First Group Meeting

    Before moving on any further, the class as a whole was assigned to groups made of other students, where we all had to meet up, discuss our ideas with each other, offer constructive criticism as to how to improve the project, and take note of what the other members thought. This was particularly challenging for me because I was quite nervous to share the concept behind my film opening because of how different it is. Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised by how productive, attentive, and understanding my group was. I think we did an excellent job of staying on task while also keeping things light-hearted.

    My group was made of students Ella, Isabella, Jake, Katalina, Marat, and Santi. Marat was the first to share, and he explained that he wanted to do a crime mystery film opening where an antagonist who takes precious artifacts from all around the world, is stealing a piece of jewelry, and the two main protagonists, who are the detectives of the film, find clues after that he left behind. He also explained that he wanted the credits to be done using calling cards that the villain left behind, but the teacher advised him against it. To me, he seemed to have a strong base idea of what he wanted to do in terms of the story, but he wasn’t fully prepared to carry it out and his vision needed a bit of revising. So the group members asked him a lot of questions about his film opening, such as where he was going to film, who he planned to use as actors, and offered some advice as to how he could improve the story. 

    Santi’s idea was a bit similar, though he seemed to have a more solid plan. He also wanted to do a mystery film. His opening would be based around an interrogation session with a mysterious doctor, framed as a flashback sequence (I believe is what he was saying). The main thing that everyone was concerned about was how the scene was going to be lighted, as Santi noted that the interrogation would take place in a dark room. So the group offered some suggestions as to how he could better light the scene, and some lighting techniques that could also be utilized.

    Jake was the next person to share, and he wanted to make an opening for a horror thriller movie. Immediately, I was a bit confused because the teacher had deterred though not banned us from choosing the horror genre. However, I found his idea to be quite interesting, engaging, and unique. Jake’s opening would be about a person running through a dark forest at night, before stumbling upon an abandoned building. This is a tricky setup, and the group was very questioning about where he planned to film this scene, and the location where he would shoot specifically, as this opening seems to be very reliant on the setting for its mystery. Jake explained that he found a sufficient nearby location called “Treetops.” I had never heard of it, but from what I understood, it is some kind of park or campgrounds that is heavily forested enough for the opening. The group asked him about how late he planned to film the opening, as he specifically said that it would take place at night. We all encouraged this decision, as having a dark background would add to the suspense and intrigue. Many of us also recommended that he use frightening sound effects to make the opening a bit more engaging and less vague, and also to use shaky handheld camera movements to match the scary tone of the scene. I believe that Jake needed to find out how late the park would be open in order to film there at night, but I think that he figured it out, and that it would be open late enough.

    Katalina’s film opening would be about a girl in her room, listening to a voicemail from her mother, who is out late and ignoring her calls. The protagonist then starts packing up her things to leave. She goes downstairs and finds alcohol bottles all over the place and a man lying on the floor. The girl would accidentally knock over one of the bottles, waking the angry man up. Katalina was still debating about who the man would actually be, but explained that he was likely the father or a boyfriend of the mother. We all agreed that this story has a lot going on at once, and that perhaps she should trim it down a little to fit the time limit of two-minutes and to avoid feeling too rushed. These things take time to set up and establish, otherwise the opening would just be confusing. Ella suggested using blank cream soda bottles as props for the bottles of wine, which I thought was a very clever idea. Jake recommended a shot taking place downstairs, showing the main character running down the stairs, and juxtaposing the clean house with the girl’s messy room (although that comment confused me because she had explained that there would be alcohol bottles all over the floor downstairs). 

    Ella wanted to make an opening to a teen drama film about a neglected girl, focused on the protagonist struggling to prepare for a party at her house. When she asks her parents for help, they dismiss her. Ella said that she was considering framing the shots to only show the adult’s from the neck down, and hide their faces. I though this was a very meaningful technique to represent the distance between them and the daughter, and how they might feel like a stranger to her, but I also noted that it would require some tactful camera work and tricks in order to do so in a way that looked good.

    Isabella’s film opening would be about a girl rushing out of cheer practice, and exchanging a strange look with a guy when she does. The protagonist runs to her house and packs up some drugs, and then the sound of a car honking would be heard before she drives away with that same guy. Isabella wanted the ending to be ambiguous and mysterious, and to show the contrast between the two lives of the protagonist. Some of our group members suggested that she use sugar or grass as the drugs. She also said she wasn’t sure whether to roll the credits towards the beginning or the end of the opening, so I suggested that it should be towards the beginning because it makes the more regular part of her character’s life seem simpler and mundane.

    And finally, with my own opening, my other group members had some questions about the story and audio elements. They had some interesting ideas for me regarding how I could portray the situation and also the technical elements such as the title and credits, such as recommending using the fire in some creative way when rolling the credits, or showing the title in the form of the dragon breathing smoke or on a wooden sign. Isabella asked me what kind of style I was going to animate in, and I knew that I needed to think about that some more. From my own perspective, I don’t think I explained the overall idea of the story and main character very well because of how frantically I was speaking. Either way, I am grateful for the small bit of input from my group and I hope that my final project will be impressive to them.

At first, I was rather hesitant to talk to others about my film opening project, but I really quite like the group I was assigned to and I really appreciate the cooperation from everyone. Throwing around ideas, receiving feedback on how to make them better and improve the story was rather fun. It reminded me of the stage in the production process where writers, screenwriters, directors all spend days discussing the script and story behind a film. Therefore, I can see how these group meetings will be extremely helpful for every student in the class, myself included.