Final Opening Sequence - Question 2

Q2 – How does your opening sequence represent particular social groups?

Primary Targets: Male young adults and middle-aged individuals on the radar



The opening sequence of The Plan appeals to a social group that is predominantly as well as stereotypically male in regards to modern society, ranging from young adults to middle-aged people in the form of age groups aged 18-44, who are determined to fill elusive voids in their lives and share an interest of comprehending and expanding their knowledge on a life that is non-existent to say the least in the eyes of the average human being, let’s say those who live their lives ‘normally’ with an enviable network around them.

Two of the primary characters in The Plan’s opening sequence, Mitch, played by Mitchell Smallwood and Donny, played by myself, almost completely contrast the elements of a ‘normal life’: the mischievous, wayward but unfortunate secondary school students in terms of generally comparing them to the typical teenager, looking into their backgrounds and life structures. Both Mitch and Donny’s backgrounds are two that are insightful into the harsh, distressing realities of the modern world and explore what is outside of the bubble, consisting of rebellion, poor and underdeveloped upbringings and as two of the main consequences of a poor upbringing are strained relationships with parents and doing things that are simply up to no good. 

Privileges gained on a morally correct standard that are light years away from Mitch and Donny

Moreover, this helps stem their rebellious, frequently perturbed (mainly from Donny as indicated in the opening sequence when Mitch is informing him of a slight issue) and demanding personality, particularly the latter which originates from the morality and other vital standards that are missing in themselves due to the turbulent relationships and upbringings, their body languages are quite concentrated and in actual fact, body language is more associated with Mitch in the opening sequence whilst he is making his way to Donny’s whereabouts; walking in a introvert, determined fashion with his head facing downwards, aided by his hood of his jacket and just wanting to keep himself, which is convenient and innate because there is a cunning plan that only very few people have knowledge on. All of this overall, is the representation of the extraordinary standing out and characters Mitch and Donny are used to display our comprehension and attention towards not just teenagers, but those of younger and older generations that living outside of the bubble and relate to them.

Technical Representation

Example of a Low Medium-Close Up

How both Mitch and Donny in the opening sequence was represented was via the use of technicality to the best of our abilities: one of these main demonstrations being the use of low medium close-up and two camera shots to associate a conundrum with Mitch and Donny, who are evidently in those camera shots when displayed, as well as the plan that everyone is gullible to with them being exceptions: what exactly is the plan? Which parts involve them? One general question, why are they doing what they are doing? Then the technicality used to represent the characters would perhaps enable the audience to question or guess the characters’ potential incentives and benefits received for their mischief, the special effects in the form of the moving images/video being cropped and the bold, audacious titles enhanced the conundrum further. 

Furthermore, we implemented long shots of the school entrance at the beginning of the opening sequence and whilst the dialogue between Mitch and Donny is taking place as well as contrapuntal and bridging [Sound-bridge] soundtrack to provide a bit of a contrast to the knowledge and concrete that Mitch and Donny have in regards to the plan, that is the unknown and serenity.

Social Realism

Personally, the most vital feature involved in reaching out to the target audience is to ensure that although the characters are fictional, make them stand out from typical fictional characters and strive for plausibility: giving them a status in the form of both Mitch and Donny being school students, most likely aged between 15-16, the mise-en-scene, what is seen in the frame with their costumes being school uniforms, which Mitchell brought in as well as some of the uniform  picked up from the lost property section, again ensures that realism is achieved and not out of the ordinary appearance-wise. 

In addition to all of the above is arguably the important feature of them all is the aforementioned, extraordinary persona, in regards to the extraordinary it can be seen as slightly skewed by the composition of their uniform, given that it blends in with other potentially troubling and stubborn students, who clearly have a lifestyle that is not on the scale or likened to Mitch and Donny’s in the school. 

Due to the emphasis on uniqueness and ensuring that Mitch and Donny help understand and relate to some within the social group or target audience, who may be likened to the characters in some way, shape or form and operational issues with the storyboard and forming the plausible storyline in correlation to the resources and locations available, we have not honestly had the opportunity to be explorative and take inspiration from other characters however the minor characters known to be Dabs and Henry from the drama film Adulthood (2008) share powerful similarities with Mitch and Donny, one being that both work for a potent figure in the crime life and act as ‘supplements’ to the potent figure or quite simply their status is lesser to the person they are working for, they are both a syndication of two people and are more or less likened to mercenaries that are seeking extrinsic rewards such as money, possibly drugs.

Cast and Crew

The selection of cast and crew for The Plan was predominantly taken away from us: being limited to only choosing cast and crew from our class rather than elsewhere and in hindsight, in regards to the potential inability to be perceptive and picking those who are equally as focused and sincere about the opening sequence as the student being assessed which is frankly dependent on maturity levels, was unquestionably a conservative decision as well as ultimately being the best. It was almost automatically decided that my group, which consisted of myself, who was also in the cast alongside Mitchell with the understanding that I would take the lead with editing the opening sequence afterwards, Alexandra and Hannah, was going to be the crew, in the process using our strengths and weaknesses spotted in the preliminary task as a baseline and continuation onto the main task. 

There were not major issues with the search for cast, given that I volunteered instantly to be one of the cast although there was a small question over the availability of Mitchell due to his work with other groups and the uncertainty over the amount of workload he had for other subjects that would hinder him from dedicating time to helping with the opening sequence. 

With more time available, could we have made different decisions? Always difficult to say as it has not happened and that in the past so you will never what we could have done differently to help ourselves, maybe or maybe not with more devoted to cast and crew.

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