My Film Opening

Inspired by other films in the Pastiche genre, I plan to create a film opening that both conforms to the conventions of the title, and has some unconventional aspects to it.

I want to show the teen film genre convention of 'friendship and unity'. The characters will be to some extent a team and work together from the start to show they are for the same cause. I plan to base the focus of the film around one significant object - probably a book. In this genre there is often an object of great power, e.g. the one ring in the lord of the rings. The book will have a similar power and value, but by having young people fighting for it I intend to almost mock the fellowship that fights for the ring. In this way my film opening will have a slightly juvenile feel due to the fact that teenagers are in a laughably serious setting. There will be a chase scene, as this is a strict convention from which I refuse to break. It shows both the power of the object and the determination of the characters and a multitude of shots can be used so I intend to include one.

Scripting

When thinking about scripting, I decided from the off I didn't want a lot of dialogue.

When I considered who I'd give lines to, I immediately thought of Maia. Her character is the smallest and visually the must vulnerable and in my view, lines mean power. By giving her the most lines I want to show who is in charge and who has the best understanding of what is going on. I want her character to have a kind of 'puppet master' feel, as most mystery character do in films of this genre.

 I want to keep the plot quite vague throughout seeing as this is only the first 2 minutes of  the film and I don't want to give too much away - so by keeping the dialogue slightly mysterious I aim to add in diegetic sound without revealing anything vital.

I have also decided I am not adding a voice over. I feel it would be a bad idea to try and add both diegetic and non-diegetic dialogue. Also, the voices would have to be very different and I don't know who I would have speaking that isn't in the shots - I think this would complicate my use of software I am not confident with yet, and so I feel it is the right decision to drop the idea.

Storyboard

 

MY STORYBOARD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I understand that not all aspects of this plan will be possible, but I believe this effectively portrays the majority of the shots and techniques I wish to achieve in my film opening.

 

 

Props

So far I have only decided on two props.

The first is a book. This I have decided to be the mysterious object and the focus of the film opening. The cover is flexible and bright red. I opted for a flexible cover rather than a hard-back, as hard-backs tend to bounce more when dropped if you hit a corner or an angle. The flexible cover doesn't make as much noise either, and the colour is eye-catching and vibrant. Red is the colour associated with danger and warning - an apt theme for my opening. 

The second prop is Philip's backpack. I feel I would like to have to bag as there are some ideas I have for the character to put the book inside it and for Nick to run off with it in the bag. For an alternate ending (if my initial idea doesn't work out), I am thinking maybe Nick opens the bag after running off with it and the bag is empty. He finishes running to Maia and she is already sitting on a tree reading it. This works in relation to a shot I plan to include at the beginning, of the book dropping into the shot from above without showing how it fell.

Costumes

For my costumes, I feel colour is important.

Conventionally within the genre, the colour a character is wearing suggests something about their personality. With this in mind, I have decided that the downtrodden hero (played by Philip) should wear greys and blacks to personify his mood.

The costume of the little girl character (played by Maia) I feel should not be what springs to mind when you think of the character. She has a darker personality than what the audience might think when they see her, so maybe a pretty skirt and jumper in dark colours. I am also thinking of adding bunchies to her hair and tying them with bows of red ribbon to match the book I've decided to use. This will connect the girl with the object which is the desired effect.

Finally, for the second boy (played by Nick) I would like to colour-coordinate his costume with that of the little girl character. In which case I'm feeling dark blues and blacks - possibly sweatshirts for the both of them to show unity. Maybe a hoodie for this character so I can get a shot of him flipping his hood up to give the audience a hint of his character.

Locations

For my locations I have chosen:

1. The roof over Costa Coffee in Gerrards Cross
2. Gerrards Cross Common
3. The Gerrards Cross Woods and Pond

For the running I will use various streets and link them together to make one straight path from the roof to the woods.

Actors and Organisation

This post is about my choice of actors and my organisational skills.

At the moment I have a total of three characters to cast:

1. Boy 1 - protagonist. Finds the focus object and fights to keep it safe. Should look average and non-threatening. He is an outsider and should dress as such. Must also look fairly juvenile and be good at running for the purpose of the chase scene. 

For this part I have cast Philip George.

Philip George: age - 16, year 12, fairly tall, non-threatening, fast runner.

     2. Boy 2 - henchman. Works for the girl to steal the object and keep it safe whilst also uniting all the                    characters. Must be fairly tall, have the ability to look distance, defensive and slightly menacing. Must            be a good runner. Less juvenile than Boy 1. 

For this part I have cast Nick Thomas.

Nick Thomas: age - 17, year 12, taller than Philip, has acted before, faster than Philip. 

   3. Girl - antagonist/protagonist. Young girl that knows something about the object the other characters do          not. Must be small, non-threatening but not the traditional idea of little girl. 

For this part I have cast Maia Briggs.

Maia Briggs: age - 11, year 6, much smaller than the boys, suits the part very well.

As for organisation; I feel the key aspects I need to focus on will be: communication with my actors on subjects such as shooting days and costume suggestions, making sure I have all of the equipment necessary to be able to get on with filming, and taking precautions like bringing an umbrella, muck boots etc for the forest shots.