Contextual Analysis : Blue Velvet

The film begins with opening credits on a background which looks like it is blue coloured velvet. The music playing though these opening credits seems like something that would be in a black and white film. The music conveys the thought of something tragic, which might may well happen in this film. The director has made this choice of music because it seems pretty outdated in 1986, where films released in this decade were films like Blade Runner and Top Gun, which have more modern music in the opening titles.

After the opening credits, the first shot we have is a tilt shot, which is tilting downwards onto a bed of roses and a white picket fence, this is the complete opposite of the opening title, which is tragic and sad, a picket fence and roses makes us think of the "perfect American society" which is tidy and ideal. This is done by the director to begin to show us the setting of this 50's society, I film released in this decade that also shows a similar setting is "Back to the Future", which was released only a year before.

The setting of this film seems to be a town of perfection, like nothing could go wrong, which white picket fences are often linked to. We see this idyllic perfection in a clip where children are crossing a peaceful looking street. This shot is slightly slowed down using slow motion, this gives us the idea of the slow pace and care free live people have in this small town. This is reminiscent of how people interpret the 50's , which is the idea we are given from what the opening scene tells us.

 Within the entire scene, it looks like there is a sort of filter, making the setting seem a bit darker and strange, almost blueish. This sets up the feeling that not everything is as it seems in this perfect down, and it hold a secret that we are the audience and the characters in the film are unaware of. A director also fond of using filters in his works is Tim Burton, who released Batman only a few years after this.

Later on in this film, we finally get the sense of dread we may feel later on in this film, as we experience our first death in the film. It is an old man what is suffering what looks like some sort of stroke, the music is continuing throughout this scene, this is very contrapuntal. This also shows us that this strange occurrence is isolated and hidden, as in this clip all we see is the man dying, while the positive music is still playing, makes the death seem like there is more strange things to come.


Directly after this, it begins to slowly zoom into the grass, this at first we would assume would lead to nowhere, but we see eventually a large swarm of beetles in the shade and darkness of under the grass. To some this might be an unpleasant image to see. These bugs may imply a dark and frightening truth about this small and seemingly perfect town.

Analysis of Mission Impossible 2 Opening Sequence

Opening scene to : Mission Impossible 2

In the beginning of the film, we are given an high angle establishing shot of the environment, which appears to be the grand canyon. It is from what you could say a birds eye view, this makes us as the audience immersed in the environment, for this short interlude there is only the sound of the wind, as the camera gives us the impression of soaring. With no non-diagetic sound, this lets the audience focus more on the shot. The director has does this at the very start to showcase the film as exciting and action packed, as Woo's films are often action packed.

This is followed by a dissolving shot of this, dissolving into a different part of the canyon, this is done to show the grand scale of what Tom Cruises character is doing, which we find out is climbing this canyon, as directly after this dissolve we zoom into Tom Cruise, halfway up the rocks, This type of shot build up lets people who have no idea about the film know straight away this is the main character of the film. As it zooms in closer we can see A JOHN WOO FILM credit appear on the scene. Woo is well known for his action films, involving martial arts also, so seeing this along with Tom Cruise lets us know that Tom Cruise will be in the thick of the action.

A bit later on, we see Tom Cruise leap from one rock to another, as he does this, slow motion is used as he jumps. This would seem pretty cliché if placed in a film today, but at the time would convey the tension as slow motion during intense moments as a common convention of action films. It slows down, giving us the idea of the heart stopping danger people would have in such a situation.The director has done this to show us how extreme this character is.

After this shot, Tom Cruise is hanging from a ledge in a particularly interesting pose. We have Tom Cruise hanging in a sort of Jesus like position. This is a metaphor that this character is a hero, a savior, that he will do only good. Also this savoir sort of pose gives idea of greatness and power, which is clear he has in climbing up the cliffs.