Any kind of media is made for some kind of audience to consume, and in order to know what kind of audience is going to consume my media, it is necessary to conduct a survey.
87.50% of my respondents were female while only 12.50% of the respondents were male, meaning I knew more female would be watching my story opening rather than male.
Question 2
Most of my correspondents were in the 18-24 age range, 82.50% to be exact, so I knew that almost all of my audience would be late-teenagers to young-adults.
Question 3
The next question was how often do you watch movies? and the most closest were A couple times a month or monthly, at 35% and 32.50%, meaning people don’t watch movies very often. The film should be made in order for the viewer to feel it was worth it.
Question 4
The most watched genre was Thriller, at 47.50%, which means I would be making something close to thriller. The second place was Horror, at 17.50%, and the third being close to the second, being Comedy, at 15%, which would have been my second option and I would be able to explore more if I were to make a whole feature film.
Question 5
The most characters the people wanted were not mentioned, so all of the main characters which takes the whole story forward came in 52.50%, and the second being 3-4, at 27.50%, which also works in my favour, because I don’t have that less or that many characters in my film opening.
The most common was Story in the film opening, at 40%, which really helped me to focus on my story rather than cinematics.
Question 7
The most answered was online, at 67.50%, which makes sense because people tend to watch everything in the comfort of their home.
Question 8
The last question’s most common answer was through social media, at 75%, meaning most of my audience would be getting their news about the film through social media.
Conducting this has helped me understand my audience a lot, and would definitely help me while making my film opening.
My main reason to choose this movie was to show how a great story can be portrayed even with a language barrier, this movie is so symbolic, with so much meaning behind every single shot, prop, and every character, that it requires more than one watch. The genre was also what intrigued me, thriller and dark comedy, which it stays true to it’s words.
Titles
The titles are simple and shows the production house and the title of the movie, with minimal colour and just getting the names out out there.
Introduction of Characters
4th character
3rd character
2nd character
1st character
The filmmakers used a convention first by using the method of foreshadowing, where they gave the audience the order where the characters actually causes the conflict and how they affect the upcoming family.
Action and Events
The key, from the very start, is the use of light. Through out the whole film, the light represents hope, and the whole family being in a semi-basement and not fully underground represents how they still have hope of coming. The basement, with everything packed and congested, conveys the meaning of how bad the living situation is for the family. The main concern that we see the family having is not having the access to the internet. The simple use of Wi-Fi, is portrayed as a luxury which the family cannot afford.
The symbolism, like mentioned before, is shown from the starting by the mother asking what’s your plan and then the camera cutting to the medal and photo of the mother, where it is shown how the mother came in second which cancelled her plan A and now she was stuck with her second plan.
The son, in hopes of founding the internet, gets to every corner of the house and finally gets the internet in the bathroom. The toilet, which is placed higher that the family, also enhances the family’s situation, how the world and even the toilet is physically above them.
The fumigation process is what explains the title of the movie, parasite, and establishes it in the opening sequence how all of them cough and get affected except for the father, who keeps focused on making the boxes, indicating how the fumigation affected all the other members (of the family/parasites) except for one. This is hinted in the next scene when the manager from the pizza place says how 1 out 4 boxes is a reject. This whole scene explains itself in the end but it foreshadows the future of the family, yet using the same convention.
The whole family then tries to talk their way out of the paycheck that was deduced, and tries to take the job of an employee, manipulating the manager, hence playing the role of a parasite.
The difference in the surrounding , even between the neighbourhood and the house, is differentiated by using light, using blue and cool tone for outside world, while using dark and warm tones for the house, creating a boundary.
Night falls and Min, a friend of the son shows up, and is differentiated not only by his whole attire, but also how they physically and symbolically look up to him. The gift Min brought with him, which turns out to be fake, clearly represents how the opportunities he brought with him is also not good for the family. The character saying how it is metaphorical is also for the audience, to know it must be a symbol and not something genuine.
The whole exchange between Min and Ki-woo (the son) also establishes how Min looks down on the family as he feels less threatened on giving the job to Ki-woo then any other guy, as Ki-woo would not be able to compete against him, hence Min being safe.
Something which I took a notice of throughout the whole sequence was that the main characters look usually up when shown, but are shown to tower over the manager when manipulating her. They effect when they are together, just like parasites, and the father is shown from a high angle, hence shown alone and kind of helpless.
The reason why I chose to do an analysis on this particular movie is because it actually uses symbolism the right way. Without spoiling the movie, the filmmakers tell the whole idea of the movie in the sequence. This is what really intrigued me, how the use of light and symbols were used to convey a movie in such a order. It did not look like it was rushing or trying to convey a message forcibly, it did all of the work subtly, which asks the audience to view the movie more then once, and noticing something new every time.
The whole opening sequences how manipulating the main characters are, and we somehow feel sympathy considering they also feed off as parasite from the lady above them, by taking the advantage of the internet. We sympathize with the characters because the sequence establishes the concept that if the family is poor, it can do in order to live a better life. The whole sequence, if compared to the rest of the movie, plays a parallel part, and views the differences between the upper class and the lower class.
Genre
The film has the genres Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Dark Comedy.
These genres itself intrigued me because I have not seen many movies where the genre Thriller and Comedy mix up very well. But the film makers made sure to not overdo both and kept a very clean and clear story which does not makes the audience confused. The genres are both shown very subtly, with the comedy not being overwhelming and the thriller also shown subtly. This film goes dark real soon real fast, with the first half being almost comedic and the second taking a full 360 turn. If we talk about the film opening itself, we are only introduced to the drama part of the film.
Theme and Topics
The main theme, which I got, is the visible difference between the upper and lower class. The film demonstrates poverty, desperation, and inequality; it dramatizes the extreme differences in the worlds between wealthy and poor families. The opening itself shows the lower class in a poor condition and how they try to make their way up by trying to take someone else’s job. Min also gives his job to his friend on the basis (which seems clear once the meaning behind dialogues are focused a little more) that his university friends might try to hit on the girl he tutors and likes, but Ki-Woo (the son) would not do such thing because he does not looks at him the way he looks at his University friends, in other words, he looks down and Ki-Woo and does not think he will be able to win the girl over. The difference gets clearer and clearer and we realize that the metaphor parasites is used for both parties.
Sound
The only time music is used is at the start of the film, with the diegetic sounds and non-diegetic sounds mixing with each other. The rest of the film opening follows silence and dialogues only with the occasional background noise. In the semi-underground house of the poor Kim family, there’s a lot of interference from outside noise flowing into the interior, designed with a number of Korean-style ambience sounds, including the sound of cars passing by the alley, the sound of neighborhood people, the sound of street vendors, piano practice, barking dogs, and the sound of cats, all of these emphasizes yet again on the situation which the family currently lives in. All this makes sense as the film goes on, but all these small details are what makes the audience realize what the film makers actually did as they watch the film.
Enigma Code
The main question the audience gets in their minds is how do they actually change their situation. What the film maker actually shows is the subtle and major difference between the classes living in this communist world and how the people leach off of each other to survive. Although the question of what happens is not intense at the start, the unsettling feeling increases as the movie progresses. What makes it interesting is the use of symbolism and how the audience who views the movie again gets what various dialogues and actions actually meant which makes the audience part of something and the ones who watches it the first time also are left in a daze as everything they’ve seen finally clicks. The movie itself is not complicated to understand, but it has a depth to it only those understand who really want to understand.
And all of this concludes my third and last film opening analysis.
To conclude my film opening, I had to edit the clips and make it presentable as my film opening. I edited all of my film opening in Premiere Pro cc 2018.
EDITING:
The first step was to assemble my clips and assort them.
Then I assembled and clipped all of the clips together and created and created a sequence. The next step was to add the colour and correct the colours.
I increased the saturation for the first part of the sequence and decreased it for the end of the sequence and increased the fade. This all captured and enhanced the mood at the two stages, one where no suspects anything and the one where the twist is shown.
The next step was to add titles, and I used Bernard MT condensed as the font, and I kept the titles in the center as to match the way I cropped the screen and made it a square. I tried to make everything symmetrical as it feels pleasing to the eyes.
The next step was audio, and for that I used Killing Me Softly with Her Song – Perry Como. The song went well with the video and I made it go low at certain points to emphasize on the video rather than the song.
Then I rendered (“rendering” usually refers to the actions which convert source material into final pictures or footage) the whole sequence and exported it.
This post is made for the purpose to show how I did the shooting, where I did the shooting, and what I did exactly.
My shoot could be done at any time of the day since time was not relevant to my story, so we decided to shoot at night time, when my actor was available.
The first location
The first part of my film was done in my kitchen as the first shots were about cooking.
The second location
The second part of the film was shot in a bedroom since the story demands it. I chose this because the lighting shifts from our first location to the second.
Now for the shooting part of the video: Shooting
I shot all of my video on Pentax-xs without any tripod because I wanted my film to be raw and shaky.
I shot my video without any excessive lights and without many equipments. The lens I used was 50mm.
Since props were an important part of the film opening, I used acrylic paints and makeup to show the blood and enhance whatever effect I wanted the model to have.
We finished the whole shoot in under 4-5 hours, and the last step to complete my film was editing.
Like everything in this blog, we first have to know what a moodboard is.
Moodboard: an arrangement of images, materials, pieces of text, etc. intended to evoke or project a particular style or concept.
These pictures and texts represent the general idea of my film opening sequence and what I want the vibe and the aesthetic to be. I took these references from Pinterest and made a collage via the app Canva. This is what my film opening would look like if it were to be converted into a mood board.
This was for me to decide what I wanted my film opening to look like in a picture. This was an essential step because in order to make a movie or even a film opening, it was important to know how it would look in general and what vibes would it give.
Script writing is an integral part of a Film. First, I had to learn how to write an actual script. I refered to many YouTube videos and the one which helped me the most was
What is a character? In fiction, a character (sometimes known as a fictional character) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, television series, film, or video game). They also can be divided into protagonist and antagonist.
A protagonist is the main character of a story. The protagonist is at the center of the story, makes the key decisions, and experiences the consequences of those decisions. The protagonist is the primary agent propelling the story forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles.
An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the chief foe of the protagonists.
The characters in my film
Character 1: Somal
My first character would be Somal, who is the only one who’s face would be shown. She is the perfect actor for the role as the character I wanted would be jolly and bubbly, and would not be looking in any distress. The hair and make-up also presents that she is in a normal get up and is relaxed.
Character2:
I have not introduced any other character in my film opening, but the audience can see another person making food for Somal, and I want it to be mystery for the audience as to who they really are.
Props:
A prop, formally known as (theatrical) property, is an object used on stage or screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinct from the actors, scenery, costumes, and electrical equipment.
The props used in my film
The main props for my film are the food: bread, jam, spread. Also, fake blood and knife were the main props I used for the film opening sequence.
The next posts are some of the last steps needed for the film opening.
To choose what genre and theme my film opening should be, I learned the main difference between a genre and a theme
Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language defines genre as “a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content.” Genre consists of four elements or parts: character, story, plot and setting.
The Basic Film Genres
Action.
Comedy.
Drama.
Fantasy.
Horror.
Mystery.
Romance.
Thriller.
A theme is the film’s central, unifying concept. A theme evokes a universal human experience and can be stated in one word or short phrase (for example, “love,” “death,” or “coming of age”). Webster’s Encyclopedic Unbridged Dictionary of the English Language defines theme as “a subject of discourse, discussion, meditation, or composition; topic” In other words, a theme is the idea, premise, or purpose of a movie. It isthe whole reason why movies are made. The themeisthe heart of the movie.
After researching about the theme and the genre, the next step is decide What theme and genre my film opening is going to have:
Genre and Theme of my Film Opening
Murder-Mystery: Mystery films mainly focus on solving a crime or a puzzle. The mystery generally revolves around a murder which must then be solved by policemen, private detectives, or amateur sleuths. … The central character usually explores the unsolved crime, unmasks the perpetrator, and puts an end to the effects of the villainy.
My main mode and theme would be murder mystery.
Drama: In film and television, drama is a category of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone.
Since I would not be doing the whole film, this genre would not be touched upon as the ones mentioned earlier.
The next posts will be about Pre-Production of my Film Opening.
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