Less is more

Today my group met for the first time to start discussing what we want to do with our project. We kept coming up with many ideas but overall canceled all of them. Here is how our thought process went:

Okay, what do we know?
Milena dances
Jen cheers
Jessica plays lacrosse
And Gabi is a hardworking student
What can we do with that?
How about we do what each of is based on stereotypes/what people think versus what actually goes on in our lives
Ex. The smart student who will get into any college she wants and people think
doesn’t have to try but in reality, she pulls all-nighters and works her booty off
We could do that but it’s very cheesy and basic

We started spitballing more ideas and after an hour realized we were thinking too much. We forgot what the project was, what a film opening truly is. We were trying to film a whole movie in 2 minutes, not just an intro.

We then started to rewatch a bunch of film opening to refresh our brain and get inspiration. Some film openings we were found were very enjoyable: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Ferris Bullers Day Off, and what we really enjoyed was Mean Girls.

If you would like to watch what we watched:

Once watching these I got inspiration and came up with the idea my group is going to use. I remember what my teacher taught us: what a film opening SHOULD have and what it COULD have.  A good film opening should engage the audience, establish tone, use gene conventions, create a storytelling mechanism, and the most important but easily forgotten include titles. My idea checks off all these boxes. A film opening could intro the main character, establish setting, allude to conflict, establish a background story, and create mystery. Frome that lost our project includes alluding to conflict while also creating mystery. 

See my next blog to find out what the story behind our opening is.