Brainstorming

    After learning the importance of a film opening and the ways to properly create one, it was time to begin thinking about our own project. Ever since our teacher first introduced the portfolio project to the class, my mind had immediately begun thinking of many different and elaborate ideas that could be not only a great concept for the opening of a film but also its entirety. Due to the fact that I will be working alone (and also the fact that I have zero to no experience with filmmaking other than what we've done in class), however, I tried my best to step back and not get too ahead of myself. In the end, I will have to find a balance between a great concept and one that is attainable within the reach of my abilities. 

    During the first official brainstorming day, I decided to set aside the ideas I had before and begin from scratch, taking a moment to look over the variety of genres that I could choose. During this, I came up with the idea to draw out a web/flow chart as a way to help me organize my thoughts. In this chart, I listed some of the genres that I could dive into along with some key facts of each genre, movies in the genre,
and any ideas for my own film in each genre. 

    I think this chart did actually help me as I was able to narrow some of the genres. For example, I have no interest in producing a romance or comedy movie since they usually start a bit slow and rely heavily on actors since they're character-driven movies. I also think that an action movie would be difficult for me to do considering the number of special effects used in the films. Though I love horror movies, they also tend to have a few special effects and for the life of me I can't think of a concept that hasn't been overdone to my liking, maybe in the following days something will come up but as of now, zilch. That leaves thriller and drama, which are two genres that I've been leaning towards since the beginning. I have two separate concepts that I think are in the range of my abilities that would fit these genres. 

    For the thriller one, I'd rely heavily on sound techniques, which is something difficult for me to get right but I do think it's manageable. I have these vivid images in my head of certain scenes that could take part during the opening, such as glimpses of a shovel forcefully digging and close-ups of someones eyes, where through the use of lighting, editing, and the distorted, asynchronous sound of the shovel still digging, would make it seem that the character is going through a delirious moment. I also see shots of the character washing their hands almost exasperated between each take. This would all lead to the character then waking up, with the loud sound fading to silence. 

     For the drama, I actually turned to an idea I had for a script for my creative writing class about a troubled artist. Like for the thriller one, I can also vividly see shots that could take part in the opening, which is great for getting ideas but once it's time to execute them I know for a fact I'll stress over the fact that it won't look the same in person as it does in my head. In this piece, the opening would begin with various shots of this artist sketching and painting in a brightly lit room, with kind of a warm filter to make it seem like the sun is delicately bouncing off of everything. As these shots play, a "chill" acoustic guitar melody would be playing, following along the close-ups, mid shots, and back shots of this artist doing his thing. Then suddenly during one of the closeups, the artist either breaks his charcoal or drags his paintbrush in the wrong way, and the music stops. I see a close-up of the artist's eyes, anger slowly building as he stares at his piece, where suddenly he throws the easel to the ground, and begins to furiously break, damage, throw everything around him in a rage. Once the first throwing of the easel occurs the guitar would start playing again, creating a contrast between the calm music and the enraged artist. 

    Of course, these are all just ideas and there's a lot for me to work and think about before committing to a concept and genre, such as finding people that would be willing to act for me, and, if I chose the second one, find someone that would like to compose an original song (which I am already in the process of talking to someone about it just so I don't have to ask after I've committed to the idea and not have anyone that would be able to do it for me. So far it's looking good, hopefully, it stays that way.) Before the next blog posting, I will definitely think over everything, even get the advice from my peers on the topic.