Transition into the portfolio project

Transitioning into the portfolio project

 The time has finally come, from now until March 17, 2026, everything I will be posting will be centered around the goal of creating a 2-minute film opening.

As you know, this film opening will be half of my final grade for the AICE media AS level course. So, keeping that in mind, it is impertinent that this project is done well and with careful consideration. As of last class we began the long process of planning our film openings. We learned about all the different approaches that we could adopt in our film openings, and what exactly it is that a film opening should do (establish tone, illustrate genre, include credits & titles, develop purpose, and engage the audience).

With this information, we're expected to select an approach that we'd be interested in using for our project. Me personally, i've been brainstorming on what I wanna do and I think i'm leaning towards more of an approach involving establishing context (background). I've been thinking of ideas within the horror genre and while I know it's been overdone within these past few years it's something im considering. See my other post regarding my research on the genre to learn more. 

Anyways, since the final can only be 2 minutes, it's very important to set the stage and give the viewers an idea of what the film is going to be about and what is going on. This approach is also very versatile, so if I do end up doing a different genre, the approach of developing context through mise-en-scene, scene elements, and dialogue can still translate to other themes. Not to mention, this approach is very interesting since there is a multitude of ways to integrate it and add your own sort of spin onto it. For example, I could adopt a sort of flashback sequence that gives the viewer some insight into the narrative world, and then bring it back to the present to allude to the continuation of the story and the idea that there is still more to be developed. Overall, this approach seems very sensible and natural to story telling to me since kinda just throws you into the world and than gives everything you need to understand the baseline of the story.

Another approach that i've been considering, is the route of establishing the character. I feel as if this approach would be very fun to execute and help to develop the story through a more personal scope, while also giving the audience an idea as to what genre the film falls into. This approach would heavily rely on costume design, set design, dialogue, and mise-en-scene; meaning that this approach would most likely constitute a lot more effort when it comes to picking and developing things like props, makeup, costume, etc. But, it also allows you to communicate themes, messages, and helps you develop context in a short time period without directly stating it.

These are the approaches i'm leaning towards and will probably use in my film, but there are several ways to develop a story. I will keep you guys posted throughout the process and let you know what I land on!