised at how well the film portrayed the book. "Divergent", the film is set in a futuristic dystopia where society is divided into FIVE sections. Representative represents a different virtue; Teenagers are given a choice if they want to stay in their faction or switch to another. The protagonist Tris (played Shailene Woodley) finds that she's a Divergent and doesn't fit in any faction, Tris needs to find out why divergent are dangerous before it is too late. 

    In contrast to the first film opening mentioned, The opening starts off with an establishing shot, this shot of the long grass that covers the screen slowly reveals more of the landscape and creates mystery whilst introducing the main characters. There's an even further introduction of other characters names, simultaneously continuing to show the landscape. The isolation creates an atmosphere, causing questions to rise about why it is that. It cuts to where a tall fence is, we slowly are brought closer and slowly reveal what's beyond. Then its revealed through an establishing show of the set, showing a landscape of both rural and urban areas of the city. The high angle shows us how the city is as it being introduced as “Chicago”. We are now then shown a division in groups sorted by colors, and this stays throughout the rest of film as the narrator (Tris) creates an understanding of each group. 

What a wonderful opening! I love how they use the different colors to stand for the groups and clearly use establishing shots to show the isolation of their city. Through the high angles and different segments of the landscape and city, it clearly portrays the separation from the outside and inside, on how they try to emphasize the city as a safe haven. There's also a sense of separation/ discrimination and utopia about the description and colors shown for each group.  The high angle shots that are shot illustrate a blend between them all, however as the narrator describes each you can tell there's a sort of social hierarchy.  

    For me however, I really love the use of colors to prove groups. If we do continue with the plan to use powers, each group should have a set color. In addition, the opening helped me broaden my idea of how to start off. I really want to create an isolated atmosphere and how they portrayed that in hand helps me come up with an idea. I think that using a secluded area, maybe a park? A national park? These sort of areas aren’t hard to find, especially near me what worries me though is at which time of the day. They clearly used color theory to help show, by using orange they created the sense of a “peaceful” environment. I want to incorporate that into our film. I also believe a sunset can create an even better landscape, time however will be very important if we do take this path. No need to worry about it just yet, there still much more to look into before recording! 

    Speaking of more, this last film opening is actually one my personal favorite movies, “The Maze Runner”. “The Maze Runner” is a story around how Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) is dropped of a community of boys after his memory was erased. He learns the community is surrounded by a maze, and to escape he needs the help of the boys to even stand a chance.

    The opening starts of with foley sounds, nothing but a black screen. You can hear sort of an elevator going up. We then get a long shot of the protagonist,Thomas, and are given the same elevator shot in many different angles. Suddenly the lights turn red, telling us the elevator has stopped and then turn green showcasing that it’s going to open. We then get a long shot from a low angle introducing all the boys in the community and how Thomas first day here. Thomas starts bolting out and someone yells “ we got a runner.” Foreshadowing  Thomas as a runner or introducing the title of movie. Thomas then stops and begins to address his situation by looking around his surrounds, finally understanding he has nowhere to go and it being barricaded by tall walls.

 

From what was given from the opening I’ve very enjoyed the use of foley sounds in the beginning. Not only did it capture my attention but it led me to wonder what could’ve been going. The sounds were clear to know this was an elevator but where was it going? Since it’s the beginning of the film there isn’t much we know, but it effectively introduced the character, Thomas, to show this was done against his will. Most of opening took place inside the elevator but this one part where he starts running away from the community, I loved when he took a second to stop and briefly took a look of surroundings and acknowledge the situation he was in.

However for me, our story lines are completely different. I don’t want anyone to be thinking and knowing there here against their own will. Although, I was thinking what if I started off using a black screen and foley sounds, although I’m not the BEST at that I think I can figure out a way. Like I said before, I want my film opening to take place a secluded area, to introduce the peaceful and solemn area. Maybe with incorporate a scene where everything is pitch black, and what you first hear are fireflies and maybe some forest elements, like the wind breezing through water and grass maybe? I think it’s the best way to introduce the setting and I would really would want to incorporate it in my opening.

In the end, these are all just ideas that I can incorporate in my film. IDEAS. there is no guaranteed I will but this research definitely broaden my ideas. I’m very excited to use these newly concepts to create my film opening I’m even more excited to take you on this journey on how I will develop it and the final product .

Stay tune!!!

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