Initial Ideas For Our Group's Opening

Denise's Ideas:

The first idea I came up with was a chess board. This is because the idea came to me when I was watching Hollyoaks as one of the storyline was of a killer that played mind games with his victims and that would leave chess pieces. I wanted to base the opening on the chess board this is because even though the chess board is very simple, there is a lot of details to it. It has the two colours which is white and black which can stand for light and dark, good and evil. Which is like a oxymoron as it is two opposites put together. Another reason why I came up with this idea it that because a chess board has 6 different pieces and even though people would naturally think that the king and queen are the most important pieces. They are not, this is because all the piece help capture another piece from the opponent or help defend their own pieces. So the idea of defence and kidnapping came into mind.


My second idea was more based on sound rather than a prop. It was the breath of a person. For example some ones breathing pace can mean many things. If you are breathing at a fast pace this can mean the person is in a hurry. In my head I imagined having the screen out of focus most of the time while some one was breathing at different pace. I thought this would keep the audience hooked because as they have no idea what was happening in the beginning of the film. So it would be a cliff hanger 


Emily's Ideas: 
My idea links to the chess idea. Each piece represents one of the "seven deadly sins". However, because there are only 6 different chess pieces, i'll get rid of one sin (gluttony) so there is an even amount. The six deadly sins that i'll keep are: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, and envy and they will be symbolised through the King, the Queen, the Bishop, the Knight, the Rook and the pawns. 


The way that i will show how each sin is represented through specific chess pieces is through a book (prop). I think that getting an old, vintage styled book and having drawings of each chess piece with the corresponding sin next to it would look really effective and be an easy way to show the viewer and help them understand what exactly is happening.


My final idea also has a connection to the chess pieces but is more about sound. I thought of adding foley sound when each chess piece is being moved to add emphasis and exaggeration. I want the sound to be a hard scraping noise as it will help to make each movement more dramatic.

Nevin's Ideas:
One Idea I had, which was inspired from the opening of Citizen Kane (1941) was that we could incorporate the use of extreme close ups, shadows or reflections to add a sense of mystery. In Citizen Kane, Orson Welles flicks from a close up of the snow globe to an extreme closeup on a man's lips whispering "rosebud". Then a nurse enters but we only see her in the reflection of the snow globe. I think it would be an effective way of adding intrigue and mystery.

Another extremely effective opening I saw was in Lord Of War which showed the life of a bullet using POV shots from the bullet. We followed it being made right up until when it is shot until someone's head.

Although the use of camera angling and effects are extremely sophisticated, it gave me the idea that was could incorporate the same sort of technique. Instead of revealing the subject, we could just show it's journey through a series of POV shots.

Billie's Ideas:
Idea 1:  Clocks/Time


I like the idea of time for an idea. I think this idea has potential for great mise en scene, sound and editing mostly, although camerawork could also be used effectively to create this powerful opening.
I found some pictures that show my idea of mise en scene for this idea:

I like this picture because it shows great mise en scene and also good camerawork that could be used. I think the sound that would work with this would be silence, follwed by the ticking of the clock hand.

This then together would build a great atmosphere for a thriller opening. Some shots would include :

•     A close up to the time (shown left)       
•     Footsteps, getting faster, maybe a mid shot or close up here,
•   A hand reaching into the pocket and pulling out a pocket watch.

Aswell, the ticking of the clock could get faster paced throughout which give a great vibe or urgency. Different shots of different clocks would build where the sound of ticking over laps.
Obviously there will not only be clocks in shot, a person would continue to be shown throughout. The fingers reaching into the pocket, a walk breaking into a run, a close up to the eyes i think also would be a greatkey element to use. This would also relate to intertexuality as close ups to eyes are used frequetly in films. I found a really good example of this in the film  Fernand Léger. Not only is this a close up to the eyes, but it is used in a very creepy manner. The eyes are tired and have black all around them. So i think using elements from films like this would be a good way to go.

A shot idea: edited together with time to create tension, someone walking.

Idea 2:  Chess

 

When our group was talking about initial ideas for the opening, we came up with some things that in our opinion we thought would be good to use. These ideas came from talking about what we found quite chilling to watch in films, and ideas around objects we have etc. One idea we found that we kept referring to was a chess board. The simpleness of good and evil, shown in black and white on the board. The pieces on the board will work well with Mise en Scene and Camerawork, but also there is some ideas that would work well with Sound and Editing. For example, when a chess piece is placed onto a new square, the noise can be hightened and made to sound more dramatic for a good effect.

The chess board we thought also symbolises many things. I think this could reallt work well, we had some other idea's around chess which would also come together to create a great opening. For example, we want blood to drip onto the chess board or onto a piece, we also was thinking about another students work we looked at. In this video a murderer always left a piece of arogamie by a murder scene to show it was him. We discussed doing something similar here with a chess piece.