Lighting

 For my film opening, the lighting techniques are pretty simple. The lights in my bedroom (where i’m filming) are pretty bright and should do the job, and act as a somewhat natural light. This will make the viewer feel like they are almost in the room with Axl. I think this will be the only use of lighting i’ll use throughout the opening, but i’ll update if anything changes.

Voiceover...maybe?

 My original plan for the beginning of the film opening was just to have the credits on screen as Axl was playing guitar. Although this does work, it doesn't really give Axl any character at all to even develop. This gave me the idea to maybe do a voiceover giving a portion of Axl's story. If I were to do this, I would need to pick softer music, given the one I have now would be very distracting from the voiceover. 

I think how I have it now is also very good. It is simple, but effective in giving Axl character. I do not know what I am going to do yet, but once I have a storyboard, I'll know if I'm doing one.

Costume

 For Axl's costume, I want him to be like a stereotypical teenager, who loves music. I have some pics for inspiration. 

I want Axl's to wear a band tee, some baggy pants, and some sneakers. Nothing too crazy, but enough to where you can tell that he is into music. I really want Axl's room to tell the audience what his interests are, so I want his costume to be minimal. As always, I'll keep you updated.

Props!

 For my film opening there really is only 1 main prop. The prop is Axl’s guitar. I have a wide selection of guitars in my house, so I had to decide which one he should play. Here are some of my options for his guitar:

After some consideration, I am going to use the red guitar. I think the red one will stand out the most on screen because of its vibrancy, and that is the main reason why I decided on it.

BMG UPDATE/ NEW SONG

   The update is that BMG never updated me! I sent BMG the email about me wanting to use the song "Reptilia" by The Strokes three days ago, and still haven't gotten a response. Most of my opening will have the character "Axl" playing guitar to a song, I need to be able to storyboard around that song. Since BMG hasn't written me back, and I need to get the ball rolling with storyboarding, I found a non-copyrighted song that will work instead of Reptilia.

 

   I looked at many copyright free music sites such as "https://www.purple-planet.com/", and "https://www.free-stock-music.com/", but I found my song on "https://www.bensound.com/". This song has the exact vibe I was going for, and somewhat reminds me of "Reptilia".  Although this isn't my first choice for this project, I am still very satisfied with song. I can't wait to see what comes next.

Setting

 

For the setting of my film opening, I wanted a typical messy teen room, so what better than to use my own! My room is perfect for this film. It has many musical elements to it that would match Axl's character perfectly. I was thinking for parts of the credits, we can see closeups of random knickknacks in Axl's room, and I have loads of them. Here are some pictures of exactly what the room will look like. 

Main Song!

 After looking for what felt like hours for copyright free rock music, I learned one thing: Copyright free music sucks! I looked far and wide to find a copyright free song, and found some decent ones, but none that really stood out. I used websites like https://www.purple-planet.com/ and https://splice.com and couldn’t find anything that really fit. When I first thought of this project, the song that immediately came to my head was “Reptilia” by The Strokes. So instead of wasting my time trying to find more copyright free music, I decided to write an email to BMG records to see if I can use Reptilia. This is the email I sent them:

“ Dear BMG Licensing,
My name is Jack Leventhal. I am doing a project for school and would love to use a song under your label with your permission. The project is a short film opening. How would I go about using this song? Get back to me whenever you can. Thank you so much.

Name: Jack Leventhal

Project Name: Cambridge Film Opening

Project: FILM OPENING

Description: Film opens up on a kid wearing sunglasses and headphones, sitting in is room playing guitar. The cuts are very fast and upbeat. The credits will happen as he is playing. From the distance, we hear multiple people calling out his name. His bedroom door swings open to reveal his band mates yelling at him that they are late for a performance. When he gets up, he picks up a mobility stick to reveal that he is blind. This is where the film opening will end.

Request: I would like to use the song “Reptilia” by “The Strokes” in the first minute and a half of my project.

Artist: The Strokes

Explain: Song fits the vibe of the opening perfectly.

Length of music in minutes: 1:19

What media rights are needed: N/A

Sincerely,  
 Jack Leventhal”

I hoping BMG allows me to use the song, and I’ll keep you updated.