Romance/Coming of Age (establishing tone)

I started to think about what sort of feeling I wanted to evoke and how I should even begin. Sometimes when I don't always have an exact idea, music helps to guide me in the right direction.



One of my favorite parts about movies like 500 days of Summer, Garden State, and Juno are their soundtracks, I remember what it was like growing up with those songs and looking back now to make this film opening I listen to it through a different lens, the lens of my experiences.

I put my earbuds in and took a tame bike ride in my neighborhood around golden hour and that's when the ideas started to flow.

I took inspiration from some of my go to artists like Kings of Convenience, Simon and Garfunkel, Daryl Hall and John Oates, I created a playlist of songs that I would incorporate if I were to make this a full fledged film, just to establish tone. I imagine the entire storyline mapped out and how much I am going to reveal to my audience about the characters during the film opening.

I also curated this playlist and labeled it the "Aftermath" in case I may need to consider any future plot points of the film for the film opening.

Although it's a romance, a marriage or relationship would not be the end result of this film. I don't necessarily want that to be a given from the beginning, but I do want to foreshadow as well as open the piece up to ambiguity during the film opening.



I'm working hard on the storyline because I believe that the story should serve as a strong framework and base for the opening, I want to find a way to incorporate several plot points that would occur later on in the film at the start. For the film opening, id like to emphasize that our protagonist will take a strong risk, and that risk will impact the sequence of events that follow throughout the movie.


The idea is a bit abstract, I haven't structured the beginning with the exact style but I'm thinking of the start being a montage that establishes the two characters, and having the music under be calm and serene, like two acoustic guitars playing harmoniously. I've thought a lot about the color psychology and I really want to incorporate yellow as this harness of optimism and green that resembles growth. I love the different meanings that come with these two colors, their versatility will serve as a strong force in this film, I want to make a huge emphasis on change and facades.


One aspect I appreciate about "500 Days of Summer" is its refusal to vilify either protagonist despite the relationship's failure. While acknowledging that not everyone behaves perfectly, I want this film to illustrate how individuals can enter our lives for meaningful reasons, sometimes contributing positivity without necessarily harboring purely benevolent intentions.