Final Cut Opening

Our Opening

Refined Shot List

Shot 1: A still, side on long shot to the protagonist (Tom) as he walks down the street to college.

Shot 2: A still medium shot of Tom standing. He looks up to the sky and acknowledges the bad weather. He walks out of shot and the film's title fills the screen.

Shot 3: Tom enters a building through a pair of double doors and walks down a corridor in the school hallway, the camera pans up from his walking feet to his face, when his head is in shot his voiceover begins. As he walks he is shouldered by a passing student and drops his books.

Shot 4: Medium-Long shot of Tom looking down at his books on the floor, obviously annoyed. As he bends down to pick up his stuff the shot abruptly changes.

Shot 5: Medium shot of Tom picking up his books, his hands and legs are visible, the shot then pans up to show his face, as he is thinking a passer-by ruledy shoves his way past, emphasizing Tom's unimportance.

Shot 6: Tom stands up and continues walking along the corridor. This part is shot in Tom's POV. As he walks he see's a friend, as his friend gestures to him the clip stops to conform with the voiceover.

Shot 7: Close up shot of Tom's face, although the camera is on his face, he doesn't acknowledge it. As Tom walks he catches sight of a girl leaning on a wall in the corridor, as he looks the camera looks too, at the same pace as him, the girl gives Tom a disapproving look and as Tom quickly looks back. the camera does too.

Shot 8: Tom walks through a doorway then is hit by a projectile to provide irony for the "good day" line, Tom is slightly dazed by the projectile then looks at the camera. The screen then goes black to end opening sequence.

Refined Script

Shot 1: (Music)

Shot 2: (Music cont.)

Shot 3: (Music cont.)

Shot 4: "You see this guy? *shouldered by passing student, drops books* yeah, that's me."

Shot 5: *staring at books on the floor* "I'd like to think myself as a passive warrior, a bitch of the system. *sigh* How depressing."

Shot 6: *passing friend in corridor* "That's my friend ... He's one of the obliviously high-ego, naive types, in other words, an asshole. But I'm one of the few who he actually likes, the feeling's mutual."

Shot 7: "That's Sarah, she's the kind of the girl who... well, isn't really a people person lets just say. Definitely my type.

Shot 8: "despite everything, i have a feeling this is going to be a good day" *projectile hits him in the head*

End of opening sequence.

Shot List

Shot 1 - Tom is walking down the street, on his way to school.This should an extreme long shot showing the school, his entire body and the houses around him.
shot 2 - This should be the title of the movie (Teenaging) with him still in the shot, but moving out of view of the camera.
shot 3 - This shot is of Tom's feet as he walks down the school corridor. This should be a long shot, with evidence that it is in the corridor. The shot camera pans up to see the character's face at the same distance.
shot 4 - The camera cuts to an extreme long shot of the whole corridor, with Tom talking to his friend.
shot 5 - We see the two friends talking to each other using the 180 degree rule from behind a character's shoulder, clearly seeing the head and shoulders of each character.
shot 6 - We see Tom walking down the hallway checking the time on his phone. we see the phone, half his arm and hand, and the hallway.
shot 7 - Tom goes into the toilet, we see from his point of view him standing at a urinal, whilst listening to his thoughts.
shot 8 - We see an object thrown at Tom's his head, and his reaction.

Settings used
Shot 1- Sedley Taylor Road
Shot 2- Sedley Taylor Road
shot 3- Long Road corridor, with lockers preferably
Shot 4- Long Road Corridor
Shot 5- long Road Corridor, next to a wall or locker
Shot 6- End of Corridor
Shot 7- Long Road Male Toilet
Shot 8- Exit of Long Road Male Toilet

Costumes

Seeing as our group is making an opening for a teenage rom-com, we think that typical teenage attire will be suitable and convenient. Anyone caught in the background will be wearing the same kind of clothes as those starring in our opening, this will help to establish the college environment our opening is set in.

animatic

Initial Ideas

the film is almost all shot in the first person, with a college student (filmed at Long Road) who walks around the school on a normal day and we see everything that happens to him through his eyes. We hear his thoughts as he goes about his daily routine, just having got in to college, he goes to the toilet, talks to his friend etc...He goes through a normal life and we hear his thoughts, which is where the comedy will come from. We will not show the romance element of the film in this part, as we do not have a girl in our group, we will instead focus on charater development by letting the audience hear his typically teenage thoughts.

Garden State - Opening Analysis

Garden State Opening Sequence

I am going to analyse the opening sequence to the 2004 film Garden State (Zach Braff) by writing about different micro elements and how they are used to establish character, narrative and genre.

The film starts with the sound of a panicking pilot on a radio sending a mayday distress call, set to a black background with the names of the production companies set in a bland white font. I think this use of frenzied, emotional sound over very plain text is a good representation of the film’s protagonist Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff), as it shows how although the dull video is set over extreme audio it remains very tame, this mirrors Andrew’s blunted emotions. The next thing you see elaborates on this idea and actually shows Andrew calmly sitting in his seat on a plane which is clearly experiencing a lot of turbulence whilst everyone around him is screaming and desperately clutching the air masks that have dropped from the ceiling of the cabin.

The camera then centres on Andrew, who calmly looks up (at this point the camera changes too his point of view) to the control panel above him and turns the nozzle for the air conditioning. After, the camera shifts back to a medium close up of Andrew and changes back to Andrew’s POV as he notices the seatbelt sign flashing. Andrew’s telephone then appears on the cabin ceiling next to the seatbelt sign and begins ringing. The camera cuts back for the last time to Andrew (still on the plane) the phone reappears, still ringing, on Andrew’s bedroom floor. The decision to have the phone appear and ring in Andrew’s dream would indicate that Andrew’s phone is what wakes him up.

The next shot is of Andrew lying in bed in his bland, white, under-furnished bedroom, (a representation of Andrew’s numb emotional state) with a ceiling fan slowly turning above him, his phone still ringing with the camera in one of the corners, giving an overview of the room. The telephone rings off to the answer-phone and the camera then moves to a more personal shot of Andrew in bed, wearing a white t-shirt, which matches the rest of the room, this matching of colour is complimented by the symmetry with which this shot is positioned (yet another representation of Andrew’s emotions, which have been dulled by years of medication.) As Andrew lays his father leaves an emotional message telling him that his mother has died, the camera moves to a close up of only Andrew’s face as his father tells him that his mother’s cause of death was drowning (something that we later on find out holds special significance) Andrew’s father then hangs up, the shot lingers on Andrew’s reaction. “Don’t Panic” by Coldplay starts to play as Andrew looks at himself in his bathroom mirror which doubles as a cabinet (the break between the two mirror doors going through his face and distorting his image, perhaps meant to show Andrew’s self esteem issues.) Andrew then opens the mirror cabinet to show his obsessively organised pills.

We then see Andrew on his way to the airport driving in heavy traffic with the use of car horns being used to show the excessive congestion that surrounds him. We then see the whole of the five-lane freeway in a far shot which quickly changes to the film’s title in a white font on a black background, the words “We live in a beautiful world” from “Don’t Panic" play over the title, a somewhat ironic choice of words to exaggerate considering Andrew’s attitude at this point in the film.

Chris Ramsden