Opening scenes

Before we could proceed with the filming of our actual preliminary task, we analysed several opening sequences to gain insight and ideas on specific camera angles/editing/sound/mise en scene, included in opening sequences. As a class, we watched the opening sequence of Silence Of the Lambs and we notice it’s a thriller-based film. This was connoted through the dark atmosphere and serious tone of the tense orchestral incidental music and serious dialogue. Firstly we gained the idea that Clarisse Starling (Jodie Foster) was in some sort ofdanger when the long shot shows her running through the forest alone.

As the sequence continued it became apparent that Clarisse was an intelligent woman considering she worked in a lab.

The use of the lab in the opening sequence also gave the audience the impression that the film is not only a thriller based film but had further psychological aspects to it. Furthermore her intelligence was again reflected through her high status job and the mid shot when in the lift with only men, who are in fact dressed in the same uniform which conveys her independence and confident attitude; allowing her to stand out from the crowd.

However the mid shot also shows that she is towered over by the males yet is not dominated in any way as she seems more relaxed in her surroundings as opposed to being tense or anxious.