Our film title: On Death and Dying

Ever since first viewing Kieslowski's incredible 'Decalogue' series I have been interested in the idea of crafting my own homage to the films. I thought the idea of taking the ten commandments - which nearly everyone in the world has knowledge of - was a genius way of ensuring an audience would be able to connect with the characters and situations. Soon after, I developed the idea of doing a series of five films in a similar respect.
I planned to call the series 'On Death and Dying', after Kübler-Ross' seminal work and write one short film for each of the five stages of grief. At the time I was wholly serious and optimistic that I would someday be in a position to create this series and almost ended up using part of a script I had written as A Level English coursework.

When we came to brainstorm ideas for our opening sequence I mentioned this idea and we decided that with some modification this was a strong starting point for our work. We decided that rather than focusing on doing the opening to one of these five films we should instead compile all five into one short opening sequence, introducing each character in a similar way that Magnolia introduces all it's key characters across a montage set to Aimee Mann's rendition of Nilsson's One.
Immediately upon deciding this was exactly the kind of opening sequence we wanted to film, I knew instantly the song I wanted to use and could picture exactly how it would work:



With all this in mind in only - what we would hopefully dub - the early stages of our project, we are fairly confident this idea will play out nicely and prove an effective idea (right? right?!)

Synopsis research

At one point or another, everybody has impulse bought a film based on its description (usually films found in a local store's bargain bucket). A synopsis has to be snappy, interesting and compelling enough to gain an audience. Having said this, not all films can be judged on the basis of their synopsis. Some films such as Container or the Holy Mountain, can't even be summarised concisely enough to warrant the need for a synopsis.
While some people will watch a film on the basis of it's synopsis, some would argue that it spoils the film. Take a film like The Usual Suspects: while it is certainly an excellent film, part of its appeal and success is derived from the shock of its twist ending, which TV magazines frequently refer to in their description of the film. In the case of films such as Identity, or Vanilla Sky where the twists are integral to the plot, synopses have been known to practically give away the entire story.
I am certain everybody has had the classic 'Oh, you didn't already know Darth Vader was Luke's dad?' at some point, and it is clear that some twists have become so universally acknowledged that they are more likely to be victim of parody than pastiche. Simply mentioning there is a twist involved in a film is usually enough to get them guessing ('It was all a dream. Split personality. ALIENS.')

If we were to attempt to summarise our film in a similar manner, it would be along the lines of: "five characters each showcase different attitudes towards coping with knowledge of their own death", or something fancy like that.

Iconography/Cop-out

Although clearly it is key to establish iconic images throughout different film genres (e.g. the Jigsaw puppet of the Saw franchise), when tackling Drama films, the line becomes somewhat blurred. Drama - it could be argued - has its stranglehold over all other genre's and the archetype films of our time all feature an element of drama in them: this is the element which audience find easiest to connect with. As part of motion picture's appeal lies in it's allowance of escapism, this can sometime be a hindrance. Perhaps at its peak in the 90s, hollywood blockbusters can sometimes intentionally remove most drama traits of a film in order to heighten this sense of escape and films such as Face/Off, Demolition Man and Con Air are still hugely admired despite being (at times) completely ridiculous.
With drama, rather than building a collage of iconic images throughout its development, it seems more appropriate to put our own spin on the idea, including scenes which we think best highlight how startlingly contrasting films can be universally acclaimed and serve to connect with the same types of people. We aimed to seek out objectively appreciated drama, rather than dig out our typical obscure, pseudo-intellectual b-movies. In doing this, we came to a realisation that the most memorable heart-tugging drama scenes were typically finales and featured the death of one of the main characters. This probably tells us lots about the human condition, but neither of us have studied Freud in any great depth:

***WARNING: MAJOR SPOILER ALERT***

5. The Shawshank Redemption (Brooks was here)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkSjw9h_FTs
4. The Godfather Part 2 (Kay leaves Michael)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zMrcCazt0w
3. American History X (Ending scene)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgOv5Mv6JFI
2. Léon (Léon meets Stansfield)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiDXfKQg9W0
1. American Beauty (Ending scene)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH_CfkNUC_g

I probably would have chucked in Before Sunrise/Sunset...

Genre directors research

When considering the vast scope of the drama genre, we concluded that the best way to tackle an analysis would be to focus on a small handful of films in a genre neatly summarised as "multi-character, all connected" by The Stop Button.
In consideration of this, we realise it's important to recognise that this would not allow us to correctly identify all the different conventions of a drama film, so as well as this we sought to also discuss a more straightforward and mainstream drama film. (The Godfather)
These 'ensemble' films can be found in a variety of genres, from action (such as the winner of the "why not?" film of all time: The Expendables) to the films of Richard Curtis (Love Actually, The Boat that Rocked). Romantic comedy ensemble films have their own cult followings (read: Me) however in drama these films are sadly few and far between.

The two leading names in the filmmaking industry for drama ensembles are - to the best of our knowledge - Paul Thomas Anderson and Alejandro González Iñárritu.
This genre is not confided to motion-picture alone, it is also relevant to mention the sheer amount of television dramas cropping up in recent years (particular American imports including Lost, The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones).

Although several different acclaimed writers and directors have tried their hand at ensemble dramas, it is rare for a filmmaker to revisit the idea, perhaps due to the enormity of the task. However, both Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia) and Alejandro González Iñárritu (21 Grams, Babel) have each released several of these types, specialising in the genre. These films are typical of the genre and feature story lines of sex, drugs and certain death. Also important is the fastpaced style both these director's excel in. Contrastingly, Miranda July released her free-form take on the style in the film Me and You and Everyone We Know and Richard Linklater's early works Slacker and Dazed and Confused both take a slower pace style yet still encompass a half dozen characters at least. These films seek to weave several different stories and characters with no singular plot taking priority over others, but are more likely to be classified as comedy films rather than drama.

Our film genre: Drama

We have decided to do a drama film.

Drama has perhaps the most amount of sub-genres of any type of film and its far-reach is clear in that of the top 10 films rated on IMDB, 7 of these are also featured in the Best of Drama list. Although this implies drama would be a huge hit with mainstream audiences it is important to remember just how diverse the genre can be and how different individual films can be to each other yet still fall under the drama umbrella (for example, both The Godfather & The Dark Knight feature in IMDB's top 10 drama). Particularly we are interested in making an opening sequence to an ensemble genre akin to Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia.
During a previous assignment (to get us a tiny bit technical-savvy) we attempted an opening sequence for a avant-garde thriller film. The results were interesting to say the least... 

Never intended for public release, this monstrosity was probably the lowest point of our thoroughly flippant film education.

Introduction/Initial research

Hello. We're Max & Hal.

Max's top 5
5. Me and You and Everyone We Know
4. Princess Mononoke
3. Barton Fink
2. Chinatown
1. Network

Hal's top 5 (*in no particular order*)
5. Reservoir Dogs
4. Lost in Translation
3. Stand By Me
2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1. True Romance

As well as serving to introduce ourselves to the world we will soon take by storm we thought research into opening sequences of films which we could eventually consolidate would for now be integral for our brainstorming stage.

Having quite similar taste, the pair of us made a list of films with opening sequences that we particularly enjoyed or that stayed in our minds for whatever reason, but this notepad was pretty much an exercise in long-winditudinalality and so I took it upon myself to post my own personal High Fidelity-esque Top 5 opening sequences:

5: Touch of Evil (1958)
- http://www.youtube.com/embed/Yg8MqjoFvy4

One of the most revered and innovative tracking shots ever, Orson Welles' crime thriller has stood the test of time and over 50 years on this opening sequence still wows its viewers (well, me). It's just cool as.

4: 8½ (1963)
- http://www.youtube.com/embed/v1vPYKniKxU

Another critically acclaimed opening sequence, here Fellini shows us how silence can be utilised to contrast and accentuate the sounds of a man having a panic attack. This opening particularly influenced my ideas in the way silence can make a viewer feel uncomfortable rather than stumbled, keeping them on the edge instead of using scare chords to knock them off it.

3: A History of Violence (2005)
- http://www.youtube.com/embed/WokcHt5UQ-M

Again, a BIG(!) influence on my ideas, Cronenberg manages to keep your attention during this sequence despite extremely little being said/described or happening. This guy has been making crazy weird films almost 40 years now. I think there is some kind of bizarre correlation between being a successful director and having David as your first name. Will research.

2: Lord of War (2005)
- http://www.youtube.com/embed/VHn1zogeyO4

Was this the greatest film ever? No. Not by a long shot. But it is quite possibly Nick Cage's finest performance in recent years and this opening alone makes it well worth watching.

1: Magnolia (1999)
- http://www.youtube.com/embed/B94hOl1GoJw

I just think this is the bee's knees.

Honorable mention goes to Stranger than Fiction, A Serious Man, Amelie, Begotten (ewwww) and particularly Enter the Void for being really quite insane.