Creative Filmmaking Notes - Opening Scene

 An example of a movie opening we watched was 'Whiplash', directed by Damien Chazelle in 2014. They used shots appearing higher than the actor so it gives the impression that the actor is smaller and more vulnerable, even scared. This means the main objective is shown to the audience straight away.

Another example of a film opening we watched was called 'Apocalypse Now' directed by Francis Ford Coppola in 1979. This movie opening starts out slow with a pan of palm trees and a song called ' The Doors, The End'. This song begins to increase in the beat when their are explosions happening in the forest while the camera shot pans across. The editing then begins as split screens of a actor fade in and out on the screen representing the reality and nightmares. Showing to the audience that his memory is blurring together showing signs of PTSD. 

Their is a voice over further into the opening scene and the low key lighting give the impression that the main character is very mysterious and has tortured ways.

This American Film is about the Vietnam War so includes a lot of action. Ryan's analysis included that the opening scene combines thumping diegetic sounds, chaotic music, visual overlay dissolves of fire, helicopters, fans, alcohol and weapons to create a thick atmosphere of mental anguish. Another sign of PTSD that is represented to the audience is that the helicopter propellers and the hotel fan are synced together to show the link of how messed up his head is and what he has experienced in the past to link the two together.

'The Elephant Man' directed by David Lynch in 1980. This film was the first studio film of surrealist filmmaker David Lynch and it was based on the true story of Joseph Merrick who was a British man with severe facial deformities. The film is all in black and white and the opening has parts where it is in slow mo, to represent the trauma the actor was facing as she was being killed by the elephants. 

The sound of the opening includes harsh industrial sounds mixed with childlike circus themes which gives the movie a tone of darkness and innocence. Their are visual overlays of Merrick's mother with elephants portray Merrick's beliefs that he is the result of his mother being attacked by an elephant when he was younger.