Opening Initial Ideas

 

Idea 1. [When We Were Seventeen]

Themes and Representation: The youthfulness and innocence of young, teenage love; the importance of academics.

Narrative: The story follows a teenage couple documenting their last few days as high school seniors together. They were anticipating to enroll in the same university the following year. However, the girl later found out that the boy was accepted to a college abroad and was hiding the news from her. They will break up because the girl did not want the guy to miss out on the opportunity. (Inspired by the series "When I Fly Towards You" combined with the movie "Love, Rosie")

Characters: Two characters are high school students having to deal with academic pressure for their future while cherishing the limited time they have left as teenagers together.

Technical codes: Tracking, two shots

Symbolic codes: Uniform costumes in school; casual clothes while hanging out in communal areas

Typography: Handwritten like a school’s notebook

Feedback:

• Achievable; could be explained quite clearly in 2 minutes
• May appeal to those who are keen of watching contents that remind them of their teenage years.
• Can add footages of the recorded videos by the characters to make it more engaging.

 ‧₊˚ 🎐✩ 🫧 ₊˚⊹♡

Idea 2. [Everything Comes to You]

Themes and Representation: The struggle of finding a place for oneself in society as a new adult; the idea that love can fade over time; depicts that the foundation of a relationship involves more than just the feeling of love itself, but also showing efforts and dedication.

Narrative: A women wakes up the day after ending a long-term relationship. Throughout the opening, she continously has flashbacks of the moments spent with her past-partner. By the end of the sequence, he shows up at her door.

 Characters: Both main characters are ambitious, both want to advance in their job and therefore neglect the relationship. In the end, they separated while still in love because they both knew that it would never work out.

Techinical codes:

• L-cuts
• two shots
• Lighting: nostalgic, use of natural sunlight in intimate shots - increase sense of warmth; Artificial, bright white light post-breakup
• Sound design: Non- diegetic soundtrack; Dialogues (diegetic) in flashbacks

Symbolic codes: Wearing brighter, warmer colors in memory shot; Colder tones in post-breakup shots

Typography: “Dancing script” font (Cursive)

Feedback: 

• May give an impression of a trailer due to the backflashes.
• May lack continuity if the backflashes aren't done smoothly enough.
• Great opening hook by having the male character appear at the end of the sequence.

♪‎๋࣭ ⭑💽♩⭒｡˚↺

Idea 3. [Back To May]

Themes and Representation: Nostalgia; capture the feeling of "what if".

Narrative: Backstory of when they were in school together (teenage love) - and then they meet again at a random city. Following this, they spend the weekend together exploring the area. They got to relive their youth on the few days together. By the end of the sequence, they realized how they both have got a life separately.

Characer:

• When they were younger: louder, more energetic, carefree

• When they are older: calmer, mature and content

Technical codes:

• Straight cuts - invisible
• Two shots

Symbolic codes: school uniforms and more colorful casual wear; More formal clothes when older - lower tones for colors.

Typography: "Alegreya" font.

Feedback:

• May be too much context (unable to fit in 2 minutes).
• Can add voice-over of character to express their hidden emotions and thoughts.

✩ 🎀°｡🎧⋆⸜ 🌷

🦆Conclusion:

After considering many aspects (including cinematography, acting, colour schemes, feedback, etc) I've decided upon pursuing the second idea "Everything Comes to You". 

🎐Nostalgia: the feeling of rememberance and longing of the past is truly one of the strongest emotions we experience as human beings. It is a mixture of happiness in the memories as well as the sadness at the thought that we could never return to those moments again. The idea for "Everything Comes to You" is based heavily on this emotion which can be difficult to grasp . I would like to take on this challenge to explore my skills in cinematography in order to capture "nostalgia". 

🪼Realism: the storyline of people having to sacrifice something meaningful to them in order to advance in life realistically reflects modern relationship cultures. Similarly to the narrative of "Everything Comes to You", some reasons include: career, financial stability. I thought this was a nice touch of reality upon the story which may help those within the audience who have or is going through the same thing to cope and feel sympathized. 

 

🌱Personal preference of aesthetic: The idea for the colour grading and overall vibe for "Everything Comes to You" is majorly inspired by romantic films and movies that I've seen and love. I thought this would be an opportunity for me to adapt what I find appealing into something of my own.

As mentioned in the feedbacks, the main risk of this specific idea for my opening is that it can come across as a trailer due to the flashback. However, having been familiarized with the methods of editing, I believe that I may come up with solutions to minimize the "trailer" impression, as well as incorporating a slow-pace style in my editing. 

ೀ 🍨 ‧ ˚ 🎀 ⊹˚. ♡