I've looked at a LOT of science fiction film openings over the past 24 hours, and I just can't seem to stop. This project has fueled just about every daydream over the past week, along with the countless plot ideas of sci-fi films I've viewed flowing and intertwining into my ideas. With that stuck in my head, it's made this research week has feel so slow... I just can't wait to start finishing our puzzle of a plot and begin filming! But, speaking of plot, we have decided on a main idea, a time loop.
Anyways, I'm going to cover and analyze a few film openings relating to the sci-fi drama genres, and hopefully everything will fit together well. Managing to figure out the best intros to use for this post was a bit tricky, but I realized a good way to approach this would be to find film openings with very different tones.
Analysis 1#: Interstellar (2014)
In Interstellar, a pilot is put to the task to find a new suitable planet for Earth to survive after the food on earth begins to run out. The pilot has to make the choice whether to help save the planet or put his family first.
At first, we are going to include some aspects of this opening in ours, such as the flashback. However, focusing on the feeling of a sudden tone change instead of a total flashback sequence would work better, since we are trying to create a time loop in our opening. That being said, the tone in this opening goes from high intensity to somber emotions just like that, which considering our approach, may be a good decision to include. I don't believe the amount of jumping around in this opening wouldn't work as well with our film, but a few of our scenes are going to need it.
The low-key lighting during the more depressing scenes, along with the teal tinted hues helps further distinguish the tone from now, to what was the action-packed flying scene a few seconds earlier. Furthermore, a teal color pattern in film has been known to be more appealing to audiences, especially in science fiction films. Using this color could be a great way to distinguish our genre as sci-fi, while also just making our scenes look better! One thing different that we may not include would be a voiceover. Although this works great in introducing the situation and problem in this movie, I don't believe this approach would do us any good, as we are going to try and focus on developing our character.
Analysis #2: Arrival (2016)
When I started to research sci-fi film openings, I wasn't too confident that this would be a good one to analyze, as its quite the opposite tone wise than what we want to use in our opening. However, this could be just as good of an opening to contrast!
And now again, sadness, teal and a voiceover... Although I'm not 100% sure about the voiceover and somber tone when entering the film, I am pretty sure we are going to want to open our film with at least a slight teal tint (for the same reasons I described in the Interstellar analysis!). Continuing, creating the tone of this opening pretty much only relies on the non-diegetic sound that is used throughout the entire beginning of this film. I believe to develop the tone in our film, we may want to consider using a light non-diegetic background music, or on the contrary, use louder diegetic music that would be coming from the room our main character is in.
This film develops character in a way different style than how we might want to. This film shows the event that changed the character, their child dying, and how it has affected her wellbeing. What we wanted to do was develop our characters surroundings, and their reaction to it will be how we develop ours.
Analysis #3: Ready Player One (2018)
Immediately, this opening is SO much different from the other two openings. Using the film approach, introducing the setting, it creates a whole new way to start up this film. The lack of color that's used with the shots of the real world, unalike the digital world creates the futuristic aspect of this film, showing how the Earth in this universe is not from our current time period. But, just like all the others, there is teal undertones when in "The Oasis" part of the film. Since sci-fi relies on these colors to use when introducing or being in a futuristic setting, this isn't out of the ordinary.
Another thing right off the bat, and probably more noticeable, is the complete difference in tone that this film is giving off. Instead of the somber tones like the others, this film creates a happy and energetic feeling immediately into the film. The non-diegetic sound plays the main role in this.
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