Brainstorming

Last night, I looked up openings to films and TV shows that I have always thought were intriguing. I did this to see what techniques were used, and also to get inspiration for my opening. Two openings that I found were the opening to The CW's The Secret Circle and Alex Proyas' Dark City.

Having watched The Secret Circle myself, I always remembered the opening as being very interesting. They did this by introducing the main character, Cassie Blake, and includes a dramatic incident, her mother being killed. Using this as the first scene gives background to the main character and her relationship with her mother and grabs the audience with her mother being murdered. The killer is shown but is unknown, again creating a sense of mystery as to why he killed the mother. I thought that I could incorporate some of the techniques into the narrative that I have in mind, the one about the relationship between a father and daughter. If I did go down the drama or thriller route, I could incorporate asynchronous sound to build suspense, and utilize different sound techniques I've learned. Also, another technique that I noticed that was used a lot in both clips was close ups on a characters face to fully immerse the audience in their emotion.

This close up from The Secret Circle draws all of the attention to this unknown man, who is in the process of killing Cassie's mom. The red hues from the fire make him look devilish and evil. 

Extreme close up from the beginning of Dark City that illustrates the characters emotion, on a very close and personal level.

The one thing that concerns me about that story line is that it may seem boring to younger audiences, which is the target audience that I wanted to focus on. So to make it more interesting, maybe I could include a dramatic incident that will make it clear that the film isn't just a sappy movie, and it will also hopefully grab the attention of audiences. Hopefully with more research and brainstorming I'll soon be able to pick a narrative then focus in on the creation of the opening!



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Citations:

"The Secret Circle 1x01 - Pilot - #1 Cassie's Mom Dies." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.

"Dark City Opening Scene." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.