Analyse a movie opening #1

The conjuring 2 :

At the very start of the opening scene you can see that the lightning is kept low in order to help
make it appear darker, which gives the audience connotations of evil and sinister situations.
The director will want to achieve this because the main narrative of the movie is evil and
sinister due to its relation to spirit and ghosts. Adding on to this, usually dark lightning or a use
of dark colors symbolizes death, or to make the audience ready for something to happen.

In continuity, there are many editing techniques they have used, one example is the 180 rule
which implemented at the end of the opening scene. As the two characters engage in
conversation, the camera moves in front of the 180 line where the two characters are. It
doesn’t go over that line, because it would result in a reverse angle shot, where the character’s
position would be reversed. Another shot that was used at the opening scene is the tracking
shot, where the children ran into the school and then it kind of tilted as it reached towards the
girls who was sitting on the stairs. On the other hand, in the opening scene the first shot was
end establishing shot of the house and the basement. This shot shows the neighbor and
character’s surroundings, that contains a lot of mist and fog which represents a fear of an
unknown effect. Building on, there’s also a close up shot used in the scene to focus on the
character’s eyes to show her emotions during the scene, which is mostly fear. One more
camera shot that I have recognized in the scene is the zooming in. The camera zooms in and out
of the character’s face. This shows the character’s feelings clearly and engages the audience to
know what’s going to happen next. Close up shots are often used to privilege the protagonist
over the characters.

Moving on, after the beginning of the opening scene when the location changed to the school,
you can hear the sounds of the children steps while they’re running during their break time,
which brings you back to reality. Not only that, but they also use many sound effects to make
the scene more interesting, and scary at the same time. The sound effects the scene uses are
non-diegetic, this is when the audience can only hear the sounds. However, the characters who
are in the scene can’t. There are also diegetic sounds, when the two girls are talking to each
other, and there are sounds of the people they’re surrounded with. This is diegetic because the
characters can actually hear what’s next to them.

In addition, the opening scene started off at the basement and then at the school. This setting
has been used to create a mysterious and frightening atmosphere due to the use of low key
lightning. The way in which the basement looks kind of old and full of old, creepy toys creates a
horrifying atmosphere. It also shows the audience that the sub-genre of this movie is most
likely to be horror.

As the lighting is very low key within the majority of the opening scene, the colors are generally
very dark for example blacks and greys. The dark colors overall, makes the audience engaged as
to what the story line may hold. It also, makes the genre very clear for the audience. The blacks
and greys are usually demonstrated as serious feelings, death, or something dull and unsecure
at the same time. The colors used in the opening scene signifies the horror genre.

In conclusion, overall this opening scene is put together brilliantly. Although there are repetitive
and a bit of predictable parts at the opening scene, however the scene was still well organized
and it didn’t only rely on jump-scares and buckets of blood to be successful.