For our movie opening (AS course work), narrative plays a key part. During our film opening, we are introduced to our hero, and a potential heroine (the hero's girlfriend). The heroine however, is killed of/hospitalised in the opening and we are shown that the hero blames himself because in the next scene, we see the hero on top of a building and we can hear his thoughts, such as "why did you do it?" and "its all your fault". The audience are then led to believe that he kills himself by jumping of the building, but we don't actually see him falling so this is left to speculation.
The whole point of our film opening, was that it was meant to act as a prologue to the rest of the film, so if the audience are unable to follow the narrative in the opening, they are unlikely to understand the narrative in the rest of the movie. Because of this, we had to make what was going on extremely clear, while leaving some questions unanswered which help to set the scene and are to be answered in the rest of the movie (e.g. does he actually die? How did his girlfriend get hospitalised?). One thing we realised after watching our raw footage back for the part where the boyfriend is standing on the roof after his girlfriend has been hospitalised, was that it was unclear from a narrative point of view that he blamed himself for her death. So, to solve this problem we went into the music tech studio and recorded some phrases that we could use as thoughts in his head such as "why did you do it" and "its your fault" to make it clearer for the audience.
We also used colour correction to help make the narrative as clear as possible. For example, in the scenes where the boyfriend and the girlfriend are happily together, we colour corrected the shots to make them look brighter, bringing up the white balance. Whereas, in the scenes where the boyfriend is alone, we colour corrected the shots to make them look darker (reflecting his mood).
Another affect we used to make the narrative clear, was the blur we used in the scenes where the boyfriend and the girlfriend together. This effect, means that everything in shot but the boyfriend and girlfriend are blurred, literally putting them in their own little bubble. This reflects how they are in their own world when together at this point in the narrative and it emphasises their happiness.
The transaction between where the boyfriend was with his girlfriend, to where he is no longer with her, is also a key point in the narrative. We made this transaction by showing a flickering picture of an ambulance, followed by a reverberated sound of slamming doors. This slamming of doors, also helps to metaphorically "close the door" on the last part of the narrative.
Our opening follows Roland Barthe's Hermonutic code, meaning that there is an element of our story that is not fully explained and from then on becomes a mystery to the viewer. In our case, we do not know how the girl was hospitalised, or if the boyfriend dies. This will keep the audience guessing and trying to put the "pieces of the puzzle" together before all is revealed in the final few scenes of the movie. It keeps up the intrigue and suspense.
Although you explain your plot and your handling of the narrative, you are required to analyse your production drawing on theoretical approaches as well. For example, can you draw attention to Barthes's five codes within your narrative framework? Does Todorov's explanation that narrative is simply equilibrium, disequilibrium then the promise of the return to equilibrium fit your narrative? Look at the 'page' on Narrative on the class blog and expand this, please.
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