Choose Opening Analysis - Chelsea Neil

Research #1 - Choose (2011)

This movie was released on the 23rd March 2011, it is known as the genres 'Crime, horror, drama, thriller'. I have analysed the beginning of the film (First 2 minutes):

Analysis

The beginning of this film starts with a girl on the screen talking to another teenager - They appear to be gossiping about girly things, this instantly makes you believe that this is a normal day to day thing and that everything is normal. Not only this, but the shot is of a girl talking on the screen, the reflection of the girl on the left hand side makes you realise that another girl is watching this.

In the second shot, more characters are introduced. There is a straight edit into a two shot to make it flow, not only this, but straight away you can tell that these two new characters are in fact the parents.





This is then followed by a close-up of the girl, it makes the audience know what she is feeling by her emotions and her facial expressions.

The mise-en-scene in this shot demonstrates the life of a typical teenager, the room is very girly and pink with everything around the girl, the colours on the girl make her blend into her bedroom. Not only this but the teenage girl is talking to her friends on her laptop which is a typical thing teenagers are known to be doing and is then disrupted by her parents walking into her room, telling her to go to bed. This shot is a two shot, which then moves onto a shot reverse shot between both the teenage girl and her father sitting on the bed and her mother standing near the door.

This two shot starts to open up and give the audience a view of the atmosphere they are in, from what this shot shows, it is clear they are in a large house - A wealthy family?

As the beginning of the film starts to progress, more and more characters are starting to be introduced. The mise-en-scene on this is a typical boys bedroom, it isn't overly messy and has a general mix of colours involved. From this point everything still looks like a completely normal household.

This shot creates a general mix of questions - Who is it, why is there a light on, where are they, are they doing something wrong?

I like how this shot doesn't reveal the character, but gives the audience a small type of tension. It gives a close up of a boy with a torch reading something, making us wonder why he is hiding under the covers.

The extreme close up of the boy gives us an idea of what he is feeling and tells us who it is and what he is doing, however it does not answer the question of why.

The way this camera shot is shown makes the teenage girl walking out of her room with the phone makes her almost seem like a prey, the fact that the shot makes the house seem so big with hardly any lights make you instantly think that someone is watching her. Not only this, but as the lights are all turned off, it makes you wonder if she is meant to be out of her room and what she is doing.

The way the camera shot is angled makes you wonder what the girl is walking to, it seems that as she is near the window she is in the light, however the further she goes down the stairs the dimmer the lighting gets. This automatically makes things wander through your head - Is something bad going to happen?

The way the shot focuses on the girl walking through the house, turning on the various light switches and the fact that her voice talking onto the phone is a constant reminder that she is there throughout the shot makes it seems as if she is a target as she seems to be the focus. Not only this but there is an ambient sound of the wildlife outside just in the background, there is a slow zoom in of the house, making you think that something is watching her.

I especially like how this shot is done, the way the stairs spiral round is exactly how the camera is angled - The camera spins round as she is walking back up the spiral stairs. The camera spinning represents dizziness and disorientation, something is awaiting for her.

I like how this shot is in the exact same place as on which was previously of her walking down the stairs, it is almost a sense of deja vu.

This shot of the lamp shining bright out the window, then suddenly going back ultimately gives us the impression that something bad is about to happen.

I really like the use of replicating some of the shots in this film opening, it almost gives you a sense that something bad is going to happen throughout the whole opening - It started with brightness and lighting, then faded to darkness with the girl walking around the house.