Some starting points

     To be honest, closing in on a solid idea this week has been tough. My problem was that I was really holding on to my first thoughts and tried fitting them into a single genre and plot, but this resulted in a storyboard that was all over the place. When I finally tried looking at it from another angle, I arrived at my current opening. I aim to create a mystery-comedy that centers a teenage girl taking on the role of detective while everyone else in her life doesn't take her investigation seriously. 

MUSIC

    In class we did an exercise looking over blogs from years before to identify what they did well and what should be included. While I did take note of things I should discuss here, something that I kept in mind and now is useful was one student's mention of YouTube's Audio Library that catalogs audios that are free to use (score!). My past experience with royalty free audio libraries has not necessarily been the best, many of these audios being overexaggerated/unrealistic (when it comes to foley), but this gives me hope. I like the fact that you can sort based on genre and mood, it helped me quickly find something that fit the vibe I'm going for. This is a song that could play during the "serious" moments from the main character's perspective, to me it sounds serious and reminds me of spy movie for some reason. 

STYLE

    I'll have to see what I can realistically do well but there are some stylistic choices I have seen in different mystery/comedies that would be cool to try. For instance, a title card like this, especially in black and white, could match the main character's perspective as she takes her investigation seriously, if this was at the beginning of the opening it would set a classic tone that would then be interrupted by the external perspective of others, that the whole thing is just silly. 

    Of course I'm going to need to include a conspiracy/evidence type board because it's just such a staple of setting up a case. Like I have mentioned in my last post about credits, I'd like to integrate the credits with objects from the scene, so maybe the first shots are the 'detective' pinning stuff to the board next to the names. Another possibility is having pictures of what would be the cast/suspects to set up to movie that this would be part of. The picture below is from Murderville. 

    Knives Out was probably a big factor in pushing me to this genre/idea as it was the only whodunit (mystery) movie I could really remember. In this video, writer and director Rian Johnson explains his thought process behind making Knives Out. Johnson delves into the 'whodunit' genre and explains how understanding genre allows you to make other choices that can contradict what the audience expects to end up with more complex, interesting stories. I'd like to do something like that, where the audience is not sure who to believe, whether they should be invested in her investigation or look down on her alongside the other characters. More to think about as I plan my opening out.