Props: What We Interact With

     Although there won’t be a lot of props in our opening, it is still very important that I discuss them as they can be often overlooked but are still a very important piece of the bigger picture (in this case, the film opening). Similar to lighting, props can also tell a story on their own and can also help convey certain narratives such as tension and ambiguity. Here are the primary props that we plan to use and why exactly we plan to use them

    The Phone: The object that helps represent the secrecy and expectance of the incoming scene. The phone that the buyer checks confirms to the audience that there is an impending interaction between him and the dealer soon and that it also helps show a sense of confirmation that the buyer is trying to get and that it could possibly also highlight a fear of uncertainty as the text message that we plan to have sent could raise tensions as typically seen in various high stakes situations such as the one that is our film opening. 

    The Money: With money being exchanged for the fake drugs, I like to think of it as a ‘point of no return’ as whenever you exchange money for something, you typically do not return your item and you receive another product in exchange for the money. In the opening, we plan to portray this via a tight close up shot that shows just the money being handed to the surface (platform) where the products are exchanged (the platform is used to exchange products between the two as no hand to hand distribution is done as per the rule made by the dealer). We could have the buyer hold the money with a tight grip to highlight previous hesitation that is introduced during the beginning where the buyer pulls out the phone. Overall, the money represents trust and risk and a typical point of no return. 

    (The money is inside the envelope; the envelope is meant to symbolize the money)

    The fake drugs: This is obviously what the money is being exchanged for by the buyer. The drugs represent a typical temptation that often results in consequences which could be in the form of something like criminal prosecution, violence, and addiction or death caused by one of these reasons. They also represent the crossing of ethical boundaries as a result of their illegal nature and consequences as a result. In conclusion, this shows that the buyer is tempted to buy something that would give him a short dopamine rush and is willing to go to far extents to get whatever he wants to achieve this dopamine rush. 

    (We plan to use supplements or medication such as vitamins or maybe a fake substance mixture such as sugar or salt in a Ziploc bag)

    The Implied Weapon: Although this would not be an actual weapon for obvious reasons, we would like to recreate a weapon that looks as similar to a real weapon as possible. Either a small pocket knife or a handgun. This represents the power that the dealer has over the buyer especially whenever the dealer kidnaps the buyer and the buyer is tied up. We don’t plan to fully show the makeshift fake weapon that we plan to show, we plan to only imply that the dealer has a weapon through clothing or something else that shows that the dealer has a weapon that can be seen or implied through concealment. 

    (We would not have any actual weapons shown in the scene but instead we would imply that the Dealer has a weapon while he is above the Buyer who is on the ground) 

    The Rope: And finally, the rope represents how the buyer is trapped and is at a loss after getting kidnapped. The fate of the buyer is in the dealer’s hands. In short, this represents entrapment and the inability to do anything about it especially as a result of the consequences that the buyer was willing to face for a short dopamine rush that many people regret especially after using drugs.