Casting

 For my casting I wanted to use someone who knows how to act! Being in theater allows me to meet tons of actors. My friend Connor Lirio I think is ideal for the role of Axl's friend/bandmate. Connor not only is a great actor, but also an AMAZING musician, so I think he will have zero trouble playing this role. I don't even really have to pick out a costume for Connor! His style and vibe match what I want in his character perfectly, so I can literally have him just show up. Here are some photo's of Connor. 

Storyboard

 Storyboard:

Film opens up on someone plugging in guitar. As soon as the camera cuts to a hand playing guitar, the music starts playing. While the music is playing we see not only the credits, but this person's room and interests. When he gets up from playing we come to find out he has a mobility stick and is blind. A bandmate of his barges through the door to inform "Axl" that they are going to be late for a performance. Axl's bandmate tells him that this performance is their "big break". They hop in the car, and drive away.

No voice over!

 I have decided to stick to my original plan to not do a voice over. It is just unnecessary, and wouldn’t really do anything I do not already have to enhance my opening. I feel like the audience should get to know Axl just through his room alone, and not some sob story on how he is blind. All the audience should know while the credits are rolling is that Axl is just a regular teenage boy who loves music, and a voiceover would give away too much. I watched a Ted Talk with Andrew Stanton (pixar storyboard artist, director, and writer), and he said you should never give the audience everything right away, and let them solve it themselves. I think that doing a voiceover would eliminate the audiences ability to solve it themselves, and it would give it all away. 

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.