My Deeper Research into the World of Drama (Part 2)

Tying back into my previous post, as I was researching a multitude of openings, another one that I thought was fantastic was in the A24 production and 2017 Best Picture Winner, Moonlight.

Moonlight (dir. Barry Jenkins) has an opening in which it is establishing a setting, tone, and character at the same time, seen here. The piece begins with a song that is playing with the same lyric being said over and over, which outlines a slur that has a negative connotation tied to it but is being used in a somewhat "motivational" and "nice" way. This is outlining the tone that is depicting the characters, relaying that it will not be in a typical negative and slanderous way that has been done in America's past.

To develop the setting that is present within the opening, the character is seen in a suburban area and the cars that the characters are driving, seen here, clearly set the timeline for a younger date. Along with this, the design of the houses tie into a time that fits with the cars and engulf and further expand this timeline

The next major piece of this opening is the establishment of a character. Mahershala Ali's character is seen getting out of the car and he approaches a drug dealer. He is seemingly the one in charge as for how he is being talked to and looked up to by the person who is dealing the drugs along with the person who wants to purchase them. The dialogue is subsidiary at this point as their actions and looks establish his role as a character

To final piece illustrated is the tone. This is done by a circular camera movement around the three people within the opening. This movement is creating an inside look at the relationship and intensity that is between all these people. They are all necessary to be in contact with each other so they all function, whether that be to get money or drugs. This creates a message that the characters and the motives behind the actions in the films are all heavily reliant upon each other. This plays seamlessly into the arc of the story being split into three parts and how they all rely upon each other.

This opening blew me away and I was so impressed that this was all done in just a little over two minutes. I want to take this and use camera movement in regard to creating a tone and feeling for my opening without necessarily having to implement dialogue or action to do so. Along with this, I would like to have a setting and timeline established without having to state it but by showing the features of the area in which the characters are present.

My plan with what I gathered from every opening, especially Call Me Be Your Name and Moonlight, is to take the information within my blog posts and share them with my partner, Jonathan Giat, in our upcoming class. I will relay my different ideas and conventions we could use to establish a setting and character at the same time and to outline our collective vision for the genre of the opening and what we intend the content of it to be.