Inspiration (Research)

 Inspiration from Film Openings:

I was a little bit stuck in the development of the treatment (final idea) for my film opening, so I decided to look for inspiration from other film openings of the same (or similar) genre and a similar initial plotline, such as a morning routine or a character moving to live elsewhere. 

Here are 3 film openings that I got inspiration from:

Battle:

The film opening for "Battle" has many characteristics that I would like to include in my film opening. 

For starters, the song "Higher Ground" by Skaar has the style of music that I like and that I would want to use to create an atmosphere of a new day starting and the beginning of a teenage romance drama. 

Starting with a morning routine is something else that I thought would de a good idea. It gives the audience time to be introduced to the main character and the type of life she leads. The opening scene of Battle focuses only in the morning routine of Amalie but I want my opening scene to portray more than this, so I will have to show only some parts of my character's routine and use that opportunity to introduce the plotline of her moving to a nearby town. 

I also really like the luminosity of the natural light and the mise-en-scene in general of the film opening, it has vibrant colours that don't look too flashy and a very clean-cut look that I want to achieve. 

Twilight:

The film opening of Twilight starts with an enigma and an action clip that is a convention of the action/fantasy genre but not necessarily of the romance genre. However, after that, we are introduced to Bella, the heroine, who is moving to live with her dad. This is a good inspiration if I plan to have my character moving during the opening of my film. 

Using a voiceover is something that I have had in mind since the very beginning, and in this opening, it is used effectively and complementing the on-screen action, introducing the plotline of why she has to move very swiftly and smoothly, which is what I would like to do as well. 

Mise-en-scène symbolism; the cacti that Bella is holding represent her love for Phoenix and Arizona. This is a very good idea I would like to use; my character might be packing something in particular that tells the audience something about her personality, or a wedding invitation that reveals her mum is marrying again.

After:

"After" is a teenage romance drama, although very different from what I would picture my film to be in some aspects... However, the film opening does have a voiceover and a scene of a girl moving as well. 

Here, the voiceover introduces the romantic plot, which is not something I am planning on doing, at least it would not be the main focus of the voiceover. However, as an idea, I could choose to do a flashforward to introduce the male character using the voiceover as a link.

Furthermore, the scene where she is packing is very simple and effective in conveying the fact that she is moving, and I could use some ideas from there to effectively display my character moving in a short period of time. 

I also like the lighting in that part of the scene, the room is filled with natural light which achieves a clean-cut look that I am aiming for in my film opening.

Difficulties I might encounter:

I have realised that both in After and Twilight, there is one or more extreme long shots displaying the car on the road, usually using a drone for this. It would be quite difficult to film this shot type on top of the rest of the footage I have to obtain, so probably I will not include that type of shot, and I will have to come up with an alternative way of successfully portraying this. 

In Twilight, there is a shot where the car is leaving that I might be able to use much more easily, as an alternative.