Drama Opening Conventions

In lessons we began to look at a number of different Drama film openings to begin understanding what makes a successful opening. Here are the notes from the lesson:

WHAT WE LOOKED FOR

Shot sizes

Shot angles

Shot durations

Transitions & Overall place

Sound effects

Use of music 

Title fonts and colours

Colour palette & lighting

Setting

Types of characters & their contexts

Storyline/plot development 

Overall tone/mood/atmosphere

FORREST GUMP

• Soft, elegant music - Piano
• Feather elegantly floats around the city, pairs well with music, white = innocence
• Shot: Begins at the top of the building, ends at street level- looking in on town- peacefully slow camera movement
• Slow pace 
• Once ground level at village - more ambient sounds (cars, wind etc.)
• Natural lighting - Daylight clear sky's, calm
• Setting - Villagy town, clean and green
• Character - Waiting at bus stop, talks to strangers kindly, learning disability?
• Happy/ settling mood

THE TIME TRAVELLERS WIFE

• Violin over production title 
• On going melodic voice - Mother singing in the car & car noises, distracting = danger
• Setting: Christmas - Winter 
• Night time - Low lighting- unsettling and connotes danger 
• Quick transition - Fast pace
• Small shot sizes - Eye Level, intrusive, allows emotion to be portrayed yet hides things
• Tense atmosphere, vulnerable characters

THE DESCENDANTS

• Hawaiian Music - Ukulele - calming - nostalgic
• Hawaiian flower background, mix of warm & cool colours 
• Changes to sad, melodic music when the hospital is shown- highlights contrast between happy setting and sad context
• Narration - voice over 

From looking at these openings it seems the overall go is to introduce a story slowly, however the time travellers wife seemed to take a different approach and managed to create a lot of tension in the audience. However, this in a way foreshadows the film, which is what they all do. I find the often slow pace and subtle fonts in drama opening to be suited and effective as an introduction but not as necessarily gripping. This will be noted when it comes to our production.