Blog Post #7- Opening Scene Research

 Opening Scene Research

        To get more inspiration and ideas for my opening scene I decided to watch the opening scene from fight club. 

        The opening scene of fight club begins with who it was directed by as a credit on screen and then it fades into a close up shot of the gun. The focus on the gun then pulls into the guy who has a gun in his mouth. As this is going on, there is a non-diagenetic asynchronous voiceover of someone talking in the background, and it seems like the main characters thoughts. The guy who has a gun in his mouth begins talking as a diegetic sound that is asynchronous, and he is pulled out of his thoughts. The shot then changes to a less close up shot from the side showing the guy with a gun in his mouth and someone holding the gun. The two people continue to talk and then the shot changes to a close up of the guy with the gun still in his mouth. The guy then removes the gun from his mouth as the shot changes to a mid shot over the shoulder of the other guy looking at the guy who just had a gun in his mouth. The scene pans as the guy moves and it stays a mixed shot. In the scene you can hear him talking in a diegetic synchronous sound to the other guy, but the other guy continues the conversation and it diegetic asynchronous sound, but he also has his own thoughts, which are a non-diegetic asynchronous sound. The shot changes to a close-up as the guy moves his head to look at the guy who just moved. You can hear the chair squeak in the back as a diegetic synchronous sound. The shot changes to a wide shot of building outside looking through the glass because you can see the reflection off the glass. You can hear sirens outside in diegetic asynchronous sound. The camera tilts down in a very fast drone shot of many different areas all around the city. There is a guy narrating in his thoughts in the background. The same one who had the gun in his mouth. The drone shot ends, and they’re back in the building as a long shot of the two of them. The camera cuts to a close-up of his bottom, half looking at the time on his watch. The shot then cuts to a longer long shot than the first one. and then there is a zoom in close up on the guys face. The camera zoomed in enough until it looked like he was going into flashbacks. It’s just there is a close-up of the main characters face hugged into another characters chest as they’re in a support group. The camera cuts to a sign, and then it to other people, hugging each other. The camera cuts to the main character and Bob, hugging again, and then tilts down to show the main characters face. The cameras moves in a circle as it shows many different cuts of all these characters, hugging. The camera then cuts to an aerial view of the main character laying in his bed. The camera then is shown as a point of view of the printer copier and it has a close-up of the Starbucks cup that looks like it’s on it. It then shows a close-up of his face looking very tired, and almost falling asleep. Then cuts to a point-of-view shot of him looking at the rest of the office.

(Sleep deprived make-up look)

        I like how throughout the whole opening scene the main character is voiced through his thoughts and I could use that in my film as ifs it’s like Lacys diary. I liked how they had a rotating camera with different shots of them hugging. I could implicate this into my movie by having many different shots of Lacy and Steve hugging during their relationship in many different places that way only the scenery changes. If I ever decide if i want to have school scenes I can have Lacy show up to school looking my she had gotten no sleep because she was too scared to go to bed because she’s afraid of being watched and she had the feeling she was. I could also have a point-of-view shot of Lacy walking down the hallways and Steve is following her.