Inspiration from a Film Opening

 While looking at genre characteristics for drama films, I came across the film Garden State. Garden State is a film about a depressed man on medication who is despondent to most people. In this opening, the man (whose name is Andrew) has a scary dream that leaves him un-phased, and then receives a call from his father tearfully talking about how they never communicate, and that Andrew needs to come home because his mother died.

I feel as though my film and Garden State have similar characters. In my film, I want the main conflict revolve around the character's depression leaving him incapable of feeling love and affection, and it's gotten to the point that it is destroying the few relationships he has left. This opening expertly demonstrates how unresponsive and crestfallen Andrew is by showing his flat face during a nightmare that's supposed to be terrifying. Although I don't want to include a dream sequence in my film, I want to demonstrate how difficult it is for my character to feel emotions in general, just like Andrew from Garden State.

Like Garden State, I want to incorporate an answering machine in my opening. An idea that I thought of, is what if the film opening took place on the main character's birthday? In this specific scene of the opening, the main character would be listening to an assortment of birthday messages from his friends and girlfriend from his answering machine (I was thinking of something like the above image). These messages would be very sweet, yet the main character would remain blank and melancholy throughout. This would expertly demonstrate how despondent my character is, and it would also help develop the year that this film takes place in.

Garden State's opening gave me plenty of ideas for my film. Now, that I have all of these potential details, I can begin to create a timeline, storyboard, or even a script to help me bring my ideas to life!