Beginning a Story or Scene ‘En Media Res’, or using a Wide Angle
Have you ever thought about the opening scenes of movies? If you pay attention, you will start to notice how they often begin with a sort of wide angle view of the world in which the story takes place. In Star Wars, Episode IV, A New Hope, we get text scrolling which gives backstory, but then we see a planet, then two, then the edge of a planet, up close and personal, and then, WOW!, we see a ship fly by. Then it’s firing. Right away we know that this story is set in outer space and there is a battle or war going on. We get a ‘wide angle’ view of the setting and situation before it cuts to C3PO and R2D2 in the corridor inside one of the ships. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLgsf8Pei6Q In True Grit, we get voice over giving backstory as the camera starts from a distance, then slowly moves in and gains focus on the porch of a …
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