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Opening Title Research Task. Silence of the lambs: OTS analysis. Summary of opening tittle scene:.
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Summary of opening tittle scene: • We first see shots a woman running through a misty dark forest. We then see that she is in fact running some sort of assault course. In the next scene we see her continue to run through the forest until we hear a man’s voice. He calls to this woman and they exchange words and when he slowly turns round his hat stares the letters “F.B.I”, we can now infer she is involved with the F.B.I so has great importance and will be a key character in the film. Next we see her running towards an official looking building with people all dressed n black entering and exiting the building, some climbing ropes on the outside of the building. This obviously isn’t just a normal building. She continues to enter the building and she finds herself in a room with important looking people with rows of guns. From the clues earlier on, we can have an educated guess that this is the F.B.I. building, or F.B.I. related building. She ten enters a office with some newspaper clippings of a murder called “Buffalo Bill”. She is set an assignment and that’s when the scene ends.
Locations: • The first location we see in a dimly lit, misty, cold looking forest. This shows her very isolated and vulnerable, as we can’t see anyone else with her. This already sets the creepy and scary theme. At first glance it looks like she is running away form someone or something, or this is what the director wants us to think. We then finds out she is actually running an assault course which intrigues us and makes us puzzled to what’s going on. The mist makes it seem like it is in the early hours of the morning, which makes it even more suspicious. There is also a bluely hue which builds to create this theory. At the outset we are made to think she is a vulnerable young woman in danger but as the locations and scenes suggest, it proves to us that she isn’t such a stereotypical victim as we first thought. This masculine theme continues when she enters the manly building, as all the rooms we get a glance into are an array with guns, technology and gadgets.
Characters • The first character we see is Clarice Starling; the main character. She is the main focus of the pen titles so all attention is drawn to her. She doesn’t seem to blend in well with the organization when she is walking through the building, mainly because 90% of the characters in the background are men. Secondly she is quite small and everyone else towers above her. Another different which is boldly pointed out to us that sticks out like a soar thumb is the elevator scene when she gets in the lift with her swear laden blue jumper and all the tall men are all wearing bold, bright, red tee shirts. It couldn’t be pointed out more to the audience more if they tried. Compared to the general appearance of women in films, she doesn’t fir the mode. She is extremely un-glamorous and masculine is her dress and the way she generally acts. Her boss also talks to her like she is well respected and successful; this again isn’t stereotypical for women in films.
Camera work and effects: • There are not many visible amazing editing effects in the opening title sequence. I think this gives it a fresher, raw cut, more realistic. This adds to the drama and tense emotions that the film has already created. They use a vide Varity of camera shots from, close ups to point of view shots. I think this is very effective because is shows scenes and locations from all different angles which gets us to familiarizes with the films location film.
sound • There is a lot of use of diegetic sounds such as heavy breathing, leaves crunching, birds and gun shots, this makes the audience feel more involved and almost in the film as they are the things we would hear if we were actually there in the action. This is a very clever and useful technique. There are also a lot of non-diegetic sounds as well to build tension and mystery. It gives the sense of unease and worry in shots.
tITLES • The actual titles start at the very beginning in the woods and continue until the end. They appear very simply and exit without any fuss or fancy effects. This lets the viewer’s attention focus on the mise en scene. The actual appearance of them are neat and tidy, they are also pretty bold which is suiting to the film.
Editing • The main focus of this OTS is that it is in fact in reverse. We don’t catch onto this until we are almost ¾ of the way through the titles. First if all we cant tell but when we can slowly see the photo “un-develop” we start to suspect something. When it is just a totally blank Polaroid, only then we really know what’s going on. It becomes totally clear at the end when all the action is in revers. This un-nerves the audience and makes them feel unease and confused and this is a very unique technique and editing design.
Camera work • There are very little variations in camera shots at the beginning of the opening titles as all we see is what it looks like to be a still extreme close up of a hand holding a Polaroid. Because there is such little movement it looks like a still frame until we see the vicious shaking of the white rectangular card. We then have a close up shot of the man taking a photo of something on the floor. This is a great shot to use because when using this we can see fine details on the subject, and in this case the ugly scars on his face. We can infer from this that he is not the most pleasant character and the film in going to be heavily based on him. We the have a strange shot like the camera is on its side, filing blood trickle upwards. This obviously shows danger and death. The obscure angle confuses the audience further puzzles them to what is going on. We next have a close up shot of some glasses and splattered blood again signifies death. Continuing this we have a medium shot so that we see the man shooting an object on the floor, the pervious shot showing glasses infers that this is in fact a person he is aiming at. We then have a close up shot of the victims face yelling something right before his death. This is the final scene in the opening title. This is very effective as it leaves you on a total cliffhanger, engaged and wanting to watch on.
sound • The non-diegetic music at the beginning builds tension for the audience, as we can’t actually hear any live noises in the scene. As the scene progresses we can hear more and more diegetic sounds. Like gun fire and the victim screaming. This puts us on edge as the non-diegetic music has already un nerved us and we’re not expecting to suddenly hear diegetic sounds. This adds thrill to the first scenes and sets the mood for the rest of the film.
titles • The titles in this clip are incredibly simplistic. A light blue serif font to stand out against the reds and whites in the shot of the Polaroid picture. The blue links in with the melancholy music as it too connotes sadness. This suggests that the titles of a movie should link into the themes and the soundtrack to make a tighter experience for the opening.
characters • In the opening sequence the main character is dressed quite formally in a suit. This contrasts with the murder that you soon find out that the character has committed. The use of this costume makes the audience wonder whether the murderer did this as a job and whether he was highly trained to do what he did. The suit makes the character look menacing and makes the viewer feel uncomfortable at the fact that he is not dressed like a stereotypical murderer. The audience ask themselves whether the character is an assassin and whether there was a reason for him to murder the other character. Whether the victim was innocent of as bad as the killer. This makes you watch on the un-solve the mystery.
