Donnie darko opening scene analysis

Donnie Darko is a sifi and fantisy filme relased in 2002 , which is about a A troubled teenager plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident.

The opening scene however seems peaceful in comparison to the rest of the movie, the opening lasts 4 minutes 18 seconds and focuses primarily on him alone , although other characters are shown toward the end of the opening. 

The first shot (establishing shot) shows an extreme long shot of a road surrounded by trees and the protagonist laying in the centre of the road. The shot is very framed around him and the road acts as a lead in line directing out eyes straight to him , it is also simple and doesn't include anything that could distract us from him.

 These two shots pan toward the protagonist but up until this point we have still not seen his face , this creates narrative enigma and builds up suspense. The angles are also quite high and we slightly look down on him , this creates a sense of power for the audience and makes him seem weak and targeted. 

 The camera pans around him showing the back of his head and also his bike , we then learn how we got to where he is, this shot also put us slightly in his perspective as we can see what he is looking at. 

We are then finally shown his face through a medium long shot.

we are shown an extreme long shot of what the protagonist is looking which not only sets the scene but also helps us again understand and we what he is looking at this also buts the audience in him shoes and we see things from his perspective. 

  

After seeing the back of him against the view then see him turn towards the camera and for the second time we see his face. He smiled which is the first emotion we see from him , this may indicate that this is a place that he enjoys coming or that he likes. 

We then see the title " Donnie Darko " .

We see the protagonist cycling down a hill away rom the pace we perversely was shown. A mix of extreme close ups and long shots shown his journey down the hill.

The poster is shown as he cycles past it. This helps or the audience to denote the time of year and the setting he is surrounded by. It could show that there is a small and active community.

The two images above show the type of neighbourhood he lives in , the dress of the women jogging helps us to understand the time period and the time the film is set in , the houses in the background show that he lives in a wealthy , upper class house and family.

The camera then pans from the road onto a drive inn which Porsche is parked and a man is blowing the leave off of the grass , along with the car showing that the family have money it also shows that the family take pride the house and the grades and that they have respect for the areas they live in.

The protagonist then cycles onto the grass and dumps his bike on top of it. The contrasts between the care and attention the man was paying to the garden , it shows that the protagonist has little respect for the garden and it could also show he is in a rush for something. 

Through these three shots we see a girl which we can presume to be his little sister jumping on a trampoline , his mother sat on a sun lounger reading and then him walking past the both over to the  fridge that has a sign saying " where is Donnie" . The fact that the mother is sat on the sun lounger when donnie is clearly missing could show that there is a lack of worry and panic towards him being missing alternatively it could show that it happens regally and that they don't need to worry because we will eventually come back.

Heathers

Box Office: $1,110,000
Budget: $3,000,000 (estimated)
Running time: 3:06 minutes
Summary: In order to get out of the snobby clique that is destroying her good-girl reputation, an intelligent teen teams up with a dark sociopath in a plot to kill the cool kids.

The first shot that we see is a shot from behind - a girl tying her hair up with a red scrunchie. This suggests that the colour red has some significance throughout the film. The colour red represents the colour of love, but also blood. We can connote that the film may be a romantic film with a twist. There is non-diegetic music playing in the back ground. The music playing is called "Que sera, sera" which in translation is "what will be, will be". This suggests that that anything could happen - often later on in the film the protagonist dent want to kill the girls but ends up doing it anyway. The title 'Heathers; is in serif text. This suggests it is a romantic genre. It is almost as if the title has been written. the fact it is in pink suggests it is about the female generation in high school.

There is then a panning shot over to a clique of girls, in what looks to be a high class setting. We can donnote that the girls are surrounded by a white picket fence and are sitting surrounded by red roses, another symbolism of love and blood. Each girl is wearing similar clothing but each has their own colour. The establishing shot here gives us an idea that they are a group of upper class girls who are very close friends.

This screenshot shows a different angle on the girls. There is a panning shot getting closer to the girls. Giving us an idea that they are surrounded by the little white fence. Everything seems normal and nice- typical high school clique.

The girls then stand up simultaneously and walk together in a line. As the audience we wonder how they are going to get out of the surrounding plants and fencing. They find an easy solution. The girls simply walk on top of the flowers. Killing them. We see a medium shot of their legs standing on the flowers carelessly. We can connote from these violent actions that the girls may not be what they seem.

There is then a tracking shot from the left of the girls. From within the bushes. Almost as if we are watching the girls from the bushes. giving a sense of creepiness. We see they are wearing different colour. we can connote that the girl in the middle is the 'main girl' because of her placement in the scene. The middle. she is also wearing red, which seems to be a main colour of the film. We can see the title beginning to come up on the screen throughout. It is is sans-sarif text which is different tot the title 'Heathers'. The titles are white with a red shadow. White symbolises perfection and innocence. however the colour red shadowing the white letters suggests something twisted about it, we can make a connection between the 'Heathers" clique and the text type of the titles.

The camera then pans over to front facing the girls; however we still don't see their faces up close. We see their feted croquette balls and sticks, each in their own colour. The titles are surrounding the the balls. The smaller ext is much like the initial text in a writing font. Showing the contrast. 

We see yellow heather go first. Suggesting she isn't the most important. We can connote that the film was set in the late 80's due to the clothing. All wearing very feminine bright coloured clothing. 

We then get a close shot of the yellow heather with the red heather in the background. She is in every shot. Implying that she is a main character. The hair is a key suggestion of what era this is set in. The hair is large. There is also the first sound of diegetic dialogue. "Dammit". you don't expect this word to come from an upper class girl from the 1080's. Again giving a hint of a a twist on the typical clique in a high school in America. 

Yellow heather then says "It's your turn Heather". the girl in the red then laughs and says "It's not mine!" as if they should know she was going last . The order of what they hit the ball could give us an insight to what happens to each character.  (Which dies first). 

The green heather is distracted by reading the book "Moby dick". The intertextuality here suggests that a character has a distinct connection to the main character of 'Moby Dick'. The protagonist goes insane about trying to kill the whale. The book is about obsession and insanity. What we don't know yet is that the main character of 'Heathers' interacts with a boy who has psychological issues and becomes obsessed with killing this group of girls. It ends up driving her insane and she tries to kill the guy she is with. We don't see where the two heathers who have been hit the ball. This is narrative ignigma. We assume that they are hitting the balls through he gaps. However we find (after the red heather goes) that they are aiming the ball for the protagonists head.

The red ball hits her right on the head, where as the other two miss. This suggests that the girl getting hit on the head and the red heather will be the two contrasting characters.

The next piece of language is "dear Diary". This links back to the sans-serif text of being writing. The girl is centre screen, which we can connote means she is the protagonist. Or what seems to be the protagonist.

Completed by Rian