Derailed

The opening sequence starts with fade in as the screen appears just black and then the shot begins to fade in. this indicates a softer and quitter introduction and suggest that the action is yet to begin. A Long shot of a prison with a dark lighting signifying the darkness of prison, as the colour black connotes to evil and the use of dark and white lighting emphasises the binary opposition of good vs evil. The diegetic sound of the footsteps of the police officers illustrates the power of police over the prisoners and emphasises the quietness of the prison. The camera then cuts to the opposite side of the police officers as they walk the prison. The camera is positioned at the same angle, establishing both police and the prisoners, which again illustrates the binary opposition of police and criminals. The camera then cuts to a close up of a cop turning towards the prisoners and says “ready for yards”. The close up of the cop signifies the power of police over the prisoners, especially as the prisoners went silent when he said that. A diegetic sound of siren shows it’s time for the prisoner to go outside the cell. As the prisoners are set free a non-diegetic background music is played which illustrates that the action is began as it shows a contrast between the level of noise compared to when the prisoners were inside the cell. The camera positions are changed again and again to the same positions to emphasise the space provided for the prisoners inside the prison. The name of the cast are shown above the actions suggest that this is not a discrete or tittle over black screen opening. The cast of the film will attract audience as names like Jennifer Aniston will raise expectations in audience as she is one of the top actresses. The font used for the text is simple and white, foreshadows the simplicity of the narrative and signifies that the movie is related to our life and does not contain any unnatural events that makes the movie extra ordinary.

The camera then cuts to an establishing shot of the prison while camera positioned slightly high angled to establish the life of prisoners inside the prison. The non-diegetic background music is still played behind. The camera then cuts to a low angled shot focusing on the top of the prison suggesting that the police is watching them and emphasises the power of police over the prisoners as the low angled position makes the building look powerful. Then the camera focus pulls to the fence with the spikes, emphasises that the prisoners cannot escape. The tittle of the movie is shown over the spikes signifying that people who lose track of their life will end up in prison as the name of the movie derailed means accidentally losing track.

The camera then cuts to show a series of montages of the life of prisoners with the camera positioned slightly high suggesting that the police is watching them, especially when camera is placed behind the fence but the camera focus at the prisoner because it implies that the prisoners are been watched. The police are shown wearing their uniform which makes them powerful, as the costume makes them stand out and emphasises that fact that they are in control. A bluish filter is used throughout the opening sequence to create the atmosphere of the prison. In addition, the colour blue connotes to authority, which emphasises the power of police. A medium angled shot of prisoners and police in the background is showed in a frame, however the camera focuses at the police which again emphasises their authority and the power of police over the criminals, because the focus of the camera suggest that they are more important as they are been focused rather than the prisoners.

The camera then cuts to a medium angle tracking shot moving from one cell to another cell where you see a man writing something. The tracking shot helps the audience to see the

atmosphere inside the cell. Moreover, it shows that all the cells are empty, except from one cell, where the tracking shot stops, which foreshadows a mystery behind him and will raises audience expectation as they will want to know who this person is and why he is alone inside the cell. The whole cell has a dark atmosphere except the area where the man is sitting, where a light is flashing at him, which signifies his importance as the light denotes to stage lights where it is used to show a character to the audience. Therefore, the light over his head implies that he is someone important in the narrative. The camera then cuts to a close of the table focusing on the book, which signifies the importance of the book especially as everything thing around the table is blurred, which suggest that the director did that to point out the importance of the book. This makes the audience wonder what is inside the does not shows what’s inside the book, which foreshadows a mystery behind it. The face of that character is not yet revealed which again stays as an enigma and it signifies that he will be an important character in the narrative, moreover, we tend to think that he is the antagonist as he is in a prison isolated from other people, which is seen in most of other thrillers like the dark knight, se7evn where the antagonist have less social links. The camera cuts to a close of the book as he opens it to write it, which suggest that he have something very important to say, especially as other objects in the frame are blurred expect from the writing. A non-diegetic voice over reads out what he writes, which again signifies the importance of him and what he wants to say.

The camera then cuts to an establishing shot a street along with the voice over saying “the morning it all began, began like another morning”. This suggest that the narrative is shown in the flashback as the narrative makes it look like the audience are been told about the antagonist/protagonists story. In addition, the prison scene dissolved to the establishing shot of the street, which implies that both scene are linked in some way, which foreshadows a mystery. Moreover, the dissolve transition had an effect of the scene going to a flashback. The non-diegetic background music changes to diegetic sounds of cars and kids, which juxtaposes with the prison as prison was a complete different atmosphere, whereas the establishing shot of the streets have a calm and nice atmosphere and the music helped to show the contrast between both settings.

The shot again dissolved to lightly low angled establishing shot a house, the dissolve again implies that all these locations are linked in some way as the dissolved transition made it look like the other shot is been blended with the next shot. A non-diegetic background music of a piano is played along with diegetic sounds of birds to create a calm atmosphere. In addition, it suggest that the equilibrium is been constructed with the use of calm non diegetic/diegetic sounds, settings and editing.

In conclusion, I think the opening sequence of this movie is not as effective compared to other thriller opening sequences like se7evn, Arlington road even though it is completely different type of opening. However, the use editing and sounds was very effective for instance the use of bluish filter for the prison helped the scene to stand out from other scenes and the use of editing techniques like dissolves helped to build up the equilibrium very effectively as it will be hard to start the equilibrium very effectively from a flashback. Moreover, the use of sounds to show the contrast between the present and the past was very effective and it clearly showed how it was juxtaposed from each other.