I have been coming up with several ideas of what to create for my opening film, I stick with the idea of having a girl that just moved to the USA. She is struggling internally because she left everything behind and starting her life over again. She moved with her mother and with her stepfather that she barely knows. I want to show her struggles and show relatability, since this is a situation that happens to mostly everyone that moved to another country, mostly in kids and teens.
I did research for some opening films that have an opening similar to what i am thinking of doing. I am not sure yet if I want to add voice over, so the protagonist speaks about herself and her past life, or if I should focus more on adding emotion and leaving the audience intrigued of why she feels the way she does. I have three opening films that I like and gave me some inspiration. Including mean girls, freedom writers and ....
MEAN GIRLS (2004)
This is a film with the combination of drama and coming-of-age genre which is what I am looking for. I was thinking about what films can be similar to my idea, and mean girls came up! This particular opening scene portrays the character of Cady moving from Africa, where she was home-schooled, to Illinois where she will start high-school. This is similar to the story I want to create, both move to the United States and will are starting over, in an unknown place. In this opening scene, Cady talks about her past life, about her family, her life in Africa and noww, her moving to an entirely new place. This is a narration from the protagonist so voice over used. The protagonist is giving background of her life, with that, the audience has context of what they will be watching next, which is that she is entering high school in an unknown place and country. This is a good narration, if I were to choose doing a voice over, this is close to what I would like to achieve.
FREEDOM WRITERS (2007)
Personally, I admire this film, due to the message it leaves of education and dedication. The professor teaches in a school in Los Angeles that is racially divided. She has a class of students that are basically incapable of learning due to the lack of opportunities and instead of her to give up on them, she dedicates on their education and encourages them to have a better future. It is moving because it is based on a true story as well. The opening scene of this film starts off showing report news of riots happening due to the Rodney King case back in 1992, which gives context clues of what the film will be about, there is also shown that gang violence was increasing at the time, this is shown for about the first minute. After this, the scene jumps into one of the students, named Eva Benitez and narrates times in her life that she has lived that have been tough since she was a girl. She narrates how life has been for her, due to the lack of opportunities and her race. She describes how she saw "the war" start, by seeing close people get killed by gangs. She also says how she remembers her father being arrested because he was respected by "his people" but he was innocent. This shows the injustices that used to happen at the time for every race except white people. However, throughout the opening scene, it is shown how from a young age, Eva was preparing to fight fro her rights and she would not conform with being discriminated.
While Eva narrates this for about four minutes, everything she was saying, was being shown on screen. This gives me more ideas, if I do a voice over of the protagonist, this could be a good idea, to show flashbacks of her life. This film relates to my idea because is a story of growth , struggles and learning, and they overcome the challenges they were facing. In the opening scene there is narration being used which is one of the ideas i have been thinking of doing.
In this clip, it starts off with Eva talking, the riot is not shown.
INSATIABLE (2018-2019)
Insatiable is a drama TV show and the opening film begins with Patty (protagonist) briefly narrating her story, she reflects on how she felt on her body most of her life and how she was being treated by others because of her being overweight. In this case, using narration was smart since it gives the audience insight into her character from the start, it also shows the internal struggles she has faced. Later, Patty mentions the character Bob Armstrong and he starts narrating as well. It indicates that he is an important character as well and that he changed Patty's life, since she said "He was my destiny". Therefore, it makes the audience think about what will happen? who is this guy?
I find this opening film relatable and appealing, it is entertaining as well. Since body shaming is sadly common, it is relatable and it makes the character of Patty be relatable, so it is a great start! This actually gave me a great idea that I will have in consideration. I am thinking of narrating the life of the protagonist since she moved to the United States, butttt, from the future, maybe 10 years after (22 years old) , the opening can consist of the good things that happened to her in the past years in the U.S , but towards the end, say something like "it was not always like this" or something that indicates that the girl used to struggle and she did not have a good time when she moved. This is an idea I just came up with, I saw this opening scene and I thought it would be a good idea.
By watching these opening films, I got a LOT of inspiration, I have even more ideas now! But I need to decide very soon...
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