Decisions Decisions

Hi again! Welcome back to my blog! 

Here is where the brainstorming truly begins for our ideas surrounding our film introduction. So far we have two incomplete ideas which we are deciding between. Hopefully by our next blog post we will have a permanent idea to begin working on but until then, here is a brief description of both, try to bear with me. 

Idea 1: 

Our first idea was born simply from bouncing thoughts off of each other until one idea randomly stuck. This is the idea that was vaguely mentioned in my previous post about FBI agents and criminals etc. We would like our film introduction to consist of strategic shots, setting the scene much like the shots shown in the introduction to Knives Out, another thriller comedy. Watch its opening scene right here to see some of our inspiration!

All of these shots are on screen for just enough time not only to make the introduction aesthetically pleasing, but also to foreshadow certain events later used within the movie. Besides the shots, this introduction spends the perfect amount of time giving the setting, introducing minimal characters, and introducing the main conflict, setting up for the remainder of the movie. Although we aren't sure what the conflict would be exactly yet, we would want there to be a crime mystery taking place, a classic "who done it?" but we aren't sure if it is a murder or not yet, maybe a smaller crime. Anyway, we would set the scene with the type of crime in addition to a slight through these strategic shots in the beginning and then overlay the first dialogue to transition to the scene. The way that the characters are speaking to each other will immediately establish their dynamic as the already bring some comedic relief to what seemed to be serious scene. We want the entirety of our introduction to be some ridiculous extent of questioning to really bring light to a tense scene with maybe a few serious beats within the dialogue to maintain the thriller-like scenario. Although we aren't sure of the location, we want the shots to have darker tones to really create a suspenseful atmosphere in contrast to the comedic banter. We would want one of the FBI agents to guess what the suspect did as a joke and having that actually be the case. The intro would end with the criminal in complete shock and then a possible blacked out shot to show our title. When the screen goes black we want to play some high energy music in contrast to either the silence or more mysterious music that would be playing before then. Of course, many details are missing which will continue to grow as we continue to discuss what we would like to do but this idea I feel is fairly possible to accomplish and also gives us plenty of opportunity to use the techniques we have learned throughout the year. 

Idea 2: 

Our second idea would be more simple plot wise because it wouldn't take much to accomplish yet at the same time, I feel that it would be more complex. The issue with this idea is that the intro seems strong yet we don't really have an idea as to what would happen after the opening scene ends. We would have to figure out what would take place for the remainder of the movie. We would aim for it to be more cinematically simple with much more underlying depth, similar to Memento. See below!

We would want a long shot of a girl playing the piano in a dimly lit room and it would slowly zoom in. As it zooms in we would fade in and out of flashbacks and future scenes to foreshadow the events of the film. While she plays, credits would fade in and out just as they would in the corner of our first idea as well. The only issue surrounding this idea is that it would be difficult to make funny which we would like to do. It would have to be made funny more through satire and shot as if it were to be a parody, like The Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window. The scenes that fade in and out would set the scene describing who the person is, why they play piano, and the initial conflict of whatever that may be. This idea lacks more detail than out first idea as it would be difficult to build a storyline despite it technically being easier to shoot. 

Both ideas would work out really well, they just both are incomplete and have missing pieces which take time putting it together. I feel that in this case, I am my toughest critic and I just don't want to let myself down or be disappointed in my final product. I am hoping to make up my mind sooner rather than later because time really isn't my friend in circumstances such as this. Feel free to leave a comment with any opinions or advice on making a decision. I hope you were able to keep up as my brain is moving a mile a minute, in an attempt to create a solid idea.  Once we finally select our final idea for our opening, our next steps would consist of further planning on things such as setting/location, storyboarding, script writing, and characterization/costuming. Will update soon!

Liv

(Week 2: 2/14-2/20, post 4)