Narrowing Down The Plot

     Alrighty! So, I have figured out my genre and sub-genre. Genre: Drama. Sub-genre: Mystery. Now I just have to create a plot to it, even if I am making a montage of sorts, because it needs to introduce a film that does actually have a plot. 

       The main character, let's call her Genova, is a dancer and is passionate about ballet. She lives in a big city and is currently going to a dance academy there and is living in one of their boarding houses. Therefore, she has no family around (none to stop her from investigating). Dance, however, is not this girl's only interest. Her dad used to be in the FBI, and she can never stop herself from listening in to the police radio. She always wants to know if she can solve a crime faster than they can. It was kind of a game for her. However, when dancers start missing from her own studio, including one of her best friends, she starts to realize how very real these crimes can be. She decides to investigate and is horrified by the things she finds... eventually solving the crime, but at what cost? Now obviously, all this won't be revealed before and during the opening credits, but it helps build context for the intro, and helps make sure it doesn't stray too far from the main theme of the movie. 

    For the intro plot I was thinking, maybe it can start off with one of those boards with the red string connecting everything. That can be our main focus in the montage. It can cut to other stuff that foreshadows the plot; For example, since I'm making it dance related, it can cut to a bloody pointe shoe, or one cut up into pieces. It can then cut to a "newspaper" clipping with a heading of missing ballerinas and so on. Every so often it can cut back to the board, or zoomed in pieces of the board, which holds clues and connections between all the missing dancers. It could hold papers in their handwriting, pictures of them on and off stage, a list of people they are close too, etc. There could be some extremely close ups of the main character studying the board, and their hands taking things off and adding things on. It can all be to the beat of the music and using special effects, such as glitches to make it seem more engaging. All of this would be showing the credits too.

Example of crime board

Pointe Shoes