The Black
Swan: Opening Sequence
Sound:
The opening
sequence of The Black Swan starts with soft piano music playing, leaving the
attention to be drawn to the music, as nothing really happens apart from showing
the actresses name. As the chalk moves slowly across the page, the piano music has
an emotional move to it, and sticks to the pace of the picture being drawn. The
music plays more or less at the same pace throughout; although this appears not
the case when the person drawing this image starts to make deeper and bolder
lines, and this is when the music rises in tempo and gets increasingly louder. Behind
the piano music, you can hear the sound of the wind, blowing nervously to the rhythm
of the mysterious melody. When the music starts to get extremely tense and loud,
many different point-of-view shots are changing quickly and when the chalk
breaks and rolls away, there is a sudden smashing noise, and then the swan is
shown.
Edit:
Editing
is clearly portrayed throughout the sequence, as each shot fades into one
another, sometimes even whilst the one before is still on the screen diminishing
away. This creates an unsettled feeling for the viewer, as they don’t know
where to look, and as the music gets louder and more suspense is made, more and
more shots of the drawing are being displayed. About half way through, the
music’s almost at its peak tempo and the camera changes its shot angle so we
can now see the hand that is drawing it. As the person starts to shade in the
swan with thick, bold lines, many different shots are shown, and changing faster
and faster as the music speeds up even more. Another direct edit is when the camera
focuses on the hand drawing but then suddenly the chalk breaks and rolls away,
and the image is faded out.
Camera:
The
start of the sequence shows only a black screen, with your eyes only being
drawn to the name, ‘Natalie Portman,’ who is the main character in the film. Each
time a new shot of the drawing is being shown another name is faded into the
screen. There isn’t a huge variety of camera shot angles, as it mainly focuses
on the chalk drawing onto the page, with a close up, action on action shot. However,
as the music picks up in tempo the camera starts to depict more and more shots
of the hand drawing the picture. As soon as there is a huge smashing noise, the
shot is change to a birds-eye view of the whole picture showing a swan.
Mis-en-Scene:
The
sequence has a very dusk atmosphere to it, making it appear very dark. This
contrasts with the music as the piano playing is very graceful but seems to
come across being sinister in this piece. This adds to the idea of the dark
bold chalk lines, causing a very unsettled atmosphere for the viewer. When the
music has a rhythm, which is loud and tense, the chalk is drawing very
vigorously and boldly, changing into shading, and the lines are being drawn in
the same rhythm as the piano playing. This again suggests something scary is
going to happen, which it does, when there is the huge smashing noise, and the
Black Swan is shown. Swans are supposed to be known as beautiful and peaceful birds,
but here, they become sinister.