Film Openings: Drama 

I decided to create a film opening for a drama movie so in order to help me with my idea I researched three film openings from drama movies and analyzed the different elements that were used and what they helped accomplish

Goodfellas (1990) is a drama/crime film directed by Martin Scorsese. The story follows Henry Hills who becomes amazed by the gangster life and Mafia presence in his Italian American neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. There he begins to work for the caporegime Paulie Cicero and commits more serious crimes. 

Opening Scene

The first opening shot contains an extremely dark tracking shot of a car on a highway immediately giving an ominous vibe. When the audience finally sees the inside of the vehicle, three characters are seen through a close-up, mostly focusing on the driver which might hint to audiences that this is the main character. The dialogue in this scene adds to the harsh vibe of the movie with the use of profane language by one of the three men when he says, “What the f*** is that?”. 

The next shot shows the three men out of the car, they are all wearing clean-cut suits, with neat hair suggesting that maybe they are on their way home from work and showing that they have money. When the trunk opens and a bloody person is seen, this might change the audience's views of the characters. Tommy and Jimmy proceed to stab and shoot the guy inside the trunk which now officially tells the audience that these characters might be part of the mafia. 

This tone is contrasted by having the camera close up on Henry’s face and including a voiceover saying “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster” and the upbeat song “Rags to Riches,” setting up Henry’s nostalgic voiceover that depicts his romanticized view of the mafia and the gangster life contradiction the brutality that will later unfold in the movie. The following shots all contain Henry’s voiceover explaining why he wanted to be a gangster and showing shots of his younger self and his childhood. This approach allows audiences to understand the main characters on a deeper level by having a flashback to clarify why the character they just have seen acts that way.  

Call Me by Your Name (2017) is a coming-of-age romantic drama movie directed by Luca Guadagnino. The film follows 17-year-old Elio Perlman who is spending the summer of 1983 with his parents in rural Northern Italy when Elio’s father invites 24-year-old graduate student, Oliver, to live with them for the summer. 

Opening Scene

The opening of this film focuses on establishing atmosphere and tone rather than directly into character or plot. The scene starts with a hand-written introduction that says, “Summer 1983” and the same font with the phrase “somewhere in Northern Italy.” These two shots establish the setting and period for the movie and the font used alludes to a peaceful, carefree, summer vibe for the film. Additionally, many wide shots of gorgeous Italian landscapes are used emphasizing the tranquility of the setting. 

The following shots focus on Elio and his interactions with Oliver. The shot of Elio looking down at Oliver arriving introduces his parents. Throughout all the shots occurring inside the house, the use of mise-en-scene creates a sort of personality for the Perlman family. Most of these shots include various pieces of art, books, and, in the shot where Elio is in his room alone, music. All these elements in the establish the family’s intellectual and cultured background, especially when it’s something Oliver and Elio will bond over in the future. 

There is little dialogue, but the one included tells us more about the characters. Elio is heard speaking both French (with his friend Marzia), Italian (with his mom), and English (with Oliver). This gives the audience more background on the character in a way that feels natural to the story. The use of natural lighting, soft colors, and classical music immediately triggers this dreamlike nostalgic summer haze that the film evokes. 

Marriage Story (2019) directed by Noah Baumbach is a drama film about a couple’s divorce as they navigate personal and legal challenges that come with the end of their marriage.

Opening Scene

The movie starts by introducing the characters, Nicole and Charlie, through voiceover. He starts by having Charlie say the phrase “what I love about Nicole” and then continues to listen to all the things he loves while watching several shots of Nicole in her daily life while showing her doing the things he mentions in the voiceover. Then Nicole continues the voiceover by saying “What I love about Charlie” and the same thing is done for him. 

The shots that are shown during the voiceover feel organic and convey the feeling of a normal family. All the shots are handheld to create a free-flowing cinematography to make the audience feel like they are spectators of natural moments between a family like the scene where they are playing a board game. Additionally, the sets for the shots look like a classic family apartment with warm lighting, neutral-colored decor, and small details like family pictures making the space convey a sense of comfort and familiarity.  

This approach is extremely effective at developing characters using both visual and auditory techniques. The voiceover tells the audience how each character perceives the other while accompanying the qualities mentioned with respective shots. These voiceovers give the audience a raw feeling of what the film will develop and make the characters feel more three-dimensional. 

Takeaways

From these analyses, one big takeaway is how much a film’s opening can tell us about the story and characters without explaining everything directly for example through voiceovers, props within the sets, and lighting.

Portfolio Project: Genre

 The start of the portfolio project is approaching, so I decided to research possible genres to include in my film opening, drama, and coming of age. I have one idea in mind for the plot of my opening. In their last months of senior year, two best friends are shocked when one announces they’re going out of state for college. After a fight, the friend who’s staying finds a list they made in 8th grade of things to do before graduation, and they decide to spend their final months checking off the list and fixing their friendship. This is just one idea but again I’m not sure what my final plot will be. 

Drama

The drama genre relies heavily on developing deep themes and having realistic characters whose emotions can be felt through the screen. Drama films rely on mise-en-scene elements to convey the tone to the audience, this can be done through lighting or location. Additionally, the dialogue and costumes of each character are important. These elements help define the character's current state in what often ends up being an emotional movie. The plots of drama films tend to focus on personal struggles, relationships, or moral dilemmas and don’t always have a happy ending.  

In the drama film La La Land (2016) lighting and mise-en-scene play a big role in illustrating the tone of the scene. In the opening number “Another Day of Sun,” the bright, vibrant colors reflect the excitement of the characters chasing their dreams in Los Angeles. While in scenes where Mia and Sebastian are sharing an intimate moment like talking after the movie or at the cafe the use of warm, dim light depicts their struggles and relationship.

 

 Coming-of-Age

The coming-of-age genre mostly focuses on the hardships that young people face as they go through life. These types of films always have main characters that are very well depicted since their development is important to the plot. Mise-en-scene elements like the character’s bedroom will tell the audience more about such a character. Additionally, costuming also plays an incredibly important role since it will inform the audience about the character’s background, economic status, personality, and other characteristics.  

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) is a perfect example of a coming-of-age film because it shows the fun and rebellious side of being a teenager while avoiding responsibility. The music adds a lot to the mood of the movie, with upbeat songs like “Twist and Shout” during a parade scene, which gives a sense of freedom and excitement that Ferris seeks after skipping school to have a fun day with his friends. Additionally, the movie explores Cameron learning to take control of his own life and face his fears while Ferris guides him. 

 

Transitioning into the Cambridge Portfolio Project

 From this moment on, my blog posts will document the process of developing my portfolio project, from the planning to the reflection. The time has come to finally apply everything that I have learned from the past projects into one big final project. If I'm being honest. After being explained. What the Cambridge portfolio project is I couldn't help but. Feel that this was a big challenge to take on, but I think that with the correct. Planning and execution I can do this. Before starting the project, we learned about film openings through an interactive Nearpod. Here we went over the basics, looked at examples, and analyzed the different approaches.  

 

 

I still have no idea. What genre will I choose, or what will my plot be? I do know that I want to strive to create mystery within my film opening. By taking this approach to a film opening, I can allude to something important happening in the rest of the film. Which ultimately Will make the audience want to keep watching the “movie.” This approach is mostly seen in thriller films or horror films where the sounds and tone of the opening play a big part. For example, in the opening scene of the movie Scream (1996) where the noise of the phone ringing and tight close-ups of Cassie’s face create a tense mood. 

Another approach is developing characters, especially through costuming, dialogue, and interactions. I think that having a good main character will make audiences want to watch this film opening. This approach is more creative and will allow me to establish tone through elements and not be too dependent on dialogue, but more through the costuming and mise-en-scene. All these choices ultimately will affect how characters are perceived. An example of this is the opening scene of The Breakfast Club (1985) The shots of each character in their car contain mise-en-scene elements that tell the audience more about the character in Claire’s shot you can see she has a nice car (a BMW) and she is very put together developing the privileged and princess behavior of her character.

Music Marketing Part 2

 After two weeks of work, the music marketing project is done! It was a lot of work and we did have some challenges, but I am extremely proud of our finished product and how we marketed our new R&B band, The Brokers. Honestly, this project was extremely fun and helped me understand how much work is being put in when upcoming artists try to market themselves to the industry, especially with creating a personality and maintaining it through social media. We made a short video to document the process of completing this project. I hope you enjoy it! 

If you want to see the finished product for our music video click here

Music Marketing Planning and Process

The music marketing project involves creating a marketing campaign for a new and upcoming imaginary artist within the assigned genre. In my case, the genre was R&B. 

My group and I started the project by choosing two record labels (RCA and Columbia Records) and for each, we chose one R&B artist to research. I researched Beyonce while my teammates researched Doja Cat, Tyler the Creator, and SZA. The research included analyzing the artist’s digital and non-digital marketing and distribution techniques and the artist’s brand and target audience. This part helped me get an insight into different marketing techniques done by these artists and their use of social media to market their music and products. 

Once done with the research, my group and I decided to create a schedule to tackle this long project. We need to create a presentation, film a music video, and record a short blog about the whole process. We planned everything over two weeks and decided to film our music video over the weekend. After doing this, we were given a folder with 3 R&B songs to choose as our first release for our new artist. We landed on the song Coming Home. 

After deciding on our song, we started brainstorming ideas for our music video and creating a storyboard. We landed on the idea of doing a combination, combining both storytelling and promotional music videos. This allowed us to showcase our “band” while also conveying the message of the song. 

We are currently a week away from the due date and we need to edit our music video and finish our Canva stand-alone presentation. I think that taking the time to plan and schedule when we were going to get different sections of the project done really helped with getting more done and not feel so overwhelmed.