Textual analysis of openings to films

Back to the futurehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3isQI0nXQRE

In the opening to this film, the production company shows its logo, and this is the first thing to be seen. Straight away, the audience may make some assumptions of this film before it even starts, as they may have already seen other films from this company. The name of the film is shown straight after the production company’s logo has been shown. The typography of the logo looks very futuristic, which links directly into the whole plot of the film. Along with the name of the film, there is a stylized arrow pointing to the word ‘back’, which may indicate to the viewer that time travel will occur in the film, and will involve going ‘back’ in time.

In the opening scene, a series of clocks are shown, foreshadowing the events that will happen in the film. The camera pans across at a low angle to reveal even more clocks. Diegetic sound can be heard from the ticking of the clocks in the scene, and at this point, there is no non-diegetic sound or music present.

Further into the opening scene, we see a photograph which highlights one of the key events that will happen later on in the film. This is some sort of enigma to the observant people watching this film, as it may be unnoticed to most viewers. Again, this shot involves panning, and diegetic sound can be heard.

Some background information can be seen whilst the camera is panning, and this helps the audience to get an insight into one of the main character’s lives before they even see him.

The use of diegetic sound introduces the first character seen in the film. At this point, it is unclear whether or not this news report will be important to the film, and creates somewhat of an enigma.