Practise 2 minute film opening

PLANNING

What was our task?

Our main focus of this task was to concentrate on mise-en-scene, and to understand how to make our videos involve as many shot angles as we can.

We were given 5 post-it notes, with the information we needed on them in order to create a good two minute film opening. This included the setting which was to film ours on a pier, costume and ours was fancy dress, characters which were two elderly people, and a certain prop that we had to use which was an apple in our case.

After we were given these post-it notes, we were given a couple of lessons to come up with a solid plot for our practice film opening. Originally we came up with the idea that we should do flash backs of an elderly couple when they were younger and develop on the idea that they miss being young together.

3 actual films (what do we expect to see in the opening scene)

WHAT DO WE EXPECT TO SEE IN THE OPENING TWO MINUTES OF A FEATURE FILM?
What would we expect to see in the first two minutes of a film opening?
In any film, we would expect to see something that engages the audience, making them want to carry on watching the film. Whether it's emotional or romantic, or scary or happy there must be something overly engaging and interesting. The video angles and shots should help create this as well as they could maybe help fit into the story line better. By this, it could leads to a certain type of tension or fear for the characters within the image.
The first two minutes opening into a movie should not be anything too overcomplicated because this could confuse the audience. You want to keep it as simple as possible but also engaging. This could mean that you might want to add a cliff hanger before introducing the titles and names of producers. This would help interest the audience and make them want to continue watching.
What do we see in the first two minutes of a film opening?

THE LION KING
 
The plot is introduced in the first scene of the Lion King with scenic views of where the film is based (Africa). It involves most of the main characters at one of the most important parts of the film where Simba is born. There is joy and happiness spread all over the first scene which would develop the reader to feel audience to feel the same. There is no dialogue involved in the opening scene which in a way makes it more special because its an important, exciting scene in the film to take note on in order to understand the rest of the film, and it is concentrated on the theme song (The circle Life) which as well makes it more intriguing and eye-catching. The lion king engaged me as a watcher because I wanted to see what happens next.
FINDING NEMO
The plot is introduced in the first scene of Finding Nemo by showing that the parents of Nemo (before he was born) are overly happy together because they have just moved to a nice, new home and are awaiting the arrival of their many eggs raring to hatch. The creators of Finding Nemo would have wanted to make the audience feel as though it is a very happy, family orientated film and not much could go wrong, however, something comes on that is not expected. The wife of Marlin who is the father of Nemo unfortunately gets caught up in a vicious fish attack and dies, as well as many of the eggs of the children apart from one who is Nemo. The relief that the audience would feel when Marlin finds that one egg left over would make them want to carry on watching the movie to see what happens next. It is a mixed emotion film opening, making the audience feel many different ways.

Bride wars
In the opening scene of Bride wars, you see two young girl best friends who are inseparable. They are both really in love with weddings and have the same interests and same intentions in life. They grew up together and planned their dream wedding together as they aged. They both had the same dream to have it in a famous place in America called the 'Plaza' which was an overly expensive but desirable place to get married in. You would expect nothing to go wrong as they are so close therefore, this would engage the audience to see what would happen next because they would think 'what could possibly go wrong' if two best friends want to have a wedding in exactly the same place. The first scene of Bride wars made me want to carry on watching it because it seemed exciting to see whether both of them would actually get married or not as you do not know. I really enjoyed the film and I would probably class it as one of my favourites.