Costume/props and hidden secrets for film opening

Costumes/props for film opening

For the props in my film opening, I have a hard rubber training handgun that will act as the police officer's weapon that he will use to mistakenly use to shoot a child. This will also serve as this character's inspiration for his domestic violence. Another prop is the officer's police badge that adds authority to the character and stands as a sign that he is a respected member of the community.



Another prop is the police badge which represents this officer's authority and power that has been given to him as he acts as a public servant to defend and help people. This also acts as a memory of his past and shows how much he has fallen from this turn of events and downfall after killing this innocent.





For the costumes in my film opening, I have a tactical vest that the officer will wear when responding to the call about the shooting. This vest holds important police equipment like a radio and allows him to be recognized as a police officer. This vest also shows his preparation for a shootout as the officer is wearing a tactical vest which is designed for such events.

For my 'easter eggs' or hidden secrets, I had a poster that would have been on the wall in Scene C. This poster reads "Look for the light"which is a reference to the video game 'The Last of Us' where this line is part of the slogan for the anti-government group 'The Fireflies'. This line matches and fits this opening perfectly as it is a warning to the police officer about what will happen and that he should look for a way to prevent this downfall from happening. As he walks past and ignores this warning (as he is more focused on responding to this 911 call) he destines himself for what will happen. Sadly, I was unable to use this prop in my film opening as I had to cut out the shot where this poster was present as the take was too long and messed up the pacing of the scene that needed a greater sense of urgency.

I also used the prop of a coffee cup used by the officer to show his boredom and he stands leaning against his car waiting to be called out to respond to a situation. This prop changed to a beer bottle later on in the film opening to show the development in the officer's downfall from coffee to alcohol.







Another prop that I used was cigarettes. I considered using real cigarettes but decided against it based on the high cost/danger of doing so and for moral reasons of not wanting to support the tobacco industry. Instead, I sourced some fake cigarettes off of the internet and used them instead to show the development of poor choices made by the officer that is a part of his eventual downfall.




To show the audience what has happened and to give them greater context as to why the officer's downfall begins, I created a front page to a newspaper using a newspaper generator website online. Here is a link to the website that I used http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp
Below is the contents of the front page that I entered in on the website (the rest of the article was automatically filled with other pieces of writing in the other columns)

"An unidentified officer of the LAPD shot and killed an 8 year old girl this last Monday after responding to reports of shooting at an undisclosed household in the LA area. The officer was freed from police custody and is currently under review based on their actions. The call that the officer was responding to was reports of shooting and a suspected home invasion that led to this officer responding to the call and subsequently shooting an 8 year old girl. Police have refused to release the 911 calls made by victims of this situation as well as refusing to release body cam footage of the officer. The officer was described as "unstable" and is suspected by many to still be dangerous. The 8 year old girl's parents released a post on social media regarding this event as a "tragedy" and that this officer "should face the death penalty for their actions"."

The title of the newspaper is: The Daily LA Times
The title of this article is: Killer Cop Slaughters Young Girl of 8

The original intended date on the newspaper was Friday, October 15, 1999. However, this was not possible as the website did not allow for the date to be changed. The reason that I choose this date was because it was the release date of the 1999 film 'Fight Club' who's genre matched my products genre of Thriller and acted as an 'easter egg' in my product. Instead, I used the name Tyler Durden as the author who is a character in the film 'Fight Club'.