Analysing the opening of ’Don’t Look Now’

Analysing the opening of ’Don’t Look Now’:

(Analysed until 2:05)

In the opening scene of Don’t Look Now, for a 2 seconds at the beginning, there is a blank screen with non-diegetic background music, the scene the starts with a long shot of a blond young girl in a red coat with a wheel barrow. The camera zooms out so the audience can see a horse canter past, the girl is walking away from the camera. This would create an enigma in the audience as they don’t know what the girl is doing or why she has a wheel barrow, however they can presume that she is on a farm.

This presumption would be made due to a partial establishing stop of the trees and the field. There is off screen non – diegetic music, it is quite soft, and high pitched piano music but very bare as only a few notes are played at one time. There is also on – screen sound of a horse ‘neighing’ as it goes past and also birds tweets from the trees.

The shot then changes to an establishing shot of more trees and a field, from the corner of the screen, the audience can see someone riding a bike, the audience can tell that they’re very young as they cycle across the screen. The audience can tell this due to the poor cycling skills of the child.

There is then a long shot of the girl in the red coat again, the girl cannot be seen completely as there is over grown hedges in the way and she is just a silhouette. The camera shot is quite wobbly from this the audience can infer that it could possibly be a point of view shot too however the audience don’t know who from. 

A low angle shot then reveals the girl, still as a silhouette, this create enigma in the audience as there hasn’t been any dialogue therefore they don’t know who she is. The low angle shot shows the girl but again there are twigs in the way. During the background music, there seems at one point for there to be a woman but it is muffled and the audience may not be completely sure onto what she’s saying.

As the girl gets closer to the camera it shows that she’s holding a doll. This is a convention of a horror movie. The voice during the music is then revealed as there is a close up on the doll. The doll is creating the speech over the music therefore making it on-screen diegetic sound. The doll is dressed as an army officer. This reveals that the film could be set during the war time.

When the girl picks up the ball, she throws it which is then tracked by the camera. The camera follows the ball into a little pond, as there is a focus on the ball, it creates an enigma to see if this is a significant prop.

The camera then shows the girl in a red code through a long shot as she tried to find a way to retrieve the ball, the camera tracks her path. The camera then has a panning shot of the child on the bike, as they cycle from side to side. The audience don’t know who they are therefore creating an enigma for the character.

A medium shot of the girl but also an establishing shot shows a large house in a large field. The house looks quite old and isolated which is another convention for a horror film.

The shot is then quickly changed to a different angle of the girl but then pans down the screen to the floor and under a little bridge. This creates enigma as the audience don’t know why the shot is changing or what is going on. This would make the audience feel uncomfortable and tense.

The scene and shot then changes to a close up of a fire, there is on – screen sound of the fire crackling. The camera then zooms out to view a room with two adults sitting in it. It also shows a slide machine. There is also on – screen sound from the clicks too.

A close up shot of the man’s face, displays the concentration on his face, the shot quickly changes to a shallow focus of one of the slides, however the audience can also make out that there is a woman in the background.

The audiences focus is on the slides mainly, in the slides there are pictures of a church, and a person in a red coat sitting at the front. During the time the man goes through the slides, there’s only two out of three slides with the person on it, only from slightly different angles, therefore creating an enigma of what happened to the person in the second slides to then come to the third slide then for them to be there. The audience may relate the colour of the coat to the colour of the coat the little girl was wearing in the beginning of the scene therefore creating another enigma.

A close up on the man’s face shows his expression of confusion, he then looks towards the woman sitting by the fire. The shot changes to a medium shot of the woman by the fire, then goes back to a close up of the man again.

There is then diegetic on screen dialogue between the characters, the man then looks back at the slides and looks quizzical again.

A tracking shot shows the man’s arm as he gets the slide out of the machine. This shot would also be match on action as the shot views his actions. There is also on screen sound of the slide, this would be exaggerated for the camera to enhance the sound.

A close up of the slide with a person in a red coat which is then zoomed in. The off screen non – diegetic sound is also used which creates tension as it is a weird sound to the audience.