The opening title sequence of Gone Girl establishes a sense of tension and urgency through its ominous music, swift editing with credits that fade in and out in just 3 seconds each, and Ben Affleck's narration that begins immediately. The first shot is a medium close up of a mysterious hand brushing an unknown woman's hair, associating the narration to the two characters and representing women as passive objects. The next shot shows the woman's fearful, unhappy face under low key lighting, placing her in the male gaze and conveying the dark nature of their marriage. An extreme long shot then presents the dull, unhappy lives of the couple in their unpleasant living environment to further set the stage.

1. Gone Girl
OPENING
SEQUENCE
TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

2. • During the production and distribution title sequences
the ominous music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is already an effect
• Audience is immediately thrown in to sense of tension
• Each title credit last no longer than 3 seconds ( one second to fade in , 1
second pause, 1 second to fade out)  leaving you with only a breath
chance to scan the text genery reading the sense of urgency the editing is
swift and there is no moment of relief
• Ben Afflects narration begins instanly after title credit forcing our senses
to shift a concentration the dialogue and also still reading the text ( Stimuli,
Sound, visual text)
SOUND

3. • Begins with a two second fade in to
a medium close up of a mysterious
hand, brushing the hair of an
unknown women
• Straight away the audience can kind
of associative the narration to the
mysterious hand  referring the
women as his wife ( relation of the
two characters)
• The fact that the man is brushing
the hair of the woman represents
the stereotype that women are just
seen as passive objects, this is also
represented here due to the
dialogue where he talks about
cracking her skull
FIRST SHOT

4. • This medium close up of the
woman's face connotes her fear and
her unhappiness of her husband and
their marriage
• The fact that we can see her eyes
looking up connotes that she is being
placed in the mans gaze linking to
Laura Mulveys theory of a males
gaze.
• The low key lighting connotes the
dramatic and somewhat dark
marriage that they may have.
• This lighting could be a dominant
iconography of the genre since low
key lighting is a convention of a
thriller film
FIRST SHOT (2ND PART)

5. • This extreme long shot connotes
dullness of the lives of the two
people and possibly early stage in
their marriage where they are
unhappy
• This is also an establishing shot
that shows the setting of where
the films plot takes place in and
connotes the boring and
unpleasantness of the place they
are living in
SHOT 2