The opening sequence is taken from the film the secret window directed by David Koepp and starring Johnny Depp. It is a psychological thriller. It starts with the sound of windscreen wipers, which we hear before we know what the sound is. This creates a repetitive and rather sinister atmosphere at the start. The opening shot is a close up of Depps face and the voice over of his thoughts saying “turn around, turn the car round and get the hell out of here” the sound of the voice over is diegetic. This opening scene creates quite a confusing but dark atmosphere. When the car reverses the camera stays in position, the car get further away from the camera to reveal a blood red motel sign behind it which keeps the atmosphere very sinister.
When Depp leaves his car the camera follows him and changes from going to the dark coloured outside to the warm, light and cosy atmosphere reception area the change of scenery here I think shows the light and the dark or the good and the bad effect. When Depp gets back into his car we get and over the shoulder shot of him hurtling towards a specific room in the motel, which starts to build a tense atmosphere and a scene that puts you on edge to what happens next. In the next shot we have Depp going into the motel room to find what we think is his wife cheating on him with another man. The sound in this part of the scene is muffled and sort of faded to make a very evil and sinister atmosphere and Depp lets out a horrendous scream to complete the atmosphere. The shot used in that specific part of the scene is a follow shot.
The camera then fades into
the first helicopter ocean shot which pans up to a nature shot, which then
fades into the second helicopter nature shot, which then fades into a low angleshot directed at the house. This takes the film back in time and begins to tell
the story of how this moment came to happen. This is a very popular technique
used in films as it sets the tone for the whole film. The colours we see in
these shots are earth toned once the shot is lifted inside the house they
change to more warmer and homely tones such as red, orange and brown. This
connotes that we go from the wilderness and unknown of the outside into the
warmth and safety of the indoors.
