Film Opening - Blog Post #9

Adding Another Piece to the Puzzle

        Good evening everyone! I'm back with another update about my group's progress on the film opening. So far, we have decided on a genre, mood and general outline for the introduction to the character's story. However, we have not been able to discuss who this person really is. Who are they? Why do they act the way they do? What is their backstory? It this blog post, I am going to discuss what my group has come up with.

Who is Aria Gil?

        In order to create a more cohesive film opening with a clear story and character, we decided to create an entire persona and backstory for our character, even though the vast majority of it will not be showcased in the film opening. We did most of this brainstorming in our Google document (the same one we used to create our outline), as you can see below.

Here are two screenshots from our planning document on Google Drive.

        As can be seen in both the screenshots and our soon-to-be film opening, Aria Gil is a young survivalist who has one clear goal - to stay alive. However, there are many questions that as creators, we want viewers to ask about the story. Some examples of these questions include: what is going on in this dying, desolate world? Is the protagonist the only human left, and if so, does she know that information herself? Is there a reason as to why she's the only one left? If she is surviving in this post-apocalyptic world, what exactly is she surviving for? Why is she so scared of the train that appears toward the end of the opening? We want the audience to ask these questions for a reason: film openings should present a character, conflict, and setting, however not explain them in detail in order to maintain audience engagement and encourage viewers to remain curious about the story. 

        However, a character can be developed in many other ways besides a back story. Since we are planning on having no dialogue or narration in the opening, we want to rely on visual aids to present the character in a way that makes sense to the audience. One of the main ways to do this (aside from acting, of course), is through make-up and costuming. We decided to make Aria's clothing to be worn out and dirtied (much like a survivalist's attire would be) and have bruises and cuts to emphasize that basic medicinal supplies are not available in the post-apocalyptic world she lives in. We are planning on having her wear attire such as a beanie, boots, jeans, and a jacket, since this type of clothing is commonly associated with survivalists and nomadic explorers due to their tendency to be constantly on the move. Other props would include a bag where she keeps basic necessities and collects supplies while scavenging.

Our group has decided to have Sabrina, one of our members, play Aria's role. Not only are Sabrina's acting
skills the best out of our group, but we all believe that she would fit the survivalist persona that we are
going for. Another advantage of having one of our members as the actor is that she knows the project
just as much as the rest of the group, causing the filming process to be much easier.

This is a royalty free picture of what typical survivalist costuming looks like. This is a general idea
of what Aria's clothing will look like in our film opening.

Stay tuned for more updates on our project! Expect another blog post soon!