SILENCE OF THE LAMBS OPENING

Molly Sandford

The tracking shot and the establishing shots cleverly shift the focus from the bigger picture to the main character so we know who will be the main focus in the story.

The titles cover the shots and are very bold and the main focus point which could highlight that the scenes underneath them are not so important as they are the build up to the more tense areas.

The showing of the female taking part in everyday and normal activities tells us that she is an everyday person and this causes the audience to feel nervous as we realise this could be involving us more than we initially realise.

The non digetic sound is very calm and the music is very ominous and foreboding as though she is about to run into some danger.

The digetic sound is very sharp and most of the sounds are quite shocking which makes the audience feel uneasy as we can’t tell what the noises are at first and whether they are dangerous.

We are introduced to the female characters name ‘clarice’ which is an important piece of information and it is the clearest piece of information evoked through the use of sound.

The fact that the female is shown alone in the forest shows vulnerability and makes us feel more nervous for her.

The juxtaposition of the men and the female subject ‘clarice’ exaggerates how weak she is because it makes her seem even smaller than she really is.

The use of red on the men’s uniforms juxtaposed with the muted colours could represent the male gender being a threat in this film because red connotes danger and death.

The panning shot around the female character getting over the net emphasises the amount of time it take for her to get over the net and reach her goal. It suggests that she struggles with weakness but tries hard to overcome her obstacles.

The titles at the end move fluidly onto the rest of the film so it is unclear where the title sequence ends and the film starts.