1. OPENING OF FILMS
Today in our lesson we are looking at Back to the future which was directed by Robert Zemeckis.
We are looking particularly at the camera shots that are used in the opening scene. Back to the
future uses a wide variety of shots that make the audience feel a certain way.
In the opening scene it started by panning and a close up of an individual clock. As time goes on,
the camera started to pan from left to right showing a wider range of clocks, it panned around the
room and it didn’t take long for the audience to realise that clocks and time was of huge
importance in this film. Leading on from this the camera carries on panning from left to right and
stops on a newspaper article, the newspaper headline stating that a mansion had been blown up.
This maybe hinting that the person that lived in this house had lived in a mansion. Once there had
been a close up of the news article the camera started panning from the right side of the room to
the left, while doing this it stopped and zoomed into the news on the TV, which stated that some
plutonium had been stolen, the directors were obviously hinting things that the audience would
know later on in the film.
Shortly after, the front door opened and there was a low angle close up of legs, shoes, and a
skateboard. The person enters the house and immediately shouts the name “Einstein”. While
doing this the camera carries on low angle showing the skateboard being pushed into the table,
the shot was a wide shot at this point as they kept the kitchen in the background, but you could
also see underneath the table which there was hiding the plutonium box.
At this point we have not yet seen the boy’s face, so it is mainly low shots in the opening of the
film so far. The boy heads over to amps and speakers, and grabs his guitar. At this point a lot of
extreme close up shots started being used, while he was turning the amps up there was also point
of view shots.
The camera then zooms out to a long shot resulting in showing the room and the boy stood in
front of the speaker. There is then an extreme close up on the guitar pic and as he strums down on
the strings the speaker blows. The camera cuts straight to him falling at the back of the room and
all the shelves falling onto him. This is when a mid-shot of him comes in, this is the first time the
audience see’s the actor.A few seconds after this the phone rings, the boy answers. The camera
starting panning from right to left into another room following the boy. As the boy realises he is
late for school he grabs his bag and runs out to the road. There is an establishing shot which shows
his house, and then the camera continues to use the establishing shot as he goes down the street,
this helps show the town that he lives in and helps make an image about the film for the audience.
The opening of the film ends by the boy skateboarding into his school, it ends with a wide
establishing shot to show the school and the setting behind him.