/// IDEAS10 Brief Film opening notes

Location idea - near Louis's house + near James's scene

Mia Jones - James
Donnie Romero - Tristan
Eddie Pegg - James
Main Zombie - Louis

Instead of Donnie heading to work, he is heading to shop for teabags.

Gets shampoo in his eyes and can't see anything
On his way to shop - woman tries to wave at him but listening to woman
False scare when Fred east puts hand on shoulder

Key framing for editing process

possible hand of god

/// IDEAS9 Character - Mia Jones

(credit to Scope Productions for post)

• Love interest
• 18 years old
• Attractive - male gaze - Laura Mulvey

FILMS/TV

• Dear John
• The Vow
• The Notebook
• World War Z
• Dawn of the Dead

GADGETS

• Phone
• Machete
• Pistol
• Pocket knife

ITEM OF CLOTHING

• Leather jacket
• Boots
• Black skinny high waisted jeans
• White vest top, slightly cropped, rip by the neck

PLACES SHE'S BEEN TO

• Los Angeles
• London
• Paris
• Tokyo
• Singapore

FOODS/DRINKS THEY LIKE

• Any kind of salad
• Has a guilty pleasure for chicken wings
• Water with lemon and cucumber 
• Coffee

OUTFIT INSPIRATION

Inspiration from Zombieland

/// IDEAS8 Film Opening Inspirations

(THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY CREATED BY SCOPE PRODUCTIONS)

SHAUN OF THE DEAD
...

...

Things we liked (ignoring the bar scene):

• Everyone looking like zombies however they're just doing their boring jobs
• When a car would go past and it would cut into next shot
• The continuous panning from left to right 
• The use of titles such as the Shaun of the Dead on the floor
• The narrative enigma of Shaun panning from feet to head and looks like a zombie
• The quick shots of parts of his morning routine

ZOMBIELAND

...

...

Things we liked:

• The video recorder effect
• Point of view shot with the first zombie
• The visuals of Earth (don't know if we could do that)
• The use of titles for the rules
• The funny list of rules
• The slo mo title sequence (however we thought it was too long)
• The moving titles in the title sequence

WARM BODIES

...

...

Things we liked:

• The narrative enigma of the main character then revealing he is a zombie
• The set design
• The internal monologue
• Flashbacks
• Scenes going on behind character 
• The transition back to how it was before and then back to now

...

/// IDEAS7 new Film Opening Pitch

(THIS WAS A BLOG POST MADE BY SCOPE PRODUCTIONS)

SETH OF THE BRAIN DEAD
Working Title at the moment.  Intertextuality with Sean of the Dead

Scene 1 

• Playing movie in protagonists messy living room
• Not showing protagonist immediately (narrative enigma)
• Playing Scream / Halloween / Dawn of the Dead / Shaun of the Dead
• Opening Baked Beans can with pocket knife and eating them cold

Scene2

• Protagonist in shower
• Pans from feet to head (cuts in between)
• Oblivious to zombies in bathroom
• Dropping shampoo bottle knocking out zombie
• Slipping and kicking zombie killing it
• Possible shower singing scene for comedic effect

Scene 3

• Getting ready scene 
• Quick shots like in Shaun of the Dead
• Brushing teeth
• Going to toilet
• Putting on glasses
• Getting dressed 
• Putting on glasses
• Putting on badge for blockbuster store

Scene 4

• Walking out of house with headphones on looking out phone
• Not looking around
• Sees girl ahead (love interest) trying to tell him theres a zombie behind him
• False scare - hand on shoulder 
• Turns out to be the best friend character who pushes him out the way
• Shouts 'get in car'
• Pulls dead body out revealing title on floor

LOCATION

PROTAGONIST

• Male
• 18 years old
• Attractive - female gaze
• Named Seth

FILMS/TV

• Star Wars
• Star Trek
• Indiana Jones
• Sherlock
• Breaking Bad
• Shaun of the Dead

GADGETS

• Watch (casio digital)
• Phone
• Glasses
• Spare glasses
• Pocket knife
• Can opener
• Pens

ITEMS OF CLOTHING

• Graphic tee
• Straight cut blue jeans - thrifted - slightly worn/faded
• Glasses - taking them off and wiping them as nervous tic - helps with not seeing
• Possible button up over tee
• White high tops 
• Possible long black trench coat

PLACES HE'S BEEN TO

• Library
• Diner
• Game Store
• Home

FOODS/DRINKS THEY LIKE

• Slushies
• Milkshakes
• Monsters 
• Hot dogs
• Pizza

RANDOM FURTHER DETAILS

• Only child
• Love interest
• Works at blockbusters
• Really good at darts

EXTRA NOTES

• Impact on comedy to bring BBFC rating down to a 15 from an 18 
• Wears a World's End tee - direct intertextuality
• Plays video games
• Has junk food and empty cartons etc.
• To connote working at Blockbusters - name tag / card
• Blockbuster movies
• CD - possibly use as coaster or plate
• Empty cans
• Cigarettes
• Opening baked beans with pocket knife
• Box TV with playstation 2
• Set in this day and age but has all old gadgets
• DVD player - Dawn of the Dead / George A. Romero DVDs
• Link DVD - in Halloween playing movie at start - Scream played Halloween movie
• Triple hybrid rom-com-zom

SECONDARY CHARACTER

• Female
• Around 18 years old
• Attractive - male gaze
• Named Chloe
• Binary opposition to Seth
• Badass, very dominant and confident
• Doesn't let her guard down in opening
• Wears athletic, tight clothing (like Lara Croft)
• White vest top, slightly cropped, rip by neck
• Black skinny high waisted jeans
• Black leather jacket

/// IDEAS6 Updated Film Opening Pitch

...

'Sleep well' pitch (1) from LouisHodges3

Changes made further into the production:

• Introduce a postmodernism element
• Changing the news article to a news broadcast 

/// IDEAS5 Scary Character in Film Opening

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Scary character in film opening - L+J from LouisHodges3

...

/// IDEAS4 Explaining Failure: attempt 1 Film Opening PITCH

After discussing original film opening idea with peers and teacher, I have decided to scrap the idea.

REASONS

Lack of enthusiasm 

• Wasn't particular excited by the idea
• Felt like a rushed idea

Wrong inspiration

• Was inspired by an opening of a TV show
• Style of TV opening was slightly different to a standard movie opening

No 'wow' factor

• The concept was simple and had little to show off skills
• Wasn't much potential for SFX and unique directing styles
• Too plain
• No twist/excitement took place in the idea

Little understanding of the genre

• I intended to dos a psychological thriller, yet plot reflected different genre
• Hadn't previously done enough research on the genre 

Underestimating Workload

• Originally, my plan was to work alone as I felt it would be the easiest way to achieve marks that reflect my own standard
• Further on from this, I will work with my classmate, James, as we have worked together well in the past + both had similar ideas to start off with

/// IDEAS3 Film opening first PITCH

SLEEP WELL

GENRE

psychological thriller
may or may not incorporate the very dark humour that they use in 'End of the F****ing World' - I am
yet to decide

CHARACTERS

James as the main character named Cole

very counterypical
Poorly styled hair, scruffy, needs haircut
idea of wearing t-shirt with a counter typical idea on it and something that completely contradicts his character (i.e a Taylor swift merch to make clear that someone had bought this from him) + converse, baggy jeans with belt
a close up of the t-shirt might trick the audience into thinking this character is different to how he is
Blood splashes on him
Emma as the female character, without a name, clearly sexualised, showing a shoulder and/or wearing short shorts, wearing white (inspiration taken from Christian Stricker's past as work) (hinting Cole must have manipulated her?)

SETTING

There is convenient path near my house that I would quite like to film it at + it has a park by it so if I decide to have anything creepy go on there, that is convenient. I would start the setting in Coles house (aka my house), and then film him walking somewhere. The original idea is the film this at night (8pm) so that it builds on the creepy feel). As Cole keeps seeing the character, I have a shot in mind where he is walking along the path and then in the background, you get a glimpse of the girl sitting on the crossbar of the football goal, and then seconds later she has disappeared 

PLOT

Cole, a psychopath (with potential schizophrenia) kills Emma's character, with enjoyment, and expresses all his emotions through a voiceover ('End of the F****ing World' style - sounding emotionless). Cole is on a walk through a dark forest and keeps getting flashbacks to him killing Emma, and then also keeps seeing her walking with him + hearing her voice. Ends with a significant line in the voiceover and then potentially showing Cole arrive at a little play park and then swinging on a children's swing or something similar (to create a creepy stigma around the character.


I will use narrative enigma around this character, as I will show the killing around half way through the 2 minutes, and then as soon as that has been shown, I will cut to an ECU of Coles face (maybe with a slight smirk on his face)

MUSIC STYLE 

I want it to be a jolly sound that sounds creepy. Very hard to explain but the opening of 'End of the F****ing World' describes what I want perfectly. Listen here
The whistling connotes a jolly feel, but then I would like very dark lyrics

/// IDEAS2 Planning film opening

PLANNING

Taking heavy inspiration from 'The End of The F***ing world' (Netflix tv series)

This series is about two teenagers with mental issues,  but then find a relationship between them, both with different intentions from the start.
In the opening scene, it is going over the protagonists (James) life. It is designed as flashbacks, and when the flashbacks aren't happening, James is sitting down, then walking down a street, and then finished with James sitting in a canteen. At the moment, I am interested in doing a similar style, although exploring a psychological thriller style. Instead of showing flashbacks, I would cut to clips of what is happening in this boys head. Another similar idea would be to have two characters walking down a street, on opposite sides, and the flashbacks would something that they just did (i.e just killed people and they are cutting back to what happened)

/// IDEAS1 Planning for micro-drama

Planning + Chosen plot

We knew we wanted a piece of drama following on from a previous micro-drama a A2 group had done. In their drama, a masked character kills several people in a quest to win the female he wants. At the end, he has won the girl and then are holding hands while getting on to the bus. We wanted to use this same main character, also killing several people, but instead of him battling to get the girl, he already has the girl. The scene starts with '5 months later' and the couple want into class all lovey dovey. Then a cowboy enters, stealing the females heart. The masked character gets angry and kills the cowboy. A key laughing point in the previous micro-drama from a previous group was a 'missing footage' scene, as soon as the main character was about to kill someone. We decided that would be a comedic point in our micro-drama as well, therefore when the masked character kills the cowboy, 'missing footage' appears. After this, a student in the same classroom comes up to the killer and tells him off, which upsets him, causing him to kill him as well (also incorporating the missing file scene). This happens with the teacher as well, ending with the masked character walking off with his girl again.