Film Opening Ideas

In order to come up with an idea for our film opening, my classmates and I each came up with two ideas which we then shared with each other. From these we came up with a final idea.

The concepts I came up with are as follows:

The first was three simultaneous story-lines which all centred around drugs. A man is shown sitting at a café and is approached by a second man. The second man is shown tucking a package into a newspaper and he sits down opposite the man in the café. He says nothing and slides the newspaper over towards the first man. We then cut to two teenagers walking down a road. A police siren is heard and one of the boys looks very concerned. He darts into a nearby public toilet.We then cut to a woman snorting a line of white powder. She then rings somebody and asks for "some more". We show here waiting for a few hours before she goes to leave. However, just as she is about to leave somebody knocks slowly and ominously on the door.

The second began with an establishing shot of an office before centring on one employee. He is about 30 and is an average-looking man. He is shown interacting briefly with a fairly attractive woman also working in the office who is about the same age as him. We then cut to the end of the day and the man and woman are leaving together. They say goodbye and go separate ways. As soon as the woman is out of sight, a look of urgency comes across the man's face and he begins walking briskly. We show him making his way towards a destination whilst simultaneously showing the woman catching the bus home. Through this it is made clear to the audience that the man has gone a different route to the woman's house. He is shown outside, assembling a large camera with a telephoto lens like a rifle. He then darts behind the house as the camera cuts to a shot of the woman entering the bathroom on the top floor. As she looks at herself in the mirror, she hears the faint sound of a camera shutter and looks round in alarm. She then hears three more shutter sounds, each louder than the previous one. Finally we hear a gunshot.

I think my ideas were solid but need developing, especially the first one. I would also need to think about how exactly I would film them, as filming some of the shots in the second idea could be tricky.

My two classmates also shared their ideas. I thought that Kayleigh's first idea was very suspenseful (if a little clichéd) and would be a safe option to go with, especially as it would be relatively straightforward to film. I really like Kayleigh's second idea, with the masks being very unnerving (very Eyes Wide Shut-esque) and the dramatic irony as well. Again, it would be quite straightforward to shoot and would allow easy manipulation of lighting and sound.

I thought that both of Christoph's ideas were really interesting. The ambiguity and how the audience is left in the dark in the first one is really intriguing. It still keeps the viewer's interest, however, as there is a lot going on and the action is intense. It could potentially be quite difficult to film and get all the elements such as sound right as it is so dense but it is certainly doable. The second idea really stood out for all of us and is the idea we eventually we decided to go with as the basis for our opening. I really love the location as the DLR around the canary wharf area at night can look really beautiful. It was also very suspenseful and left the viewer with a great deal of intrigue and an urge to find out more. Hopefully it will turn out to be a thrilling, aesthetically competent, fluent opening.