Film Opening - Blog Post #3

 Meeting Up for the First Time

        Hello guys and gals! I bring very good news. My group for the film opening project was able to meet today! This was a huge relief, especially since we still did not have a solid idea and were struggling to come up with one. Thankfully, we were able to get on a call together to discuss potential filming locations,  our genre and the storyline. Here's how it went.

Finding a Location

        Before we came up with any ideas, we wanted to lay out all of the filming locations that were available to us and chose a story we could portray with the resources we have. We had a couple options:

• Sabrina's mom's office space (with a factory, parking spaces and a railroad track in the back)
• My dad's car shop with a parking lot and a plaza nearby
• A nearby park with lots of trees and open, natural spaces
• Our houses and other public places within our town

        Once we knew what locations were available to us, we began to brainstorm once again. Since we wanted to stick to the dystopian, post-apocalyptic genre, we began to come up with storylines and choose the type of tone we wanted to establish throughout the film opening in order to aid in storytelling as well as add to the video. Then finally, a solid idea began to develop.

A New Story

        Considering available locations, our skills and our resources, we thought it would be interesting to create the feeling of being alone in a post-apocalyptic world. We thought that in order to develop this feeling, we needed to demonstrate that the character was not just alone in their general vicinity, but completely isolated from other humans. We also decided that we definitely wanted to show, not tell. This means no voiceovers or dialogue, just visual and auditory clues that would help our audience understand what is going on (and remain intrigued throughout the film opening).

All of the pictures above are from the film "A Quiet Place," which also begins with its main characters searching for supplies and portrays a sense of isolation and danger. Though replicating the film's "abandoned" feel will be difficult, we will do our best to do so through costuming, make-up, and set design (which Sabrina's mom's factory will come in handy for).

        Knowing this, we came up with the idea of having a main character searching for supplies that could have been left behind by others (in offices, streets, et cetera). However, we did not want the entire film opening to consist of a mysterious character collecting food and other handy items. We wanted to show that despite them being in a constant battle for survival, they were still, well, human. We thought we could achieve this by having the main subject show emotion, such as happiness, sadness, or fear. We thought of two events that would make this possible: the character could find something that they have not seen/eaten in a long time and react with desperation and excitement, and/or they could suddenly find out that after all this time surviving alone, they were not alone after all. Both of these could fit into the film opening and ultimately establish that main subject is not just a character, but a complex human being with desires and emotions. 

Conclusion

        We still have a lot of work to do, but I am glad (and relieved) to know that we have a solid idea that is both achievable and interesting, and a concept that we could still get creative with. I'll be back next week with more updates! Stay tuned.