A getaway driver, a programmer, and a giant lizard walk into a bar...

Seeking Inspiration

My problem right now isn't that I have no ideas, it's that I have too many. My brain is so full of concepts and genres that it's nearly impossible to narrow it down to one that I feel could really work. I decided that to start, I would research existing film openings and try to get some inspiration. So to begin, I pulled out the old reliable technique of typing "best film openings" into google. Doing so gave me a lot of movies that I haven't seen but probably should, like Pulp Fiction and The Godfather. There were a few that I had seen, however, so I focused on those.

Drive

Drive is a movie that I have seen, and it's an opening that I really love. It begins with a shot of a map of streets while we here the voice of the elusive driver, the camera tilting up to reveal his stylish scorpion jacket before his face is even seen. He talks to his contact on the phone about the heist he's about to participate as a basketball game plays on the television. After this, we then see the driver, well, drive to the location of the heist. And with that, everything we need to know is established; the driver's cold personality, his job, and the brooding, sleek tone of the film. Even the basketball game is important, as later in the scene the driver disguises himself as a fan at the stadium to make his escape. This is something I want to do with my opening, which is clearly establish the tone and style of the film. I also like the idea of doing something like that basketball moment, having a seemingly unimportant detail that is actually crucial.

The Social Network

The Social Network has a relatively simple opening, but it's very effective. It's extremely dialogue focused (which fits the overall film) but all of that dialogue, even the smallest minutia in word choices, serves a purpose. Like with Drive, we know exactly who the protagonist is the first two minutes. Through his dialogue, we see Mark Zuckerberg's combination of over-inflated ego and insecure desire for validation which fuels every decision he makes. I feel like I want to do a sort of combination of Drive and The Social Network's approach to introducing the protagonist, using both visual techniques and dialogue.

The MonsterVerse

Alright, let's take a break from these internet lists and talk about the MonsterVerse, a cinematic universe containing the likes Godzilla and King Kong and created in collaboration between Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures, and Toho. One genre I'm considering working with for my film opening is a monster movie, so I wanted to look at some examples. Three of the current MonsterVerse films feature elaborate opening titles montages, and although similar, also represent the different tones of each film. 2014's Godzilla opens with ancient drawings of sea monsters, before transitioning to grainy footage related to nuclear testing and brief glimpses of Godzilla himself while foreboding music plays, establishing the mystery of the creature and an ominous tone. The opening titles to Kong: Skull Island tell a different story. After zooming in on Kong's eye with the title card, the audience is shown archive footage from the end of World War up to the early 1970s while hearing the speeches of prominent American leaders from the time. This establishes the film's time period while also setting up a more adventurous tone through the words of progress. Then there's the opening to Godzilla vs. Kong, which hints at plot elements while using graphics to illustrate the film's upcoming battle as the culmination of a sort of monster tournament bracket, establishing an exciting, action heavy tone. What I really admire about these title sequences is that they illustrate their respective film's tone and hint at things to come, getting the audience hooked.

The Takeaway

I definitely want to establish the main character in my opening, and I want to use both their words and the visual techniques of the film to introduce what they're like. It's also really important to me that my opening by exciting, something that would glue the audience to the screen, maybe drop hints towards a central mystery. It's starting to form, my idea. There's some kind of disaster, we don't fully see it on screen but we know it's happening. And we know whatever caused it is something not human. We're also introduced to the film's lead, and even if they don't know it yet, they're the only one who can stop it.