Suspense films analysis

 For the project's second week first blog we have to analyze three film openings from movies of the same genre we chose so I will analyze about "The Silence of the Lambs", "Zodiac" and "Black Swan" as they are suspense films and very well rated.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The film starts in a forest not focusing on anything, and seconds later, the camera lowers to a long shot of a woman climbing a rope and getting closer to the camera. When she reaches the top of the rope, she stands up to a close up of her face smiling and changes to a mid, tracking shot of her, jogging, from the back but the camera starts slowing and the woman keeps her rhythm, so it cuts to a close, tracking shot of her jogging but now facing her face and not her back for a few seconds before changing to a mid, tracking shot recording her from the back. Then the camera focuses on a close up of her feet running and then to a close up of her face before switching to a long shot of her climbing ropes with the form of a spider web and when she gets down the camera stays behind waiting for a male character that was running from behind, as she keeps jogging but then the woman stops to speak with the man who tells her to go back. Then it cuts to a long shot of the woman running by a group of men in what looks military uniforms and gets into a building, all while the camera is steady in the same place.

Zodiac (2007)

The movie starts with an establishing shot of the city "San Francisco" and cuts to a mid shot of the bathroom in a little apartment where a kid is sitting on the sink and a man goes in while both of them brush their teeth and then it switches to a close up of both of their faces while they have a conversation. Then they get out of the bathroom in the same mid-shot as before and it cuts to a long shot of the kid and man getting into a car. After that they get to the kid's school and in a close up of their faces, they say goodbye to each other. After, the man gets in the car, it cuts to a mid shot of him sketching in the car while the traffic is honking at him and then switches to deep focus shot where the camera is focusing on the building behind the man that it's a chronicle inferring that he works there. He proceeds to get in the building in a mid-shot but when the camera loses sight of him because it's outside, it focuses on a mail van like if it was going to be important in the film. Then a mid shot of the man getting in the elevator and a long shot of the van parking and a man getting out while a sliding gate opens and a guy gets out of the building with a cart where the mail man puts all the mail. After putting the mail, the scene follows the man from the beggining and the cart with the mail while they both go to the same office and then showing with a close up of the hands of some people ordering the mail that had already got to the first office it was directed. Then the mail and the man are shown going to their destiny and finally they get to where they wanted with a mid shot showing the man and another mid shot showing the cart. The opening has a very fast background music to create a sense of lateness.

Black Swan (2010)

The film starts with a light slowly turning on and aiming to a woman dancing in a long shot and everything else is pitch black, then switches to a tracking close up shot of her feet dancing showing her remarkable footwork, she slowly sits down and when a man followed by the camera appears on screen, she stands up and they start dancing syncronized while he is always facing her back and with a close up of her face the music gets heavier and she gasps like she was afraid and then the camera turns to the left while the dancers turn to the right. The dancer gets close enough to the camera to make her face visible showing that she is very scared and then while dancing they keep turning to the right until with a mid-shot of the man, he spins where he is standing and switches clothes unexplicably. He proceeds to dance faster, aggresiver and then makes her spin so she changes clothes too while the background music gets faster and faster. Finally with her new clothes representing a swan she starts dancing with her arms like she was flying with wings and the close up turns into a long shot while she and the light start fading away.