My Film Opening Idea

My Idea

Originally, I had planned to do a film opening under the genre of horror but my idea was so butt, as my teacher recognized how under-developed and not thought out it was. However, now I can do a film opening of a genre I actually am comfortable with, which is coming-of-age. 

For my film, I want to follow a main character who's depressed and just pushing through life until they meet a character that shows them how to appreciate what they have. But, in my film opening, I am only going to include the introduction of the depressed main character. The whole film idea was created so I can have a better insight on what I want to do in my film opening.

So my idea is to start filming a kid in school as the bell rings and they get out of school and go on their bus. During this scene, I'd film the character leaning up against the window of their bus seat and put on their headphones, while the audience can hear a faded out version of their music playing. I'm not sure whether or not I'll let the music fade into the scene completely, because I still want to include the sounds of the kids and the commotion on the bus. While this is happening, I'll start putting the credits over the shot of the character looking very pensive yet sad, which is portrayed through the music they're playing, making the whole scene have a somber feeling.

After this, they are shown getting off the bus and walking home still with the music (by the way, all these scenes are going to show the character all by themselves to show that they are basically a loner which makes the audience more empathetic towards them). As they near/enter their home, they take off their headphones, ending the music and they start walking towards the kitchen, opening the fridge to scavenge for food. One of their parents will suddenly enter the frame, and greet them by asking "How was school?" and the character will reply with an curt/abrupt response of "It was fine" giving a sort of stand-off-ish vibe. Then they will pull out a food item, such as an apple but then as they are looking at it, debating whether or not they should take it, they put it back and leave the kitchen empty handed, saying no more to their parent. 

After, the main character will be shown walking up the stairs and entering their room. As they enter their room, they will suddenly drop their backpack harshly on the floor while collapsing onto their bed as if they were exhausted. The character will then just be staring at the ceiling in the same outstretched position until their thoughts get interupted by a ding. The ding then is shown to be coming from their phone which lit up in response to the sound and the character just looks over and then looks away, ignoring it almost completely. Then, it dings again and the character, once again, looks over, but this time they will let out a heavy sigh and then grab their phone. As they are looking at their phone they will maybe sigh again? I'm not sure about that part but then they change their position to be laying on their side, kind of curled up and looking at their phone. 

I will then show the phone and what it is focusing on. And what it'll be focusing on is a text message from the character's friend asking the character to hang out with their said 'friend group' that night. But the character's response will reject the invitation and the friend's response to that will be something along the lines of "What happened to you? You never hang out with us anymore." As the main character reads this, they will start to type a letter then erase it and then just turn off their phone completely. They will then silence their phone and put their headphones back on to listen to music and drown out their thoughts. And that will be the end of my film opening. 

I got most of my inspiration from 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower', 'Didi', and 'Speak'. Mostly, I just want to make a sad, yet inspirational coming-of-age film and my inspirations directly reflect my intended ideas.