Opening shots

One of the most crucial parts of a film is the opening scene. The ending scene, plot twists and other major parts of a movie give the lasting impression, however, in order to catch the audiences attention, the opening shot needs to be made use of. The following films have, in my opinion, a very effective opening shot in that it caught my attention during my initial viewing.

A Clockwork Orange

The first shot in A Clockwork Orange after the title, is a closeup of the main characters face (the man in the middle). This not only immediately shows the importance of the character, but also, by his facial expression, what type of character he is. The costume and makeup that we as an audience can see during this closeup, allows us to perhaps understand the time period and or even background of the particular character. Then the camera starts to zoom out, revealing more of the scene. The next thing we see after the closeup is more of the main character; we see what he holding, his posture, more of his costume, and his surroundings. He and all of the other characters are holding glasses of milk, therefore showing the odd nature of these people as well as their odd looking clothes. As the camera zooms out more and more, we begin to see some furniture in the shape of naked women, again portraying the bizarre nature of this film. The position of the three characters in the middle of the shot, show their importance perhaps over the surrounding characters. This opening shot really gives the audience an idea of the nature of the film, while also immediately introducing characters.

Reservoir Dogs

The first shot in Reservoir Dogs essentially of men having a breakfast meeting. The scene is predominately male, as well as the shop owner being a man, the men eating are all wearing suit and ties. This choice in costume clearly gives the masculinity of the film, as well as introducing the stereotype of american 'mafia' characters shown in the scene. The majority of the men begin to or are already smoking, again presenting the professional, 'mafia' stereotype to the audience with just the initial shot. This shot is very effective as it just uses a few tracking shots behind each of the characters around the table to show the characters' environment while also managing to show all the characters in just the first shot.

The Shining

The first shot of The Shining is a very picturesque scene. The giant lake and mountains surrounding it instantly give a feel of isolation, which is incidentally what the film is about, especially the small island in the middle of the lake as shown on the right. The calm lake shows the initial tranquility of the films story, however, later contrasting with the built tension presented by Kubrick. Later on in this opening shot, the camera starts to track a car driving down a snake road. Along with the calm music over the top, the shot is very effective in having a curious opening attracting the audience.