Movie Opener Brainstorming & Research.

 I will be reviewing past films done by Cambridge students, grabbing some inspiration, but also looking at aspects of a film that I would not want to include in my own film. This will help me generate brainstorming ideas that will further advance the process, making me be even closer to having my film!

1. Rise: This film seems to be focused on a boy who loves soccer, we see him grab his soccer gear and head to the park and practice on his own. We also hear music where the lyrics "I'm Running" are heard frequently. Suddenly, we are seen with another boy walking down the same sidewalk the boy playing soccer did. Then, we are shown the boy playing soccer once again and the music intensifies. Finally, both boys come in contact with each other and stare deeply at one another. Because of the way the film escalated, it appeared that the two boys were rivals or enemies of some sort. Something I appreciate and will consider adding to the film is the music and how it built up to the final shot shown, it brought a lot of drama to the film. It also left the viewers wondering what was going on between the characters. Another feature I liked was the close up shots as well, however I'm not sure if I will be including those in my film. 

2. Dear Lover: The film was about a girl who ran away from home due to her mothers disapproval about her girlfriend. Everything the audience knows is due to the girl having a voiceover and explaining everything, there is nothing that physically shows her running away. The voice over then shows where she is talking in present time, and it seems to be in a therapy session or her explaining a story to a friend. There were more parts I did not enjoy compared to parts I enjoyed. For starters I thought the music was boring and dull. I also found myself to not focus when the girl was talking, and the video was less than two minutes so the fact that I could not focus is not good. Another thing was that the shots were too long making the film have an awkward ambiance. However, I did enjoy the voice over, especially in the ending where she says "Let's start from the beginning" because it shows just how much more of the story she has to tell. Overall, I was not the biggest fan of this opening and I probably will not be using any aspects shown. 

3. Dare to thrill: Like it says in the the title, this film appears to be a thriller and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It follows a group of friends who seem to be doing not so legal activities, they steal a car. They all look young so they are speeding and recklessly driving with a car that is not theirs. Finally, when they open the trunk once they park the car it looks to be as if they saw something disturbing and they run away. I liked a lot of the features in this film, for example the music matched what the kids were doing, but it did not overpower their voices. I could hear them talk as well as hear the music playing. I also loved the close up shots of the car, like when they turned up the volume or swerved the steering wheel. The editor also included a "production company" logo in the beginning allowing the film to look real. A lot of the shots looked professionally done allowing me to view it in a better light. Overall, everything was done nicely and I will consider a lot of the factors I enjoyed seeing when making my film. 

4. Alyways Watching: For some reason, watching this film opening reminded me of a LifeTime movie, it had a very creepy and horror like aspect to it. I was drawn to it, however. There were multiple things I enjoyed, but to summarize, the opening showed these two best friends, and one of them was obsessed with the other one, so obsessed he wanted to take over his life. He was telling all this to his therapist and he got more and more aggressive as the seconds went on. What I loved from the film and what I know I will be using in my film is the jump cuts. I thought they were so well done and fit perfectly with the vibe of the film, and if all goes well with my film, I believe It will fit perfectly too. However, the lighting was a bit poor in this film, other than that I thought everything was great, especially the thrilling and haunting music playing in the background while the audience is being shown evocative images. 

5. The Blue Boar: I'm not quite sure what was going on, but from what I gathered the film seemed to revolve around a girl getting yelled at by her mother for adventuring in the wilderness.  Then after her mother yells at her, she takes off her traditional bonnet and she begins to sing. Something I liked from the film was how unique it was, it had a musical route which it very out there. Also, those watching could see how much the actress enjoyed playing the role. Something I would incorporated from this film into my own was the thought and effort put into the costumes used. For my film, I want to use accurate clothing for teenagers. 

6. White Coat: This film opener so far has been my favorite since it looks the most professional. The film looked to take place in a science lab and the man with the white coat conducting the experiment had another man tied up and is making a concauction. Then the guy tied up eventually escapes and investigates what has been injected in him. Some of the features I enjoyed was the music and the intensity. However, I did not like the filter as it made it difficult to see what was going on. Also, I did not like how there was no dialogue. Since there was no dialogue it was confusing to see anyone's emotions. However, the angles, shots, and camera movement helped with the ambiance of the film. 

7. Stalker; This film opener was about a teenage girl getting stalked at school and at her house. First we see her getting out of bed and combing her messy hair and she hears multiple pictures being taken of her, but she does not know where the pictures of coming from so she dismisses it. Then she goes to school and finds a note in her pencil pouch that scares her away. I liked the costume and how it fit each setting. For instance, in her bedroom she has pajamas on and when she is in school she has normal clothes. That being said, there were many parts of the film I did not enjoy. I did not like how the music would come out of no where at a super high volume. It made the silent parts very awkward. I also did not like how the title 'Stalker' was put in the middle of the film. It was put on way too long taking attention away from the film. Also, the camera was shaking a lot making everything look unprofessional. 

8. Nostalgia: I had no idea what was going on in this film until the last minute, and that is not a very good thing. The film seemed to be about an old woman reminiscing her younger years and her old lover. Then by the end we see the older woman as the younger version of herself. Off the bat, I did not like the opening title sequence, it was way too long. A good 20 seconds was wasted showing the title 'Nastolgia', that time could have been spent giving more context on what the story was about. Many of the shots were way too long, again wasting time. A majority of the shots felt like they were made simply to make the time mark. However, I did enjoy the lighting, filming when the sun was about was nice since the characters and the painting was seen clearly. 

Brainstorming Ideas:  After watching past students' films, I have seen aspects I liked and aspects I did not like. Something my group agreed on including was good costuming. We want the characters to look their age, so young teenage girl clothing. Another feature we want to include in our film is diegetic audio. For our film, we want there to be the sound of the main character's conciouse that voices all her insecurities. Finally, we want background audio so there is not awkward silence in our film. A lot of these films lacked proper background music, or some type of background nose to not make the film unpleasant to view. Furthermore, we are still wondering how to include the film credits but what we would like is to have the names of the directors/characters/producers/music in the corner. Finally, we want close up shots, and from the way I enjoyed the close up shots in some of the past students' films, we will use them.