Analysing the opening scene of ‘Cloverfield’

Analysing the opening scene of ‘Cloverfield’:

The opening scene starts with a close up hand held shot of a man in a suit, there is diegetic sound of the camera man talking to him. The camera then zooms out as the man starts to move. The camera then pans around as there is a sudden diegetic sound of an explosion. There is also a scream to show the audience that what has happened is frightening, which makes the audience jump and to feel tense.

The camera then zooms in, it shows the explosion but in a pixilated way, showing that the camera is hand held and isn’t the best quality. This gives the audience an insight into it not being a typical professionally filmed movie but a supposed documentary style film from the point of of the camera man and his friends.

The hand held shaky filming pans up to a fire ball, heading towards them. The camera then tracks it until he turns and runs. The camera is then pointed at everyone else on the roof. The first shot showed an establishing shot as the explosion happened, however it then panned round to show the other characters.

The fast paced editing and cutting, makes the audience tense as they don’t know what happened or why there was an explosion therefore creating an enigma. The lightening is low but it isn’t show that much due to the fast shots of action, the action is cut up by black out making the audience think was the camera being affected.

The wonky angles from the camera suggest its hand held and that it’s not professional, medium shots of the people and other characters are produced however they aren’t the best quality and are blurry. They don’t show a clear picture therefore the audience don’t know who is involved in the film properly.

Small shots of zooming in and close ups are accompanied by diegetic sound on screen and off screen, the on screen sounds include the grunts and screams as they run away, whereas the off screen sounds are sounds such as fire alarms going off and more explosions.

Clearer medium shots are produced as the characters head outside to get away, there is a blur of people around them terrified. This adds to the enigma as the audience are unsure where everyone is going to get safe.

The medium shots of the characters show fear in their facial expressions and their body language. The characters outfits creates enigma as it is unclear to the audience where they’ve been and why they were dressed up.  

A medium shot then pans to follow the eye line of one of the characters as a mystery object flies through the air and explodes on a building. The fast paced editing again creates tension and excitement. A sudden rush and a massive object comes flying towards the camera, the camera tracks it, then zooms in on it. It is then revealed to the audience that it is the statue of Liberty’s head. The hand held camera then shows more action down the street as a cloud of dust follows the crowd of people as the empire states lights go out and as it falls.

The characters then run into a shop and the lights flicker then go out. The characters are crouched and the diegetic sound shows that they are scared. The hand held camera shots makes the audience feel a part of the action. The lighting gets even darker after the lights go out as the cloud of dust travels past the windows.