1. Opening scene to IT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJWJ6RP55nU By Freya Soley

2. Key points - Released in 2017 - Directed by Andres Muschietti - The main cast include : Bill Skarsgaurd, Fin wolfhard, Sofia lillis, jaeden martell, jeremy ray taylor and chosen jacobs - Made by Warner bros studios

3. Lighting: Mise-en-scene - The lighting in the opening scene is very dark and gloomy almost giving off a grey hue which demonstrates the bad weather, creating a mysterious and unwelcoming tone. The use of rain also further emphasises this and appears to get heavier as the scene goes on creating and building more tension. Location: - The young boy is seen running out of what appears to be his home (shown below) which is quite large suggesting that he lives in a wealthy family making the audience assume that he has a happy and normal life. He is then shown running down the empty road (shown below) creating a lonely atmosphere emphasising his vulnerability as he is so young. This forebodes to the audience that something bad may happen to the boy as there is no one around to protect him. Props: - The walkie talkie used by the older brother shows that they are young and innocent children having fun maybe on a ‘mission’ to do something or get somewhere. - The paper boat is a main focus in this scene as there are lots of close up shots of it as it goes down the stream, this builds the expectation that something may happen to this boat building tension as the audience don’t know what’s going to happen to it. The wooden barrier is used to stop the boy from following his boat as he bangs his head and falls, this meant that the boat drifted away into a drain where he then comes across a clown, introducing a new character. - - -

4. Character positioning: Mise-en-scene - The young boy is predominantly placed in the centre screen , this is to make the audience focus on him as he is the main focus in the opening scene The clown is placed ‘under’ the boy as he is in the drain and the boy is on the road. This makes the audience think that the young boy has the power but this is because the boy does not see any harm in the clown as he is unaware that clowns are stereotypically something to be scared of. Costume: - - The young boy is wearing a yellow raincoat and wellies due to the weather, which further emphasises the foreboding bad weather that bad things are going to happen building tension for the audience. The clown is seen to be wearing heavy white and red makeup creating the idea that he is extravagant and out of place making the audience feel scared and weirded out by him. This is further emphasised by his teeth as they are spikey and abnormal. - Facial expressions: - The shocked look on the young boys face when the clown appears shows that he was not expecting it, creating a small jumpscare for the audience. - The clowns facial expressions are very stiff except his smile which creates an overall creepy look making the audience feel uncomfortable and on edge.

5. - Birds eye view is used near the beginning when the boy is running down the road using a zoom at the same time, this suggests that maybe someone is looking down on or watching him creating a feeling of suspicion towards the audience. This could also further highlight his vulnerability. The use of a slow zoom also increases the tension. - Establishing shot is used a-lot throughout this scene but specifically when he is running under the barriers using tracking movement, this creates a fast pasied high energy tone as he is chasing after the boat trying to keep up with it. The asymmetry of this shot further forboades the disorder and chaos which could\is going to occur creating apprehension for the audience. - Pov angle is used to see the boys point of view following the paper boat using a tilt movement upwards and a foreground composition. This creates a main focus on the boat causing the boy to get distracted and fall helping the audience to understand why he hit his head. This also emphasises the importance of the boat as he was very focused on it and determined to keep up with it . - Close up shot was also used near the end during the boys conversation with the clown, this helped to clearly show the emotions that the boy was feeling and going through and to also show the audience what type of character the clown is. A track movement was used to create a more realistic conversation between the two and using a shallow focus on the character who is in shot so the audience do not get distracted with the background, this makes the audience feel more on edge as it feels more intimate with the clown as if the audience is going through what the boy is. Camera

6. Diegetic sound is used such as: - Dialogue from the three characters in the opening scene. The older boy sounds very firm but nervous when he says “be careful” this tells the audience that something bad could occur. The younger boy has a high pitched happy tone suggesting he is innocent and calm about the situation. The clown has a very slow and overly friendly voice suggesting he is creepy and no good. - Sound effects like the rain, this further emphasises the bad weather to the audience. Pleonastic sound is also used when the boy hits his head on the barrier, this exaggerates how painful it was and that it came as a surprise to him suggesting he is not fully aware of his surroundings. Sound Non diegetic sound is used such as: - The Sound track which which plays from the beginning is contrapuntal as it’s jolly and childish music whilst he is running down an empty road,it’s getting dark and is raining to then a sound bridge into more dramatic and scary parallel sound which goes more with the scene emphasising the dark and gloomy atmosphere. It then builds and gets much louder right by the end leaving the audience on a cliff-hanger.

7. Editing Linear narrative- Shot reverse shot- The opening scene is in order of events clearly showing the audience what is happening and why it is happening. This also allows the audience to pre-judge what is going to happen increasing tension. This was used during the dialogue between the clown and boy, from the shots we can see that the clown was more dominant in the conversation as he was the last shot during that conversation, this tells us that the boy may be in danger. Shot duration - Black screen- Shot durations goes from long to short as the scene progresses and the intensity and tension rises creating a more chaotic and fast paced tone up until the dialogue with the boy and clown where it slows down abit to help the audience process the conversation and what is happening. It also makes the audience feel slightly apprehensive as stereo typically clowns are bad so the audience is waiting for the clown to do something bad to the boy The black screen at the end creates a large amount of suspense and a shock atmosphere as something bad was about to happen and as it was the screen went black leaving mystery to the audience on what could have/ will occur.

8. How does the opening scene set the theme , tone and genre? - The opening scene sets the theme of the film by creating a scary, unexpected and childish tone making the audience feel on edge, scared and expecting a jumpscare at any time. This is created predominantly by the dark weather, clowns costume, the non-diegetic sound track and the black screen at the end. This all suggests that the movie is a horror.

9. How does the opening scene set the narrative and introduce characters? Narrative- Introducing characters- The opening scene sets the narrative by giving the audience a taste of what the rest of the movie may look like. From the audience’s perspective we may think that the boy gets taken by the clown and maybe gets taken some where, maybe to the circus as the clown mentions that during his dialouge with the boy. The opening scene introduces characters by ‘flowing through’ each of them. For example we start by seeing the older boy through the window to then the young boy following the boat down the road which falls into a drain where we meet the clown. This is is helped by the linear narrative.

10. What representations are shown in the opening scene? Social status- Archetype- From the use of camera angles between the boy and the clown we would assume that the boy is in power but that is because the boy is not aware of the danger of the clown so could be from his perspective of who he thinks is in power. But we know stereotypically clowns have connotations of being dangerous so assume that he is in power as he can do more harm to the boy than the boy can do to him. The clown is an over exaggerated version of a stereotypical clown hence the high pitched laughing and extravagant makeup. This is to make the audience feel scared towards him and present to the audience how strange he is which has connotes of danger. subverting- The main boy is very young, maybe 7 or 8 and is not scared to go out on his own and gets comfortable with the clown when they meet and as their conversation goes on, this subverts the audiences expectations as we would expect him to run away or cry. This could suggest that he is fearless and an adventurous child which could get him into trouble.