The opening scene of Donnie Darko is ambiguous, showing the protagonist alone at twilight seeming lost. The film title appears faded out by the sun flashing at 1:14 minutes without showing the cast list. This establishes Donnie comes from a middle-class family as his worried family asks "Where's Donnie?" on the fridge. The opening of The Invisible shows an aerial view of the sea then forest and city, with the forest connoting something sinister. The title appears in the woods, placing significance there. It's shown the protagonist comes from an upper-middle class white family, and he seems unhappy, walking away from a controlling mother who has his future planned. Guns pointing at him in

1. Film opening and title analysis
By Aksaah Ul-Haq

2. DonnieDarko
Donnie Darko
In the opening scene we do not hear any dialogue. The ambiguity of the scene is what would
draw the audience in, to think for themselves as to what the plot may be. The scene starts at a
twilight time of day, where it is neither dark nor bright, therefore, the director using a transitional
time of day is an effective technique. At the start, the protagonist is by himself at the top of what
seems to be a hill. He seems to have been out all night, alone. By looking at his face, we are able
to sense that he seems to be feeling a bit lost and in a daze. This could be represented by the
twilight as it is a time of day where nothing is clear. Donnie (the protagonist) seems to have been
out in his pyjamas all night which seems a little odd, so the audience may think that he may
have, perhaps, been sleepwalking.
The film title appears at 1:14 and fades out with the sun flashing. The font of the title is styled in
an old-like text and the style of it can also show ambiguity, and we do not see the cast list at the
start as a lot of other films do. After we see the sun flashing it out, we see Donnie riding his bike.
By the looks of things, the neighbourhood he lives in and the people around him could conotate
that he is from a middle-class family. Although his family seem rather laid-back and engrossed in
whatever they are doing, the audience are presented with a sign on the fridge asking “Where’s
Donnie?” which could imply that his family are worried about his whereabouts and where he
could be spending his nights.

3. The Invisible
During the opening we see 2 distributers, Spyglass entertainment being rather popular. At first we see an aerial view of the sea and it cuts to the
woods and then the city. The forest could connotate that something sinister may happen and it could be used as a foreboding tool. The title of
the film appears at the shot of the woods and the title being placed on the trees could reinforce the idea that there may be something there or
that something of significance had taken place there and may come back to haunt. In the 4 th picture, we see that this kind of property belongs to
a middle/upper class family and we see that the majority of people at this function are white. This could be seen as stereotypical as most people
would think of white people to be upper/middle class. In the 5 th picture we see the protagonist walking off, as though he is unhappy with the
situation he is in. Also, his mother seems to be the controlling type who already has her son’s future planned out for him. In picture 6, the type
of camera shot used here is a low angle shot which is rather effective as it is as though we are looking up at him. This could show that he has
authority over his own actions and what he does, hence his mother not telling him to come back, as she carries on talking to her guests. Also, we
can sense that there is no fatherly figure in this family otherwise he may have been in this scene, as most other films representing this type of
family class would show a father too, therefore, the audience may think that he has either passed away or left the family due to conflict.
In the 7th picture, the protagonist is cutting the eyes off of his own cake and this could represent that he is unhappy with who he is and his
identity. This could be described as identity conflict, as, perhaps he has problems with the way his life is turning out.
In the last picture, we see that there are guns in his room. They are pointing toward him which could forebode that something may happen to
him during the film.
The establishing shot of him walking to his bed with his back against the camera can reinforce the sense that he feels hopeless and doesn’t feel
as much as he may have used to.