Portfolio Project
I want to start off my saying that I am really nervous and excited for this project. Of course there's the fact that this is 50% of my Cambridge grade (if I'm not mistaken), but there's also a sense of wanting to live up to my expectations and actualize my visions (the one's that I allow myself to conjure up when there's no pressure/ fear of failure). The past projects that you've gotten a few glimpses of have given me insight into many different things and parts of media, but this specific task allows me to put my knowledge and practice to work. Besides my own feelings towards this project, I have come to realize that my expression of feelings/ progress is actually a strength when it comes to my success in this part of the project, so feeling comfortable to break down the often-times limiting wall of "professionalism" while still maintaining structure is something I'm excited to execute in these next few weeks.
Introductory Research
Before getting into the specifics for this project, on Feb 6th in class (only a couple of days ago) we went over all the different types, seven to be exact, of approaches for an opening of a film, which of course is extremely vital and applicable to this project. These seven include...
- Establishing Tone Approach
- Character Development Approach
- Establish Background Approach
- Establish Setting Approach
- Establishing/ Type of Conflict Approach
- Create Mystery Approach
- Develop Technical Elements Approach
Apart from these different type of approaches, we also discussed related and some more distant factors to a successful opening, including the illustration of the genre of the film, the inclusion of specific credits (director, editor, cinematographer...), the title of the film, as well as the importance of developing purpose and engaging the audience.
Here are some pictures of my notes from the class:
Then, in Feb 8th in class we went over all of the pieces of this project, with the three key components being...
- The Film Opening
- The Blog
- The Creative Reflection
Along with some of the basics like time limit for the opening, necessary credentials, and the fact the story we produce has to be fictional, the discussion brought some specific questions/ realizations into mind. For example, the idea that the two to maximum 2:15 minutes you see will be a supposive "cutout" clip from the film, meaning it doesn't and shouldn't end in a resolution (ex: fade to black) but rather naturally as if the film was continuing. This made me realize that this is the first impression of the rest of the film, meaning I want to fully understand the whole plot/ movie enough to make meaningful and intentional choices about what to include in the first two minutes of that movie (aka the approach is important for what type of movie I am trying to make/ points and theme I am trying to get across). Additionally, seeing some different examples of film openings in class like "Stranger Than Fiction" and analyzing meaning from included mise-en-scene elements showed me the true variety in choices, and how I can choose to include/ not include specific aspects like music for example according to what I am trying to introduce/ develop. Overall, I was enlightened to the idea that all the choices I make will be a direct reflection of themes and characters in my film.
Below is an image of my notes framing the overview of this project:
While thinking of all of this, several thoughts arise. For example, this class in general has allowed me to make the possibly subconscious to be brought directly in front of me, reminding me/ allowing me to realize how two minutes of film for ex. has so much attention to detail and intention, as well as goals and pursuits. It also allows me to start to think of what I want my film opening to look like/ possible approaches I want to take. In class, we were shown film openings that take some of previously listed approaches (ex: from movies like "Children of Men" or "The Fighter"), each with such distinctive and complementary openings for their specific film, reminding me of a first impression and how that dictates so much.
Two possible approaches that I could see myself taking begin with the establishing tone approach, as I truly value the impact and importance of feeling/ attention to developing an ambience to engage an audience (even with the possibility of a tone change). When I watch a movie, if the beginning has a strong decisive tone I am usually allured to continue watching, as the richness of emotion is sure to draw me in. With this type of approach, I would love to play around with different elements of production to enhance the specific chosen tone, like color psychology and lighting, (lighting specifically) something that I haven't used enhance my storytelling too much yet. Next, the last approach that I will be listing as a possible choice is the character development approach. Again, I'm drawn to immediate emotive display, and while that can be done with any approach I think it would be interesting to try to develop a character in the span of two minutes (of course not fully but enough to lure in the audience).
While I see myself able to take different approaches, I think that each one of them is connected to a specific film-type for me/ genre, so I am excited to explore more examples of film openings to see how really any of these approaches can be put to the test to open for many different kinds of films. I'm also excited to see, with these varying openings, which ones I feel most drawn to/ which I will end up going for. Will it be a direct hit like "Children of Men" or will it be quiet yet telling like "Raging Bull"? I guess we will find out together.
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