The opening to green mile uses an initially motionless camera to show us a scene featuring angry, poorly dressed men brandishing weapons running through a field. The stillness of the camera gives us perspective over how many people there are as we see them run passé one by one. The music at this interval is eerily quiet allowing us to hear with greater intensity one of the men screaming two girls names. By using a quiet piece of music we are put into a position of suspense as is common practise in thriller movies. Furthermore the sound of dogs enhances the panicked nature of the scene. The men are running in slow motion complimenting the eerie music.
When the camera zooms into a close up of a mans face we can see that this character is important due to him being the only one in focus. The pace then quickens as the camera pans left following the running men. The music changes into a saddening piano piece generating a depressed atmosphere and implanting the idea that something is horribly wrong.
At the penultimate point the screen suddenly fades to black and the music reduces to nothing. We hear a man whisper something very disturbing with a mention of “don’t scream” showing us that we are hearing the voice of the man being hunted.
Finally we see the blackness flash quickly away as a mans eyes suddenly opening takes its place. The camera is in an extreme close up position of the mans wrinkled eyes.
The credits are shown in a simple font throughout the opening scene so as not to draw our attention away from the action. They fade in and out in the centre of our vision so while we are not distracted we are also not missing the names.
Well done Patrick. You have paid attention to the shots and camera movements and juxtapositions of music and sound to analyse the effectiveness of the opening.
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