Treatment of My Opening Sequence

Treatment of My Opening Sequence

Here is the log line which was the most suitable out of all of the ones me and my group managed to come up with. "A retired assassin and single dad settles down with his son, but when his past catches up with him, he must take up his old line of work to protect the thing he loves most."

Originally, after discussing the idea with some of the members of my group, we imagined the first opening shot to the Opening Sequence being of a Middle-Aged man sitting on the sofa perhaps holding a mug of coffee/reading the newspaper while constantly peering over to his son to make sure he was ok, or perhaps even leaning over actually playing with his son. This would establish the relationship, between the middle-aged man and what would be his son, to the audience making sure they understand the significance of this bond before they get further into the storyline which would take place in the later scenes. I then came up with a few ideas of my own and imagined that in one of the scenes the father would be posting a letter into a postbox, or about to walk into a shop when he gets a "mysterious" phone call. The mood of the scene would then turn from total normality to dark and dreariness as the father picks up the phone and a close up of the fathers facial expression is presented. The shot would then cut to the father in a hurry sprinting home or driving dangerously fast to get to back to his house where his son is - while his facial expression of desperateness never changes. 

These first few seconds of the opening title sequence, where as mentioned he is in his house with his son, lays the foundation for the phone call scene when the father is away from his son. Me and my group then suggested perhaps having some "darker" scenes following the above talked about scenes where the father is revealing things from his shady past, such as a dusty box of pristine knives hidden in his garage above other normal typical garage junk. Also having a flickering light, while the box of knives is revealed would also set a rather eerie feel to the scene, and an Extreme Close Up on the eyes of the father at this particular scene would also fit well. Having the audience being introduced to other characters at this point would then also feed into the plot, and so then it would cut to a scene where perhaps the fathers best and close friend is introduced at a park sitting next to the father while they watch their children playing on a climbing frame - which would first be introduced with an Establishing Shot. The shot could show them discussing a secretive matter, perhaps the phone call, but only a few words are heard meaning that the audience are kept in the dark leading them to wonder what it was all about. While this is happening their is some low tempo chilling music playing quietly in the background building up. After the "secretive" discussion it cuts to close up of a booklet/diary which the friend is showing the father which lists a bunch of names which the father rips out and stuffs in his pocket while looking to see if anyone is watching.

While this is all happening, the titles including "Producer" and "Director" could be appearing in the background of shots so they are still noticeable but not too much that they audience cannot follow the story. For example whilst the father is opening the box of knives in his garage a title could appear behind the father in a serious sort of font, this would be too establish the genre to the audience. Following the talked about scenes, the audience could then be introduced to the Antagonist/(s) who are depicted in a negative light possibly standing underneath a street light at night time smoking a cigarette or making some shady transaction to a non-significant character down an alley way by giving him what looks like a rather weighty brief case which could contain anything for all the audience knows. All of the ideas discussed above will of course be refined when it comes down to making the final Opening Sequence with my group, it just became apparent to document the ideas I already have so I could perhaps come back to them when we eventually make our Opening Sequence and compare.

Below are some examples of what the fathers facial expression could look like when he picks up the mysterious phone call while he's out.

Below is a video clip of the above image (Opening Sequence to Scream 3), and although the situation and plot are going to be completely different, because Scream 3 is a horror and our Opening Sequence will be a Thriller, the facial expression and the way the man  acts in the video clip is the exact way the father would be acting in our Opening Sequence.

And below is an example of what the titles would potentially look like, not too big to drag the audiences attention away from the Opening Sequence plot, but just big enough to notice.

The film plot will more than likely revolve around what eventually happens in the Opening Title Sequence however it will be sort of spaced out, and nothing major about what happens will be given away only little hints to make the audience wonder. The general plot will be about the father taking up his old line of work, as the Log Line at the beginning of the post said, to protect his son from harm, which is what the phone call which I talked about above will be about. But the audience will never really get this through the Opening Title Sequence, which means it opens up a lot of opportunities for the audience to think about what the phone call is about, what the names in the diary mean, etc. But because we will only be making the Opening Sequence we don't need to go into the plot about the whole film, only the Opening Title Sequence.