Opening Scene - The Road

During this lesson we watched another opening scene from the film The Road which is a post-apocalyptic film. The opening shot was establishing shots of a bright and colourful garden filled with bright flowers and a shot of a family playing showed happiness. this scene also includes a graphic match as after it shows the stills of the flowers it them shows a woman in a floral dress which is showing us she is as pure and delicate as the flowers. It could also link to fertility and birth as it is spring time and then cuts to the next scene when the woman is pregnant. Another graphic match in this opening scene is at the end of the first scene and into the next scene. the bright colourful flowers get blocked out by a dark door which shows the end of the positivity. This then matches with the next scene which is dark and gloomy and was a lot darker than the other shot but still had a bit of colour with the red and orange tones from out of the window which suggests fire. This scene included a man waking up in panic and started to fill up the bath tub whilst his pregnant wife questioned what was happening. Many people in my class was confused by his actions in this scene and questions why he was filling up the bathtub in a time of crisis. Some of the class thought that it was to conserve water and others thought it may be to induce labour. A sound bridge is used here as in the previous scene the man is running the bath and diegetic sound can then be heard again in the next scene when the man wakes up next to the waterfall. The next scene shows the world completely differently to what was have just seen.There is not colour left and it seems that the colour was slowly disappearing as the scenes moved on you can see this when he uses a panning shot across the lake and shows how destroyed the place is. The world is very achromatic and dull which suggests something severe has happened. There was a small hint during the opening scene which suggests that something severe has happened to the world when the young. It wakes up crying for his dad and the dad replys 'it's okay it's just another earthquake'. there is a scene that puts emphasis on a sign that says ' the valley of slaughter'  and then shows them walking into the tunnel this is suggesting that something may happen to them if they go into the tunnel. there is a shot used where the light is behind them in the tunnel like something is bad at the other end. This opening scene uses a lot of establishing shots to show how deserted and damaged the place has become. There were many other shots including, close up, crane shot and extreme close up to show the emotion of the characters or how little emotion that they have for example when the man opens the bin and finds human remains the close up shot shows us that he is used to it all. Long shots and mid shots are used to show how isolated they are and how alone they are. there as also a point of view from the young boy looking up at the mounted deer head as he has never seen anything like this before because there isn't any animals that have survived the earthquakes. The light at the end on the opening scene in the tent connotates positivity and that the two character are the last bit of positivity in the world. There are 3 character in this opening scene a man and pregnant women in the flashback and then the same man and a young boy in the present time. This gives us an indication of how the apocalypse has been going on for as the young boy is around 4/5 and the wife was pregnant with the young boy in the flashback. The sound in the scene is very slow paced and peaceful at the beginning to show the happiness and peacefulness, once the man wakes up from his dream the music suddenly stops and it shows the reality of the moment and how the peace has now gone. Mise en scene plays a massive part of the media industry and a few things that I analysied during the scene was the clothing and the characters possetions. The teddy bear that the young boy carries round with him shows his innocence in this situation and that also shows how young he really is. The family also carry round a trolley with them to put all there possessions in, there whole life is in the trollley which resembles homeless people in real life. Money and jewels were scattered across the floor and the characters walk over them without a care, this shows that the items are insignificant in this world and that they are of no value anymore. The the plot of the film is similar to the Book Of Eli and doesn't really give any indication about that has happened and why the place is so deserted. it gives slight hint so that you are questioning what has happened. The road has been classed at a 15 films sue to infrequent strong violence, language and gory images. this is also because the film includes sights of cannibalism and dismembered victims which is the guidelines for a 15 classification.

 link to the road opening scene on YouTube