Movie Opener Brainstorming & Research

    In this blog post, I will be analyzing and looking at 9 different movie openers created by previous students, taking notes of different elements and parts that stand out or that I personally found interesting.

1. Rise

    This movie opener was very high quality, and most likely wasn't filmed using an iPhone. The quality of the opener overall made it much more visually appealing, especially because it was filmed outside and the quality, even with the sun, was crisp. There also was barely any dialogue, with only one of the characters talking once. I realized that this movie opener didn't have anything that made it too difficult to edit, possibly beside the titles that were put at the beginning of the opener. The majority of the audio was a song that was playing, which seemed to create a certain aesthetic and vibe to accompany what was going on in the scene. This opener also used many different transition and editing styles to create a subtle yet significant effect in the end. Some of the major ones that I noticed were zooming in/out, transitioning between soft focus/ hard focus, creating a handheld camera angle, and more. 

2. Dear Lover

    This movie opener really felt like an actual opening to a film, mainly because of the use of dialogue. Two characters are introduced, but the voice over and dialogue created background information to the characters that makes the audience more intrigued into what is going on. The film style wasn't as dramatic as the first movie opener, but it fits because it is clear that the aesthetic of the two are very different. It is made clear that this is a romance-related film, and the acting and creation of a plot made it very entertaining to watch. The main thing that I noticed was that the creators used a flashback to create the story, which I thought made it interesting to watch. Although there was dialogue that introduces some information about the storyline, there is still a lot that is unknown about the characters, which makes for a good movie opener.

3. Dare to Thrill

    Dare to Thrill was more of a fast-paced, action packed movie opener that was really entertaining to watch. There was an even mix of dialogue and music, and this movie opener used a lot of different sounds and effects most likely through a foley stage or something similar. The inclusion of these different background audios like the wheels of the car screeching, the jingle of the keys, the car doors closing, and more really made it feel like I was there with the characters. The titles and font used also helped to create a certain vibe to the film, which was cool. I'm not too sure of the plot, but the amazing editing style and camera work made up for it. The camera quality was really good, and the car scenes were very dynamic and focused, making it more interesting for the audience. 

4. Always Watching

    Always Watching featured a lot of different editing elements that should be taken into account. Instead of focusing on background audio and music, the creators focused on using dialogue to introduce the characters and tell the story. Although this was a cool thing to do, it also made me feel like I needed to pay really close attention to what was being said in order to actually understand what was going on. This meant that I was more focused on what was being said rather than the camera quality and style elements of each scene. However, I thought it was cool that they constantly cut back and forth from two different scenes, allowing for a more entertaining opener that still had meaning to it. 

5. The Blue Boar

    The first thing that I thought of when watching this movie opener was like a Disney princess like Rapunzel or Snow White. This specific movie opener relied a lot on music to "create the story", but in the end it was well done. There was a lot of different nature shots, which was visually pleasing, but it also related to the storyline in a way, which is important. One of the major things that I noticed was the clothing that the characters were wearing, it significantly changed the vibe of the opener to something very unique from the rest so far. The music matched the aesthetic of the opener, while the singing effectively "introduced the story" and gave depth and emotion to the main character. There were also different camera angels used for different scene, which added depth to the overall opener. 

6. White Coat

    White Coat seemed to heavily focus on the visual elements of their movie opener, which in turn allowed for a very visually appealing and cool looking opener. The creators seemed to use lighting to their advantage, creating an overall dim environment with some key lights that focused on the scientist-like character, or the beakers that he was experimenting with. The visual effects used in this movie opener were very cool, and the use of lighting drawer my attention to certain parts of the scene at given times. This movie opener reminded me of the effect that lighting and camera angels has on a scene. There was no dialogue, yet I was still able to gather a relative understanding of the opening and what it was about. There also was no music, yet an eerie type noise that carried over throughout basically the entirety of the opener. There were also sound effects from the beakers and such that were emphasized. 

7. Stalker

    The main thing that I noticed about this movie opener was that it felt closer to real life than any of the other ones. It featured scenes of a character doing things that anyone does day-to-day, making the scenes feel more familiar. There wasn't much editing used, and the overall vibe of the movie opener wasn't as energetic or entertaining as some of the other ones that I have gone over. Stalker focused more on the acting of the main character to carry the opening, mainly because there weren't really any other major features to focus on. However, I still understood what was the main goal that the creators were going for. 

8. Movie Opener 8

    This movie opener seemed to focus a lot on the camera angles to "tell the story". The main character, and older woman, was also the main focus, as the movie opener tried to introduce her as a character in a way that still left some room for mystery for the audience. The music used fit the overall aesthetic of the film opening, and it seemed to get increasingly more dramatic as the movie opener went on. There was no dialogue, but the audio used matched the movie opener in a way that highlighted what was being shown. A major part of the film opening was a painting that was shown, telling the audience that there is some increasing significance with it. The creators also used different transitions, one of the main ones being the match cut between the older woman and the young girl, which clearly has importance to the story. 

  

Summary 

    Overall, watching these different movie openers has helped open my eyes to different elements and features that I should make sure that my group and I take into account when creating our own movie opener later on. I noticed that audio has a large effect on the aesthetic and vibe of the opener, and if no dialogue is used than the background audio and music choice should be able to tell the story in a sense. I also took note of the different ways that lighting has been put into effect, as lighting can change a scene dramatically and the way something is perceived by the audience. The characters acting and outfit choice is also something to take into account. Lastly, it is key that my group focuses on camera quality, angles, and transitions/style elements that we are going to use.