What to do, what to do...

After we decided what genre our film should be in, we brainstormed over the weekend to see what ideas we could come up with. We discussed our ideas on Sunday to begin our planning. Alexia came up with a very original idea for our film, telling the story of a woman who killed her cheating husband and is seeking revenge on his lover. The sequence of the opening would be as followed: It begins with a black screen and then a clanging of church bells introduces the scene to a gothic church, with a focus on the bells. Then the camera shifts to a woman's shoes, her heels, as you hear them clanking on the floor. Then a woman dressed in all black with a veil over her head is pictured walking into a church to the funeral of her husband. Within the people there, the lover of the husband is highlighted and the wive's expression changes once she sees her, hinting that she's seeking revenge. Alexia also thought to incorporate flashbacks of the wife catching the husband cheating on her as a parallel to the funeral to hint as to why she would have killed him.

After we discussed, I pointed out that we might have to change the funeral into maybe the wife visiting the grave of the husband and seeing the woman there because it will be very hard to make a funeral scene. In addition, I think that the flashbacks give too much away in only the first scene, which we want to avoid since our film is supposed to be suspenseful. 

I came up with a different way to develop the story, which would follow the woman going to church but into a confessionary as it parallels to the crime scene of the death of the husband. The confession would be muted and will be replaced with music to add tension. The plot would be different since it would follow a woman who is actually a psychopath who makes men fall in love with her and then kills them, a black widow. However, this idea is a lot more complex and it's hard to hint the plot without giving it away since it's supposed to be the major plot twist since she'd be pictured as a normal person.

We still haven't decided what plot we will follow so we will each develop our ideas more to see what works best for the film opening to be successfully made. In order to film, we plan to use the resources of the company that came into our class to see if we could borrow their equipment. We also will utilize audio effects to enhance the quality of the scene and WeVideo or iMovie to edit our footage.

We will hopefully decide on our story within the next few days to create our story board and begin filming. We will also begin to look for potential actors, especially for our main character. We are excited to make our ideas into reality!

Film Opening Research

Hello! My partner, Alexia, and I decided to do a film opening for our portfolio project but we debated back and forth about what genre to choose and what our film should be about. We decided to begin our research by looking at past year's projects. We found that the most intriguing film openings were part of the suspense or thriller genres because they built up the most tension to keep the audience interested, the main goal for film openings. We decided to each one of us to do our own research with suspense or thriller film openings to gather information about the genre conventions and the way the story is unfolded. The first film opening I studied is Jaws (1975) dir. by Steven Spielberg, one of the most iconic suspense films of all time. Steven Spielberg utilizes the unknown identity of the shark in the opening scene to create tension in the opening scene as well as a buildup on the music when the girl is attacked and then sucked into the water by the shark. In this opening scene, it uses the "2+2" element that gives the audience just enough information to know what's going on without giving it all away. This element is something we plan to keep in mind throughout the planning of the film to successfully create the suspense factor. We don't plan on hiding the identity of the main character, but we'll incorporate the idea of the unknown through certain aspects surrounding the character.

Another film opening I research is Vertigo (1958) dir. by Alfred Hitchcock, another iconic suspense and thriller film. This opening scene also utilizes music to heighten the tension in the fast moving scene, which beings mid-action, utilizing the "2+2" element since it doesn't give away every detail but it has enough for the viewer to understand that it's a police chase. The main focus of the film is the fear of heights, vertigo, which is instantly highlighted when the man looks down as he hangs on the roof of the building and is grown with fear. The scene uses fear to create suspense, especially since it is unresolved in the opening. As we brainstorm ideas for our film opening, we also want to incorporate the mid-action sequence for our opening scene to help create the suspense without giving everything away and keeping the audience intrigued.

As we continue to brainstorm and solidify our storyline for our film opening, we will consider all of the information gathered to successfully convey our story to our audience. We will also consider important elements such as the lighting which is essential in any suspense and thriller film, and music to build up the tension.