Construct With Memory

Sample Movie Deconstruction (3A)

As I continued my rough brainstorm sample I did from Episode One in the series Firefly I wrote out my perception of the scene changes. For each I choose what I thought to be the concept that stood out. Surprisingly though they did always match the purpose for each scene, or the scene goal. But they did trigger memories of other movies and stories, which gave me a foundation to connect from. Or, perhaps more of a hint or tip of something else under the surface.

It looks a little scattered however, it is a brainstorm with a purpose. I wanted to see where I thought the scenes changed. In this instance I did not have a list of headers. But when I’ve done this where I can compare the headers it’s interesting to see what matches and what doesn’t.

Here are the first seven out of fifteen. And again, this is the first episode so it’s all first view introductions.

One) Scene Change—six years later. What kind of music are we listening to?

Two) Series opening credit—theme song—what does the opening echo—a western.

Three) Pause for a moment on each character-what is your impression—why?

                (meant to go back later)

Four) meet??

Five) Persephone—Docks. Is that the name?

Six) Deal with Badger gone bad—pull out guns like a western

            “man of honor in a den of thieves”

Seven) Shepherd (Captain-main character) boards Serenity (spaceship). Then everyone boards.

After I marked out the scene shifts I was quite surprised at the several connections to westerns, which continued through almost all fifteen-scene breaks.

Journal Prompt:

1.     Take a small sequence in the movie and next to each scene or episode heading write down your own notes as to when the scene changed.

2.     What kind of mix is there between people, action, theme or location?

3.     Did they trigger memories of other similar styles?

4.     Does the ratio match your perception of the movie?

Share: Did any aspects surprise you? Why?