Inspiration For Film Opening

This week we got the opportunity to review past foundation portfolios and it really changed my point on view on the project. Instead of the basic approach to film openings, I discovered new techniques like starting the plot from the end and resulting in the beginning of the story. This technique intrigued me a lot because I recently saw a movie called "The Upside" that used this format and it really caught my attention because the film opening provided what happens at the climax which caused me to try to  put pieces together throughout the film to figure out how they got to that point.

During a TED Talk we watched in class about film openings, I also began to ponder how I would like my film opening to come out and took into consideration some of the points Andrew Stanton was making. Considering the fact that he helped create the legendary film, Finding Nemo, I felt like he knew what he was talking about. He stated that one of the main goals of a film opening is to make the audience think and put the "pieces of the puzzle" together. This is another reason why I'm strongly for using the technique I spoke about earlier in my film opening.

Plan B, and the better technique I would could use if we decide to create a film opening for a hour movie, would model something like Scream. In the Scream film opening, lots of mystery and conflict is developed as well as some character development. These three elements are important for a horror film opening because they build suspense as well as keeping the audience intrigued and wanting more.


Between notes we took in class and my own experiences with film openings, I've developed a pretty good idea of what I want the film opening I create to overall portray. The main elements of my film opening should be character development, mystery, and engagement. Let's see how it all turns out!