1. Similar products – Film beginning analysis
FilmGenre:Drama
SimilarProduct2: Gone Girl– Directedby DavidFincher
The film begins with a black frame, then commencing with the protagonist of the film, Nick Dunne
talking about his wife. The first visual we see is a close up shot of the antagonist, Amy Dunne. As the
first minute of the film progresses, there is a slow fade to a black screen, followed shortly by the names
of the two main actors (Ben Affleck and Rosamund Puke). In the final seconds of the first minute, an
establishing shot of the sea appears. The title of the movie then appears above the shot.
As the sequence continues out of the shot of the sea, there is a long montage of establishing shots
screening different parts of the city, along with the credits running at the bottom of the frame. Late on
into the second minute we eventually see Ben Affleck’s character, with a medium shot of him standing
outside his house. This section ends with a long pan/track of the Nick going back into his house.
The sequence so far the lighting has remained quite simple, implying that later in the film there will be a
change in mood and setting. Drama films like to foreshadow, they have done this by almost giving away
that something bad might happen, this is because of the ‘’dead’’ look his wife gives us in the first minute
of the film while the dialogue says ‘’I picture cracking her lovely skull’’. At this point in time the
audience are certain in their minds that something bad is going to happen to his wife.
The third minute of the movie quite average, Nick Dunne is in his car approaching a bar. There is non-
diegetic music playing in the background, creating an eerie and quite daunting atmosphere. There is then
a close of shot of Nick as he gets out of his car and looks upon the neighbourhood. At this point as he
stares at the men down the road, we sense that there is something on his mind that has made him uneasy,
which is causing him to pay attention to odd moments in time. The lighting is brighter than the previous
sections, implying that for now nothing bad is going to happen. When he enters the bar and sits down,
there is an over the shoulder shot as the dialogue begins, which then turns into a shot-reverse-shot of him
and the bartender exchanging friendly conversation. There is no breakage of the 180 degree rule which
makes this conversation flow and also shows that these two are friends and have regular conversations.
Nick then slides his glass towards the bartender, which causes the fast fade into the next scene. The fade
represents the end of the introduction, because it then moves onto the narrative of the wife.
