The film begins with a sound bridge of thunder over the opening credits, which means straight away the film is signified as a thriller. There is then an establishing pan shot of a landscape that then tracks in to a man laying on the ground whilst a constant note is being played over the top to build the tension to what the man is doing. It stays in the same shot as it tracks round him to see him getting up. It then cuts to an other panning shot of the landscape to emphasis where he is, isolated in a mountainous area. It also allows them to put the title over the top. The sun then comes out from behind a cloud and starts to cover the entire screen until it is white, which allows it to cut into a new scene.
As it cuts to a new scene music comes on, it is high paced and upbeat, it is a complete contrast to what we were expecting after the first scene. A dolly shot is now used to show him front on as he cycles down the mountains. Following this it cuts to a medium shot to the side of him with light breaking through the trees behind him which suggests it is the morning. It then has a motivated cut back to the previous dolly shot as he turns the corner. It then cuts to a point of view shot of him cycling down showing the road ahead.
There is then a jump cut to a close-up of a sign advertising a Halloween carnival, this suggests that this will be relevant later in the film. Then within the same shot it tracks right to see the same person on his bike coming towards the camera past the sign and then the camera follows him round as he turns.
Overall this sequence is made up of less than 10 shots which shows that you do not necessarily need a lot of cutting to make in effective, a good example of this the the opening shot as it films for 1 minute and 6 seconds without cutting. This means that when we do our 2 minute opening it is not essential for us to do high high cutting rate, montage like sequence, we can have continuity and a slow cutting rate, if we choose.
As it cuts to a new scene music comes on, it is high paced and upbeat, it is a complete contrast to what we were expecting after the first scene. A dolly shot is now used to show him front on as he cycles down the mountains. Following this it cuts to a medium shot to the side of him with light breaking through the trees behind him which suggests it is the morning. It then has a motivated cut back to the previous dolly shot as he turns the corner. It then cuts to a point of view shot of him cycling down showing the road ahead.
There is then a jump cut to a close-up of a sign advertising a Halloween carnival, this suggests that this will be relevant later in the film. Then within the same shot it tracks right to see the same person on his bike coming towards the camera past the sign and then the camera follows him round as he turns.
Overall this sequence is made up of less than 10 shots which shows that you do not necessarily need a lot of cutting to make in effective, a good example of this the the opening shot as it films for 1 minute and 6 seconds without cutting. This means that when we do our 2 minute opening it is not essential for us to do high high cutting rate, montage like sequence, we can have continuity and a slow cutting rate, if we choose.
James - you make some perceptive observations, but this is a little short. You needed to comment on sound and how tension is established at the beginning as well as changing the mood of the sequence when sun comes up.
ReplyDeleteAlso - why excactly are we drawn into the narrative? More specific examples.
3+