This shot uses a conventional location - a domestic setting, one which you would expect to see in a lot of films, especially in the opening when the scene is being set. The location is very true to real life and doesn't look like its just come off the production line for a top blockbuster film. The costumes used are also very realistic and are the kind you would expect to see in any film. Also shown in this shot is the male character, Dylan, leaning over the female character, Jennifer. We used a high angle shot here to highlight how vulnerable Jennifer is, this shot also contrasts against shots towards the end of the two minutes as her character has 'switched' to somebody who will use violence to get herself out of a difficult situation. This conforms to the negative stereotype of men being more powerful than women, and in some ways challenges what you would usually expect to see in the opening of a film due to it being unusually to find such a challenging interpretation of relationship hierarchy.
This shot once again features Dylan leaning over Jennifer, and suggests that he sees himself as more important and 'in charge'. Using this shot early on really helps to describe the story to the viewer, and also hints to the reader of the genre of the film - drama. Again, the shot uses the domestic location which helps to point out that the film also mirrors what can happen in real life. Using a two-head shot for this moment makes the characters both fill up the screen, this gives the characters more prevalence in the film and also helps to involve the audience in the film, as it gives them a chance to connect with the characters.
This shot shows Jennifer's reaction after she stabbed Dylan. Using a close up shot here highlights Jennifer's expression and emotion, and helps to convey to the audience. Having Jennifer stare directly at the camera helps the viewer to empathize with Jennifer's feelings. Showing this facial expression in the opening scene of the film really sets the mood for the length of the film, and informs the audience of the drama which will unfold. Without including shots like these, it would have been hard to convey the genre of the film to the viewer.
This close-up shot shows Jennifer picking up the knife which she will later stab her partner with. Using realistic props such as the knife throughout the opening scene has increased the realism of our film, and also helps to keep the mood realistic - and prevents it from turning into a comedy film. The knife also points out a lot about the character's relationships with each other and sets the theme of what will happen when the viewer begins to find out what led to the violent behavior, this shots acts as an enigma, as the character begins to wonder what happened to the couple to lead to such a dramatic ending of their relationship.
This extreme close-up shows Jennifer's eyes when she reflects on having to stay in her abusive relationship. This shot also relates to issues of domestic abuse in the real world, and can also hep to educate people on what it could be like to have an abusive partner. As this shot can be linked with issues in the real world it can offer an opportunity for the viewer to connect with the characters. This shot also conforms the the conventions of a drama film as you would always expect some sort of emotional breakdown to occur. I feel that mise en scene is also used effectively in this shot as the colour blue used in the character's eye make up has connotations of depression and devastation, this being linked with the tear residue underneath the eyes highlights Jennifer's feelings, and again, backs up the genre indicators displayed throughout the opening scene. One thing which could be improved in this shots would be the lighting. I feel that it would have been more effective at portraying Jennifer's emotions to the audience if the light was 'warmer', we could have done this by placing a dim light in front of the actors face to help to highlight the facial features and include more detail of the eye - which would help to make the overall shot more effective.
This shot shows Jennifer looking very vulnerable whilst she is being grabbed by Dylan, this shows how threatening she finds their relationship, and also conveys this feeling to the audience. During my research I found out that when the opening scene of a film conveys the character's feelings clearly, and contains genre indicators, the film is generally successful at capturing the audiences attention. I feel that shots like this shot are very similar to those in other film opening of the drama genre and that this leads to our opening scene capturing the audience's attention well. The lighting used in this shot is very harsh, something which might not be very common in the first few minutes of a film, however, using this lighting allows us to tell the audience how Jennifer is feeling about the relationship she feels trapped in, and the light signifies the feelings involved in her relationship. We created tension around this moment by increasing the pace of editing - I feel that this was very successful as it helped to portray an almost 'panicky' mood to the audience.
This is another shot used in our opening scene which again shows how abusive Dylan is being towards Jennifer. Dylan's facial expressions in this shot shows how violent and selfish his actions are, it also subverts the audiences preconceptions and widely accepted stereotypes of men being kind and respecting women. Our opening scene contains quite a lot of violent actions depicted, more than that of most drama films during the first to minutes, but we feel this works due to the non-linear style narrative we have used as it allowed us to show a large portion of the character's lives in less than two minutes.
This shot here shows how Jennifer's behaviour has quickly changed within, from being a vulnerable quiet character who had to put up with years worth of violence, to a character who has quickly turned to violence to attempt to solve her problems. This shot again takes place in a domestic setting, showing the audience how customary these type of behaviours are in their relationship. This shot again seems quite drastic due to it featuring a character being stabbed in the opening scene of a film, however we feel it fits the mood of the film really well due to it being non-linear. So although it is challenging the conventions of the opening scene of a drama film, we feel that this is for the better, and is more appropriate then excluding these ideas. We chose to not include our antagonist's in this shot to focus the audience's attention of the protagonist's feelings, and to help highlight how much she acted on impulse. It also helps to centre the frame on the stabbing, making it the main focus point for the audience. We also spent a lot of time creating and placing the fake blood. It was important to spend time on this as if it went wrong, it would make our production feel unprofessional, and may make the audience lose interest in the film.
This shot shows one of the first moments shown to the audience when the film begins to move back in time. This moment is a real contrast to what the audience has just been shown of the relationship of the two characters as ti shows them getting a long and both smiling. This again challenges what the audience would be expecting from the opening scene of a drama film as the mood of the film has changed in less than a minute, however, I feel that this is a very effective method in drawing the audience into watching the rest of the film, as it creates an enigma of what led up to the two extreme ends of their relationship shown. We cut to this shot following the future stabbing scene. We aimed from the opening two minutes for the audience to instantly make a connection with Jennifer, and to disregard Dylan, we wanted this impression to be kept up for the remainder of the opening two minutes, until after the rewind where we see the two characters meeting for the first time, in this moment both of the characters seem rational and friendly with each other, which we aimed to possibly change some of the viewer's opinions and preconceptions of the characters for the rest of the film to help them keep an open mind.
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