Ideas for an Opening Sequence

By Elena Escalante

1st IdeaInspiration:•“The Third Man” (1949) last scene.•“The Elephant Man” (1980) fair sequences.•“Leon. The Professional” (1994) characters and action scenes.

1st IdeaPlot of the Opening Sequence:

Two couples enter a cabin in a ferris wheel. The man from one of them is an assassin who kills the other two due to a disagreement with the mafia. The contrast between the four people entering the cabin and the two leaving must be emphasised. The ferris wheel keeps turning as if nothing had happened.

1st Idea

Plot of the whole Thriller:

An assassin is hired by the mafia to kill a drug dealer who has been causing trouble. From that moment on, he has signed a contract and ends up getting involved in too many problems. He tries to scape from the spiral in which he is in with the help of his wife and, after a massive fight in a club, they manage to escape.

1st IdeaPros

•Beautiful aesthetic•Visually descriptive and innovative•Effective in building tension

Cons

•Difficult to film•Setting requirements•Technical and time problems•The idea itself is only attractive if carried out in specific conditions

2nd IdeaInspiration:

•Escape games•Opening sequences from previous years•TV shows with risky, extreme situations

2nd Idea

Plot of the Opening Sequence:

Five people are trapped in a room and someone has told each one of them in secret, as if they should not inform the others because they are the only ones to know, that there is a bomb in the room. They try to sort out the situation in different ways. Finally, someone shouts that there isn’t any bomb. The rest look at him/her in astonishment.

2nd Idea

Plot of the whole Thriller:

A science experiment is carried out by the government to understand human behaviour in a situation of emergency. One of the participants knows too much, and a chase starts to take place in order to find out his/her secret. Espionage thriller with touches of sci-fi.

3rd IdeaInspiration:

•Comedies like “Some Like It Hot”(1959).•The surrealism that Fellini suggests.•Psycho (1960). Norman Bates as a character, in a different context.

3rd Idea

Plot of the Opening Sequence:

A psychopath is alone in the woods, yelling that he doesn’t know where he left his corpse. A policeman, alerted by his screams, comes round and tries to make him reason and finally drag him into a mental hospital, until he finds a surprise under some leaves: there is actually a corpse there.

3rd Idea

Plot of the whole Thriller:

A psycho has committed a murder and returns to the scene of the crime due to a feeling of remorse. A policeman finds out. The rest of the film would be the reconstruction of the life of the psycho through flashbacks.

4th IdeaInspiration:

•“Taxi Driver” (1976)•“Sweeney Todd” (2006)

4th Idea

Plot for the Opening Sequence:

Two killers who have just committed a crime enter a taxi, after leaving a suspicious bag in the trunk. They talk about their crime trying to be discreet. In the end of the journey, the taxi driver turns and blackmails them, insisting on the fact that he also wants to keep the corpse.

4th IdeaPlot of the whole Thriller:

A taxi driver is obsessed with taxidermy —even human—. He finds his opportunity to continue with his particular hobby when two killers ride his taxi. Outraged because of their loss of money, they try to put the taxi driver in jail covering themselves through different personalities.