NOTE: I decided to change my film opening theme to action adventure since it will flows much better with the story board that I have created.
My storyboard depicts an action type adventure with a diver(myself) on a boat, where the camera works it’s way into showing me driving the boat to an exotic location that is “unknown”, and then cool underwater pictures are shown up to the point where I find “the mysterious object”.  The camera then flips back to a view from the boat just as I surface in the water yelling: “I found it!!”  Upbeat music and specific close in camera angles will also be featured to create mystery and interest.

What others did?

"Rise" Film Opening:  uses very bold and defined lettering at the beginning and all of the camera angles are very narrow only focusing on very specific and key elements in the soccer scene shown. This focuses the viewers attention and shows a very structured mind set by the video creator.

"Dear Lover" Film Opening:  the background voice narrating while the story unfolds is very effective in drawing the viewer into the scenes.  The sudden story drop off at the end also leaves the viewer wanting to know more.

"Dare to Thrill" Film Opening:  The music and car along with camera angles with so much action suggests something bad is going to happen.  The viewer feels edgy until finally the ending appears with all of the individuals looking in horror.

"Always Watching" Film opening: poor video quality and the theme wasn't particularly appealing.  Didn't look like much work was put into the project as a whole.

For my film opening genre I chose to do a theme following guy films.  Of the several film openings I viewed, several factors that I found to be very important were music, camera angle, dialogue, and even scenery.  In several of the film openings, the video starts with thrilling or upbeat music that helps draw the viewer in.  Of the videos I watched that had slow or depressing music, these clips didn't have the same effect of engaging the viewer.  Camera angles were another factor I found to be very important.  Clips with focused and close up camera angles had a far more interesting attraction to the viewer than plain, open, or panning camera angles that didn't have a specific focus.  A further element that affected how I judged film openings was dialogue.  Clips that had bold words such as "Rise" or "Dare to Thrill" with very little unnecessary dialogue I felt to be far better than clips with continuous dialogue and narrating.  Through these two specific clips having little text, they mostly rely on camera and actions to express their goal in the film opening.  This approach was far better than many other clips I watched where characters simply talked and narrated, which quickly looses the viewers attention.  Finally, scenery was also very important to the clips I watched.  Film openings that had interesting elements such as cars and sports drew the viewer in far better than film openings with plain rooms, landscape, or hallways.
Overall, I found reviewing several film openings by other students to be very helpful.  These videos helped narrow the ideas I was thinking of for my own video, as well as showing me some definite things not to do in my own film opening.

What Inspired Me? 1/11

Guy films:

For my personal film opening genre, the one genre that really stood out to me among all of the other genre choices was the genre of “Guy Films”.  A lot of my favorite movies from over the years are actually guy films, which I never really thought about until I wrote this review.  Among my favorite guy films include: Animal House, Caddy Shack, James Bond License to Kill, and Dirty Harry. 

Animal House is definitely a film at the top of my list for guy films.  With the beginning of the movie showing two of the main characters going to a frat party it really opens up the “Guy feeling” of the movie.  The way the beginning of Animal House shows the two characters talking about and interacting with the female characters at the party establishes the film as a more male dominated theme.  The division of social groups of being a dweeb, jock, or nerd also begins to establish the ability of the characters to be a part of the “cool” frat house, especially among the men shown in the opening several minutes.  Through this, Animal House shows itself as being a guy film.

Caddy Shack is another great guy film that also comes to mind.  Through the opening of this movie focusing solely on the life of Danny, Caddy Shack begins to show the life of a caddy working at a wealthy golf course where his life is mixed with girls and adult humor.  Near the beginning of Caddy Shack, several scenes are also shown of the caddy shack itself where all the caddy’s hang out and hoarse around for a good part of the day.  These scenes express a lot of how the guys acted and lived in the movie, making Caddy Shack a great example of a guy film. 

James Bond’s movie License to Kill is also a great representation of a guy film.  With the opening scene opening up with Bond and one of his buddies chasing a drug lord in a coast guard helicopter and finally parachuting into a wedding, this opening sequence really exhibits a very macho feeling to the viewer.  With all of the action fight scenes being mixed in with the quick paced opening of this movie, License to Kill really shows Bond and his buddy as total bad asses that will do any “macho” thing to catch the bad guy.

A final example of a guy film is Dirty Harry.  The opening to Dirty Harry shows Clint Eastwood climbing up staircases, walking down narrow alley ways, and walking along beautiful rooflines while a somewhat suspenseful music plays as he walks.  In addition to this, Eastwood is shown in a suit with dark sunglasses and a very blunt expression on his face throughout the entire scene.  This opening portion of Dirty Harry really portrays Eastwood as a man that has a very rough personality and is very laid back since he doesn’t smile or say a single word in the entire opening scene.  As a result, Dirty Harry’s opening reflects very nicely into the theme of guy films.

Through the opening scenes of all four of these movies, the theme of guy films is really strongly represented by the way each character or scene is portrayed, as well as the way music is incorporated into the way the characters are shown.  Due to this, each film fits very well into the theme of a “Guy Film”.

Week 8/9 - My Film Opening Project: Genre/Group

December 16, 2018

Genre: Guy Films

Group: Just Me