Film Opening

Silence of the lambs.

The opening starts with an establishing shot of what look like the woods, as there are trees and grass in the shot. It looks quite foogy which adds to the mystery and thrill of the film. I think that this is a good opening shot to have as it set the scene for the viewers, inthe beginning. The camera then slowly moves down to show the first and main character, Jodie Foster. During this there is a very sinister and gloomy soundtrack going on in the background, and the credits are edited into the shot as well. Then we see Jodie Foster at a low angle coming up closer to the screen, at this point we cant tell what is going on, it just looks like sh is doing some exercise. We then have a tracking shot from behind her whilst she is jogging, again while this is going on the credits appear on the screen. Slowly we see her jogging into the distance and the credits continue then fade out when she runs into the fog, this then becomes a long shot. It then goes into a medium close up tracking from the front so we can see her face. The mise-en-scene works well here as we can see the fog and the trees inthe background. This then cuts straight into a tracking shot from the side as if someone is running beside her, here the soundtrack also gets a bit higher to create suspense and tension. The medium close up of her feet whilst she is running is a good shot, as it is also tracking her through the forest. During this, the titles appear, they are plain simple titles which are bold so they stand out. The camera conitues to follow her using different shots such as medium close ups and long shots and tracking from behind again, whilst this is happening the titles continue to roll.
We then see her run to a net which makes us think that she is on an assualt course, but we are still not sure of what is happening at this moment and time. As she jogs to the next section of the assualt course, another character appears in the frame. The is minimal dialougue here, he tells her thats somebody wants to see her. We dont know who it is but as we see her face it shows us that she does know who it is, also at the end of this shot we now know that she could be FBI or in the police force as the other male character is wearing a FBI cap. The next shot is her running out of the course/forest and we know she is going to meet this guy. the titles cotinue to roll inbetween. The there is a long shot showing us other people training and now some of the mystery is gone. There is an establishing shot of building suggesting that she is at the place to meet this man who we dont know. As it zooms in we see her in the building and in continues to track her into the office, in the building the mise-en-scene creates the image that it is a FBI building full of police officers, as everyone is in suits and she passes a firearms unit. Dialougue then continues as we see her speak to a man in s iut who tells her to wait in his office. The camera follows her from behind into the office, the office seems like a supiors office because of the furniture. In the next shot we see a lot of close ups of her facial expression as she looks shocked at the case on the wall and pictures and articles of it. Then the other character appears and we think that it is the the boss, who wants to talk to her. The dialougue in here is mainly about her file, yet she is still shocked to why she is there.