Opening Two Minutes of A Film:Book Of Eli

As our film will now be set in a post apocalyptic setting, I decided to look at the opening two minutes of a few different movies set after the "end of the world".




What I think is Successful in this opening:

• Audio starts before the visuals
• The blurring effect at the beginning
• The slow panning
• The first object that came into the frame was a gun- negative connotations
• Slow revelation of the body
• The use of a domestic animal in a wild setting
• Slow revelation of the lead character. Portrays the survival
• The focus on the weapon he is using
• The use of dark colours/ night time setting

Overall, I believe that this is a very successful opening 2 minutes of a film. It creates a very early enigma, and leaves the audience wondering who is the man dead on the floor? Does he have any importance? How did he get there/ die? and who is the other man? Why is he hunting for cats? why are they both in the middle of a forrest? These questions draw in the audience due to the enigma that they create and capture their focus and attention, making this sequence a very successful opening.
How We Could take Inspiration from this:
In the opening 2 minutes of our film, we want to create enigma in order to capture the audiences attention. Ways we could use this clip as inspiration is by:

• The audio starting before the visuals is very effective, and a technique we could use.
• Slow panning around our location.
• The use of props in our mise en scene.
• Slow revelation of our lead characters.