Foreshadowing

A key component to my plot is the realization by my main character that beyond her small suburban town lays land untouched by man. Although my opening is going to be focused on setting, I want to foreshadow the plot. I spent a lot of time thinking of ways to do this and integrate into my setting shots. I finally came up with something.

We have all seen "Made In..." labels of all types of products. This label identifies where the product was made. Common labels include "Made in China" and "Made in Mexico." Even though they are made in a certain country, they appear in countries all across the world. This shows the global scale in which products are manufactured. For my film I want all the labels to say "Made in Weston," the name of my town. I am going to incorporate these labels all throughout my intro so that the viewer begins to question why everything was made in that town. The reason for this would be that everything must be made in the town, because they are the only town in existence, there is no one else to make it for them.

I feel that by incorporating these small details I can hint towards the plot without explicitly stating it. A common quote I've seen when referring to good film-making is "Don't give the audience 4, give them 2 plus 2." - Andrew Stanton, from his Ted Talk. This basically says not to give away everything to the audience, make them figure it out. Audiences like to figure things out for themselves. I want to make my audience think. I don't want to give them all the information, I want them to work for it. It is a small addition that I hope will make a big difference.

Sources:
http://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_stanton_the_clues_to_a_great_story