A Short Commentary on Three Film Openings
The first film that I'm going to be talking about is "The Dark Knight". The opening scene in this is fantastic in my opinion; It sets the scene effectively, sets the pace of the movie and allows the audience to foreshadow some of the events that may take place in the movie.The very first camera shot is a Panning Shot of a city, which we later learn is Gotham City where the rest of the movie will take place. As the camera zooms further into one of the buildings you see some glass shatter and two figures appear in the window. After firing a grappling hook, the movie cuts to a long shot of another figure with his back turned and slowly zooms into a clown mask he is holding. This gives the audience the idea that this person is particularly important. As the opening scene progresses a lot of dialogue is centred around a villainous person known as The Joker. From this we can tell that this villain will be an integral part of the film. As the people enter a bank in clown masks and armed with guns the audience understands that violence is going to be a common theme in the Movie.

My Second film is Jaws. A fantastic opening scene which starts with a long shot of a girl running towards the sea. As she jumps in the water the camera angle changes to give the viewer an idea of location; A serene beach. The girl begins to swim into the distance and the camera adjusts to a mid shot of the girl so the audience can see what she looks like. As the camera angle pans to view her from under the water it gives the impression of something watching her. Couple this with the entry of tense music and the scene changes from being calm to having an air of danger about it. Finally as the camera zooms into the underwater girl the music reaches a crescendo the women screams and is dragged around the water in fits of pain. From this opening scene we know that the unknown predator will make another appearance in this film.


My final film is Trainspotting. It opens with a shot of a high street pavement and as two pairs of legs hit the ground and start running. A narrative starts telling you what you should choose in life. As the shot is reversed the camera zooms up to introduce two characters. we see over their shoulders that they are being chased by security guards and CD's and DVD's are falling out of their clothes. As they are chased further a car hits one of them and his name is introduced, Renton. After this the scene cuts to an impromptu football match which then introduces all the other characters as the game is played out. From a camera angle looking up we see someone foul one of the players and protest that he didnt do it. We see a title next to his name, Sick Boy. As the football match is played out and other characters are intoduced, the scene changes to a bare and destitute house. Renton is in the middle of the floor and as he collapses we hear the narrative say he chose heroin.