Initial idea research: Opening scenes

After being given the task of developing a film opening idea and pitching it to the teacher, I went straight to researching about film openings to have a better understanding of it and to know how to make it captivating.

Film opening is the scene at the beginning of each movie that has the purpose of setting the tone for the movie and introducing the main characters. A psychology research points out that people are able to remember best the first and last item in a series of information and worse in the middle (The Serial Position Effect (Glanzer & Cunitz 1966)). Therefore, it is very important that filmmakers make the opening scene interesting and informative - A point I always have to take into account when developing my idea. I noted down a list of things I have to include in my opening scene:

• Establish genre and central theme

• Introduce protagonist and motivation

• Foreshadowing

• Engaging hook (eg: conflict, mysterious events,...)

I then did some research on different ways to create an interesting film opening: Introduce protagonist/antagonist, follow/flip genre, establish relationship of characters, flashbacks/flash-forwards,...; and decided to choose to start my movie with a "Red Herring". Red Herring is the misleading factor of a movie that would give it a twist and keep the audiences guessing. Some of the movies with the best red herring that has inspired me are: Murder On The Orient Express by director Kenneth Branagh and author Agatha Christie, Mouse by directors Joon Bae Choi and Cheol Woo Kang, Psycho by director Alfred Hitchcock,...

After deciding on using what technique in my opening scene, the genre thriller eventually became my ultimate choice because it is easier to utilize Red Herring and gain traction with this genre. Moreover, thriller comes with a lot of sub-genres like psychological thriller, action thriller, crime thriller,... which provides a lot of room for me to think and is suitable for a wider range of audience.

So I came up with an idea! My idea was to introduce the protagonist but give misleading informations to trick the viewers into thinking they are the villain. And to break the fourth wall, I intended to not let the character themselves know about their true identity, hence, not only the audiences but the character is also embarking on the journey of discovering out the truth.

REFERENCE:

https://www.simplypsychology.org/primacy-recency.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw_ysaoVlt4

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/screenplay-opening-scene-example/