Organizing a Long Journey

The prospect of a film opening taking up the workload for the next eight weeks in this class is a daunting task to say the least, so what can one do when they are faced with a what seems like insurmountable task? Well, I personally start to break it down into steps. After establishing who I want to work with and understanding the skills of those I was with, we began step one, brainstorming. 

Step One: Brainstorming

Now many people reading this may think this is an obvious part and skip straight to the genre or plot of their film, but this part is crucial in helping get everyone in your group on the same level of thought. It allows for ideas to flow and for the whole vibe of the project to be established. One crucial part of brainstorming is drawing inspiration, and boy did we! Right off the bat, my group and I all had similar ideas and needs we wanted to fulfill. We wanted to finally create something and have independence in our creativity, after all, we have been cooped up in quarantine for months and we not only needed to be freed physically but mentally. We drew inspiration from photos, videos, and music and we all had the same vibe for our film, so we began to break it down into what we wanted to show in our film opening and put our inspiration to work.  The one way I can describe what we wanted our film opening to feel like is.... other worldy. 

 

These photos from @iamwinter on Instagram gave us great color and tone ideas

 Step Two: Genre

Picking the genre to commit too was a slightly tough decision and to tell the truth, we still don't necessarily have one. We know we want some sort of post-apocalyptic, dystopian, monster filled world, where the main character would start as any normal person would, but soon would become the most crucial person within their world. We loved the creative freedom that a dystopian and almost surrealistic world would give us for our story and we began thinking of what particular reason we would have a dystopian world for. I felt the video The Witching Hour on the Youtube channel, Forlorn Foundry, perfectly encapsulated the tone and idea of the story we were going for, also it provided for great imagery. We were taking inspiration from every avenue and although we have not yet decided on a concrete genre, we definitely knew where we were taking things.

 Step Three: Plot

 After coming up with the tone/vibe/essence of what our film would be, we decided to not define the genre just yet and let the idea for the plot, bring the genre to us. Listening to the album Hawaii part 2 by Miracle Musical provided for another great source of inspiration. The song Dream Sweet in Sea Major in particular contains the lyric, "The stars were made for falling," this lyric struck me hard as it definitely fell into the other worldly feel we were looking for. I felt this would be a strong title for our film, as the plot we were starting to develop revolved around one person working over time in an office, and over the course of the two minute exposition, showcasing and developing the character, there would be intermittent cut away shots of either security cameras or just events happening outside that would hint at the deeper story. It would not necessarily reveal the story yet, or even show what the actual danger is, but it would further the establishment of the tone, setting, and world our film is in. 

 Step Four: Taking a Step Back

Now this step although short, is very crucial, at least in my eyes. All I have to say for this is remember that this is just a film opening, it is not a short film or trailer for a film. There is not a three act structure and it should just be exposition, do not feel bad if you do not fully realize the plot in the opening, you are not supposed to!