Welcome back bloggers! In today’s post I will be evaluating 5 film openings from past AICE Media Studies students and what I think they could have done differently to get closer to a true Hollywood opener.
Project One: Roll Call
Roll Call's opening features 4 suspects that were brought in for questioning due to possible involvement in a murder. Each of the suspects acted differently when questioned, some of them even becoming distressed. I think this opening develops the characters in great depth for how short the scene is. I was able to distinguish each character from each other based off of personality and how suspect they were rather than me only knowing their names and involvement. However, the opening is fairly rushed. We first see a police car for about 10 seconds before moving immediately into questioning, with no idea as to how the suspects were found nor why they were brought in. I think this opening was too ambitious for the maximum 2-minute time frame, and could have benefited from simply showing the suspects being brought in rather than attempting to include entire interviews of them.
Project Two: New Everything
New Everything's opening shows a student waking up in the morning for school, going to school, and walking into a classroom. During the walk, the sound of the student's surroundings are drowned out by music the student is listening to. This opening's main strength is in storytelling in that the film doesn't try to be too ambitious. It tells a simple story, and is able to fully show said story within a 2-minute time frame without introducing any major plot holes. However, this is where the strengths end, as the plot of the film itself is hard to derive from what is shown in the actual opening. All we see is a student going to school, with no real clue as to what the film will be about nor any other details aside from who our protagonist is. This leaves room for a lot of speculation as to what the movie will be about, which may confuse viewers and/or make them disinterested in the film. The opening should mention something about the student that makes the plot more clear, perhaps that the student has just moved to a new school.
Project Three: Dreamland
Dreamland's opening features a girl lying in a field, then getting up and walking around, gathering flowers as she goes. Then, it cuts to the same girl at Walgreens grabbing a bunch of medical products. This is the first opening I've seen that uses special effects, such as the flowers levitating upward into the girl's hand while she is walking. This opening is certainly one of the most creative I've seen so far, with an interesting story being told with no words being spoken as a result of the stark contrast between the scene's 2 locations. The opening doesn't try to be overambitious, and is able to tell a story quickly and leaves room for expansion upon the plot. The only real weakness I can see in this film is that the transition from the flower scene to the Walgreens is a bit abrupt, and may leave the viewer confused as to what just happened. A short clip showing the girl waking up from a presumable dream and going to the Walgreens then might make the plot more clear for the viewer.
Project Four: Dear Lover
Dear Lover's opening features a girl talking about how she ran away from her family after her mother refused to accept the fact that she had a girlfriend. The girl gives this speech in the forest, with the opening occasionally cutting to her mother talking about how much she misses her daughter. This film definitely has the strongest plot out of them all, telling an emotional story about a daughter fleeing her home after her mother refused to accept her for who she was. The film is able to tell this story exceptionally well, giving a short introduction as to where the story takes place, explaining why the girl is in the woods, showing her mother's side of the story, and leaving room for expansion upon the plot with the last scenes showing the girl's lover still being in her life. The opening does this all without leaving any major plot holes, and sets up the rest of the film for a full story to be told. As far as weaknesses go, I don't think this opening has any, as it is able to do so much under 2 minutes without overextending the story. Well done!
Project Five: Dare to Thrill
Dare to Thrill's opening features a group of teenagers going up a building and taking a car, one that's presumably not theirs. They drive a long distance, before stopping and opening up the trunk, only to be horrified at something inside the trunk off-screen. This opening is certainly exciting to watch, with the frantic and exotic editing as well as the high-speed drive scene hyping up the viewer. I also think its cliffhanger ending wraps up the opening really well, telling us that there's a lot more to this story than we can assume just based off what the teens were doing. As a bonus, this opening has the most creative (and best) title sequence out of all the openings I reviewed up to this point. The only real weakness in this opening is that due to its fast-paced action and chaotic progression, viewers may struggle to keep up with the plot of the film. In this case, nothing much can be done since it seems the fast pacing is the point of the opening, but if the creators wanted to make the plot a bit more obvious they could lengthen the opening scene where the characters are going to take the car.
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