Obsession: Plot

Opening starts with a black screen, then a computer login comes onto the screen. There will be no music, just the sound of typing as the stalker types in their password.

Then a plain desktop screen will appear. We follow the mouse around the laptop screen, as it opens a folder called 'Her'.

 Inside they'll be lots of photos, videos, social media pages, documents, etc of the teenage girl.

Then they will click on the multiple photos, videos, etc and they will pop onto the screen. This will make a montage as lots of photos and videos will help the audience understand the teenager's life, personality and almost show that idea she's innocent and vulnerable.

While the stalker looks through the pictures and videos, extremes close ups of their facial features and the body parts. This adds a creepy element as the audience don't fully know the stalker's identity, leaving them with narrative enigma.

Zooms out of the laptop screen to reveal the room that the stalker works from. So a shot from large close up to wide shot. Then pans around the room, close up shot on weird/interesting/important items like documents, maps, photos, details. etc...

Close up of the phone screen when a notification appears. Music stops, the sound of notification alerts the audience and the character. Makes the character snaps back to reality as the text could read "go to work" or a friend could message him saying to "meet for coffee" or something. This highlights that this man lives a double life and that he could a normal person you see on the street.

Then a medium shot will capture the man sighing from behind, closing his laptop down, while getting a siloquette of his body front of this 'decorated' wall. This still makes the man unknown still and the darkness will emphasis this dark secret which is his identity. Then get a long shot of him getting and the camera will follow him towards the door. Then the opening ends with a close up shot of the doorhandle as the man open and closes the door. Text/coding font will get 'typed' on the door revealing the title Obsession

Genre Inspiration

These are the films I have decided to explore into the drama genre. There are all different types of dramas like Drama-Romance, Drama-Disaster film, Drama-Biography, Drama-Mystery and Drama-Thriller. I didn't want to just look at Drama Thrillers, even though that's the genre of my film opening, I wanted to to see the genre of drama on a wide scale and see if theres any key signifiers to the genre.

Chloe (2009)
Genre: Drama Thriller
Director: Atom Egoyon
Budget: $11 million
Box Office: $11 million
Production: StudioCanal

Notes on opening:

• Heavy, seductive music, the transitions to delicate music but with heavy beats 
• Narration, voice over. Quite a monotone voice, no emotion 
• Shots: Close ups (links to narrative) POV shots (looking through hanging objects, plants, etc), panning shot 
• Music comes before the picture 
• Texts fades in and out, smooth transition.

American Beauty (1999)
Genre: Drama
Director: Sam Mendes
Budget: $15 million
Box Office: $356.3 million
Production: Jinks/Cohen Company


Notes on opening:

• Video camera nosies, close up of a teenage girl, monochrome/dark tones. 
• Text: Capital letters, red (blood, killing? or love and romance?)
• Establishing shot of a neighbourhood, zooms in on main character's house 
• Wide shot, looking down at the protagonist 
• Music: sounds quite clumsy --> could highlight that he's a clumsy guy (this is agreed as in a shot his bag drops and everything falls out)

Endless Love (2014)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Director: Shana Feste
Budget: $20 million
Box Office: $34.7 million

Notes one opening:

• Soft music, instrumental, piano, guitar 
• Hand held shots, realism 
• Text: simple, nothing too bold, soft, delicate 
• Shots: close up, zooming out, panning, low angle (shows innocence) 

The Crush (1993)
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Director: Alan Shapiro
Budget: $6 million
Box Office: $13.6 million
Production: Morgan Creek

Notes on opening:

• Music: has a pop/rock element, fits for the time period, music stops when the teenage girl nearly runs into the car.
• Shots: wide, close up, medium 

American Psycho (2000)
Genre: Drama
Director: Mary Harron
Budget: $7 million
Box Office: $34.3 million
Production: Muse Production

Notes on opening:

• Narration, voice over
• Shots: wide, medium, close up, long
• Tones: white, bright apartment (contrasts with his darker personality)
• Music: calming peaceful, makes the attention more on the narration than music. 

The Boy Next Door (2015)
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Mystery
Director: Rob Cohen
Budget: $4 million
Box Office: $61.8 million
Production: Blumhouse Production

Notes on opening:

• Dark, eary music, adds a creepy element 
• Unfocused image at the start 
• Music before main picture, starts in ident
• Fine, capital letters, not too bold but still stands out strong just less intense 
• Point of View/1st perspective shot, running viewing the ground. The shot tilts up, close up to the woman's face.
• Voice over, narration
• Flashback --> blue tones, adds a cold atmosphere. Bad memory?
• Wide shots of a forest, following the character running. 

Girl on the Train (2016)
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Mystery
Director: Tate Taylor
Budget: $45 million
Box Office: $168. 5 million
Production: DreamWorks, Reliance

Notes on opening:

• Sounds of train nosies like on the tracks, builds up through the ident, builds tension
• Black screen, then loud noise and film begins 
• Voice over, narrative 
• Music: soft, delicate
• Shots: wide, close up, tilt up, medium, establishing, POV

Titanic (1997)
Genre: Drama, Disaster film
Director: James Cameron
Budget: $200 million
Box Office: $2.187 billion

Notes on opening:

• Music: soothing 
• Historical pictures, recalling past events and memories  
• Wide shots of a deep sea, shots of the rusted titanic 
• Title fades in and out, links towards a semantic field of water, sea, etc.
• Overall calming effect. Calm before the storm. 

The Notebook (2004)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Director: Nick Cassavetes
Budget: $29 million
Box Office: $115.6 million
Production: Avery Pix

Notes on opening:

Calming music
Various of shots: Wide/establishing, medium, long, close up to highlight the location and every single detail
Shot are red toned, connotes towards a sunset, evening time?



















The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Genre: Drama, Biography
Director: Martin Scorsese
Budget: $100-155 million
Box Office: $392 million
Production: Red Granite Pictures



Notes on opening:

• Opens up with a montage of old clips about finance business and at Wall Street, while introducing the protagonist business; Stratton Oakmont Inc.
• Narrator; main protagonist, breaks the 4th wall as he talking to the audience, looking straight at the camera some shots. Talks about his life, making the audience understand how the main protagonist is.
• Shots; medium, long and wide shots when theres a mass amount of people in the office to connote towards the chaos and madness. Also wide shots help show his massive house suggest how successful he has become. In addition close up shots of drug use is to connote towards how his drug addition is part of him and takes over his life and causing dangerous and irresponsible consequences to him. Furthermore some shots follow the main protagonist around highlighting his is the centre of attention in the film and its his story. 

Other films that I'm taking inspiration from but more Drama Thriller and with the synopsis of my film opening:
Fear (1996)
Fatal Attraction (1987)
Swimfan (2002)
The Roommate (2011)
Obsessed (2009)
Sliver (1993)
Nerve (2016)


After watching these openings I have found some common elements for a drama/thriller films:

1) They all have narration at the beginning from the main protagonist/s. Their voices are very emotionless tone, monotone.
2) Sound/music helps emphasise the mood of the opening/character/settings, etc..
3) The text helps shows the impact on a certain element has on the main characters. Eg. If the film is romantic or just a drama film, the text normally fades in and out whereas Thrillers texts are bold, harsh, adds and create tension.
4) Always includes an establishing or wide shot or shows the location.
5) Music or sounds before picture/image appears. This helps build tension.



Famous Directors in Drama and Thriller genre:
Alfred Hitchcock
Martin Scorcese
David Finchler
Adrain Lyne
Jonathan Demme
Danny Boyle
Steven Spielberg