Basic Ideas for Opening

Basic Outline for Opening

·         The opening two minutes start at the present time and will begin by continually cross cutting between close ups of the main character and a news reporter.

·         The close ups will be emphasising the sad and guilty emotion on the main characters face.

·         The News report will be telling of the suicide of a girl that is revealed to be his sister.

·         A possible POV shot will show the boy looking at  photograph of him and his sister and this will be graphically matched with a close up of a newspaper showing the two together on the front after having a fight (Use of juxtaposition shows a stark relationship change)

·         The movie will then ‘Begin’ when it flashbacks to the start of the story of the rise of the band that the brother and sister were a part of

·         This flash back consists of the second main character walking along.

Flash Back

The flash back then moves to 1983, shown by an insert title continuing the theme having the previous scene been introduced in the same way. The flash back goes on to begin the plot of the story ‘from the beginning’ and also ‘begins’ the film.  It’s important to include this flashback in the opening minuets to show the audience early on the plot of the movie is showing how the sister ended up at the point of suicide. The scene is a cross between and long shot and establishing shot and is a long take of ‘Boy 2’ the second main character that needs to be introduced. 

The long take is of him walking along a road (on the way to ‘Boy 2’s’ house, something that probably won’t actually be discovered in the first two minutes).  There are a few way that this could be filmed.

One way of filming this would be to use tracking shots throughout but to vary the distances at which the shot is taken. This could be filmed in cut away style and the same walk would be filmed at different distances; long shot, mid shot, close up and extreme close up and then cut together in different orders to create a more interesting opening to the flash back. A good order would be to start with an establishing shot, to establish and get a feel for the location and to then cut to a mid-shot, then to close up of the boy’s face to establish the character as important. Cutting back and forth between these shots, maybe even an extreme close of something the boys is wearing (possible Dr. Martins) to emphasise the mise-en-scene and the time period it’s taking place in.

Another way is to keep the camera stationary and film the boy walking through a very distant long shot, watching him walk from one edge of the frame to the other. This could then possibly cut to another shot perhaps at a different angle watching him walking; this could also perhaps be filmed via a tracking shot.

Playing over the top of either beginning there would be non-diegetic music playing, a song from the time and a song from a band the characters would have listened to. The song would be upbeat to help emphasise the change in time period via the flash back and would also be a demonstration of juxtaposition as the previous scene would have been mostly dominated by silence. Following silence with upbeat loud, rocky music will position the audience to change their mood from angst and sadness to a happier and intrigued mood, the sudden change will also increase their interest in the plot. If this scene is filmed in a cut away style, shirt take changes of shots will fit with the style of music playing and shot could possible change almost in time with the music. Having music playing earlier on demonstrates how the film in music based and the juxtaposition showing the stark contrast highlight the music even more again emphasising that the movie is based around music.

Whilst this ‘walk’ is playing out on screen this is when the titles for the film with also appear as insert titles. They will appear in basic font and subtle colour, like the insert tiles that show the years of the time period. Having the titles here allows the opening of the movie to focus fully on the suicide of the girl and creates no distractions.