Our Practice Film Opening: Final Ideas

Our Practice Film Opening: Final 

After many brainstorms, debates, storyboards and considerations, my group and I have completed our final plan to start filming our film opening. As we set up filming plans and organize equipment, we will also continue to write, research and talk about what it takes to create an excellent film opening, (our coursework that we will be undertaking in a couple of weeks). With this in mind, this practice gives us a perfect opportunity to experiment and explore with camera shots and angels, titles, credits, music and dialogue, in preparation for our coursework.

 Final idea/plot;

Lighting, cast, location, prop, costume –

My group and I decided together on our plot for the film opening. It starts at sunrise where two boys (one of which is wearing a raincoat) are running around fields, parks and around the local area where we live, Wymondham. They play some football, play on the playground and run around the town etc. they can also buy sweets in a supermarket. These short shots will be describing a longer period of tie, rather than a chronological order as the shits will interweave with each other. The credits will be running throughout, either fading in or out to a black screen or on top of the live action video but we will decide closer to the time. Finally, there is a scene where the two boys are close to a road where one of them steps into the road, without thinking about cars (plus a shot of an older man in the car as well). We hear a loud car horn and the screen goes pitch black. Credits appear saying ‘presents’ and it comes back to a shoe lying on the road, saying the film title.

Final characters and casting;

• 0-12-year-old child

• 25-45-year-old man

As one of the members within the group had two younger brothers, one 12 and one 14, it made sense to use them as the rest of the group had no siblings around that age group, and the casting conditions were around that specific age. My team member’s brothers will play two brothers exploring, playing and running around Wymondham, like brothers usually do. Also, the 25-40-year-old man we were planning to use the mise-en-scene conditions, as we were planning to use my father to play the driver in the car for the final scene. If this doesn’t work out, we were planning on using a shoe keeper however this could cause a lot of problems as it would take time to contact the shop to ask if they were happy and available for us to shoot and use them as actors/actresses within out film.

Final location:

Inside a shop

For the location near my house there is a field where we will start off the film opening taking shots of the two brothers playing around with the sunrise in the background. Them, carrying on to the rest of Wymondham, using nearby streets to film the walking and perhaps some abandoned and overgrown places to get the sense of exploration. A local supermarket to get the ‘inside a shop’ condition and possibly the inside shot of the car to see the older man as well, If all goes to plan.

Final prop list:

A single shoe

A single shoe could have been shown in several plot ideas, for example, in a shoe shop or even a missing shoe but we decided that it should be more significant shot if it were to appear at the end, when we reveal the film title. This way, it could lead on to the rest of the film smoothly. We had reservations to start off with about this specific plan, as it would be revealed after the film title and therefore we would have to begin again after natural stop to the film opening.  Therefore, when it comes to editing and putting the film together, we will see if the shot works or if we can put it into another part of the opening.

Final costume:

A raincoat

I think this was the easiest condition to incorporate in, as it was just the case of one of the casting roles wearing a raincoat in the film. The plan is for one of the boys, I think the youngest brother to wear a raincoat.

Final lighting plans:

A sunrise

Sounding easy enough, out lighting plan was to include a sunrise as the natural lighting in the film. We would also include artificial lighting in the film. We would also include artificial lighting when the boys are inside the local supermarket. The plot begins at sunrise, where the two brothers head out into the local areas and start exploring/playing. This meant that we had to get up early to get this sunrise in.