Opening sequences of films | Salt

When researching different opening scenes of films with different genres, I chose to look at 'Salt' starring Angelina Jolie.

The first thing we see in the opening sequence of the film is the 'Columbia Productions' logo and title. While this is being shown, we can hear the start of dramatic music which gradually, throughout the scene, intensifies greatly. The titles shown in the opening scene, range from large sized to small sized. The small text is used when stating the place and time the film is set in that scene, the medium text is used when stating some of the production teams names, and the large text is used when stating the title of the film. All of the text is in the colour white and the font is quite simple. They use a simple font type to keep the audience focused on watching the film rather than being focused on the font the whole way through the scene.

Straight away, in the opening scene, we can see that the film is going to be an action film. We can identify this by the camera angles changing quickly in the scene, so the shots are fast, short and snappy which is mainly used in an action film. In this scene, there are a lot of point of view shots (mainly from the main character). They use this to make the scene feel more intense and more real for the viewer. In some ways it makes the opening scene more personal to the viewer because they themselves feel like they are seeing the same as the main character, which makes it more personal and real for them.

As well as using a lot of point of view shots, they use a lot of close-up shots. They use these to make the film feel more intense and more effective to the eye. The film mainly shows close-ups of the main characters face and the enemies face. The viewer also identifies a lot of extreme close-up shots that show the violence that is being brought upon the main character. This is effective for the viewer because they can clearly see how she is being tortured and how much pain she is in. We can see this from her facial expressions and the blood that is shown on different parts of her body.

They have made the villain type character in the opening scene foreign. They have done this so it is easy to identify who the antagonist in the film is. They have made the foreigner speak at the same time as the main character. This makes the scene more intense as we can hear two different languages being spoken and in a rough way as well. We, as the viewer, are trying to hear what the main character is saying but it makes it hard for us to hear because of the foreign language being spoken over the top of it.

In conclusion, the opening scene of this film clearly states the fact that it is an action film through many different points that are identified in the scene.