#10 Analysis on another thriller

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.