Tuesday, 11 January 2011

The silence of the lambs

The opening to the silence of the Lambs is very good example film opening. It uses many action and enigma codes to set the mise-en scene. In the first couple of minutes, we are introduced to a establishing shot of a dark forest. By having the setting as a enigma code makes the audience draw many questions, where are we? Is it a bad place?
Suddenly, it cuts to Jodie Foster climbing up a hill in the forest, again another enigma code, why is she climbing? The next cut is of her sprinting through the forest and then she starts to climb an obstacle course net. This action code immediately tells us, that she is training, but for what?
A man wearing an FBI uniform walks into the scene and tells Jodie that Crawford wants to see her, Action codes now tell us that she is a police officer or training to be one. But who is Crawford?
The next shot (action code) is of her walking through a police station, she see's a women walking past her, they both greet each other each other, so this tells us that she is a familiar with the staff  which also tells us that inst a new member.
When she enters the elevator (action code) it is filled with men, this suggests that it is a male dominated job. As we come to the end of the scene, Jodie approaches the office of Crawford, as she enters no one is in there, another enigma code, where is Crawford? And then suddenly the biggest enigma code...what was she looking at on the wall?

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