2. The opening of the film begins with a series
of establishing shots showing different
naturalistic environments. The first two
establishing shots showing an empty field,
and the second showing a horses stable are
followed by a close up of wheat blowing in
the wind and these scenes are virtually silent
with only the quiet natural environment
speaking for itself. The name of the film then
fades onto a plain black background and
when it appears in white writing a bell starts
to toll. The white writing against the black
background shows a contrast between what
could be seen as the good and the evil. As the
bell continues to toll, five more establishing
shots are shown of quiet empty streets. As
these are shown a piano starts to play with
the accompaniment of a cello creating a calm
yet eerie feel to this ghost town we are being
introduced to.
3. We are finally shown a
wide shot of her window
panning into an
establishing shot of the
main characters, Hazel’s
house. There is a zoom
out used in her room to
give us the full view of
her bedroom. Her hand
pops up in centre shot
showing us that this is
the most important
action happening at the
moment causing the
audience to focus on
what she is doing.
4. As soon as we are shown
the inside of Hazel’s room
the non diegetic
soundtrack stops and the
viewers are left with the
eerie silence of her room
whilst she is rummaging
around for her pills. The
small noises are louder
than usual and everything
else is silent and there are
no other distractions for
us to hear, this is backed
up by a close up of her
hand with the pills.
However once she leaves
her home for work the
soundtrack picks up again.
5. As she is reaching for the
tablets and has a rough looking
appearance, waking up on the
floor with bed hair and bags
under her eyes this gives us the
impression that she has had a
rough night with maybe too
much alcohol. She is shown
with a mid shot which shows
her standing up slowly and
trying to catch her balance.
This is backed up once she
reaches her office and pours
some form of spirit alcohol into
her coffee. This suggests that
she is an alcoholic. She is also
seen wearing sunglasses on a
dull morning which suggests
her eyes are tired due to
alcohol.
6. Hazel is wearing a police officers uniform
which brings along the stereotypes of
respect and politeness that she has for
other people, however she seems to
break all of these stereotypes by being
rather rude to her co worker and the man
in the restaurant who runs out to her car
to give her the food she ordered. When
the waiter is giving hazel her food, she is
in the centre of the shot whilst he is to
the side of the shot shown through the
gap of her car window. He asks her for
some help as she is a police officer, but
she dismisses him and tries to do up her
window faster to get away. Also once she
is sat at her desk in her office there is a
wide shot which shows her throwing a
ball at the office window to grab the
attention of the receptionist.
7. Through out the opening scenes Hazel has
prevalence as she is always in the centre of
the shot and the characters revolve around
her. She motivates the cuts which lets the
audience know that she is the most
important character on the screen at this
current point in time.
