Analysing Film Openings - Blade

Scene summary – Blade –

There is a fade in from the credits to the opening scene. The opening scene starts with a shot that establishes where the scene is and when it’s set. This shot is of a double door in a hallway, which is easily and quickly established as a hospital wing. This is because the scene starts with a strong use of mise en scene. There are props that indicate that it is a hospital, extras that walk past the camera are all dressed like doctors and nurses some with clipboards in there hand and stethoscopes around there necks. The lighting is bright; as hospitals usually are bright it helps complete the image. At this point through the glass pains of the window you can see people approaching the door. These are doctors running through with a patient on a stretcher. They burst through the door and run toward the camera. The shot cuts to an aerial close up shot of the person lying in the stretcher. The person is a women and it becomes quickly apparent that she has a serious injury. She is in serious discomfort but doesn’t make any sound. The audience can tell this because of her facial expressions. The doctor that is helping to push the stretcher is also holding a cloth to the women’s neck in an attempt to try and stem the flow of blood from her neck.

Then we cut to a shot still slightly above her of the stretcher being pushed into what looks like a surgery. The doctors are frantically trying to save the women and treat her injury. The shot is now in a position that we can see the women is also pregnant. This makes the audience feel even more inclined to want her to survive as she is clearly heavily pregnant. The shots continue to exchange to the doctors trying to treat her and an angle shot where we can see she is pregnant and in pain.

It becomes clear that not only is she bleeding badly from the neck but she is also giving birth. The shot at this point cuts to an angle still above what is happening onscreen but shows a newly born baby covered in placenta and blood. This indicates it has just come from the mother’s womb. As the shot changes we see the doctor turn away from the camera and place the baby in a blanket of some sort, as this is happening the shot changes to the mother holding one hand out to the camera. This we imagine is perhaps a POV shot of the doctor that had the baby in his hand and the mother is trying to touch it. The mother looks like she is just about to die and is trying to hold her baby before she does.

Then at this point the screen goes black and time seems to be fast forwarding. The next part is an aerial establishing shot and we can see the view of a city skyscraper. Time is forwarding because you can see day and night pass in the city a few times. Then the scene cuts to what looks to be a camera shot from out the window of a moving vehicle. It is another establishing shot because you can see that it is in the city and information “NOW” appears up onscreen which highlights the fact time has moved on.

 

This is a mid-shot that helps set the scene. It shows the audience that the scene is in a hospital and the emergency room. This is because ‘emergency’ is written on the window pain of the double doors in view. The shot also creates a sense of when it is set because of the information that appears onscreen. This is highlighted by the fact the equipment on the edge of the frame doesn’t look very technologically advanced.

 

This is the same mid-shot but from a closer position. Its low angle shows the surrounding environment and yet the facial expression and posture of the doctors is also seen. This helps the audience know that it is a serious situation.

 

Here we are in the doctors’ POV looking down at the wounded woman, who is stretching up as if asking for help.

This shot is just helping establish a new time period from the last scene. The shot is blurred because it is moving and is a shot from a moving vehicle passing shops and offices.

Overall

I analysed this sequence because many of the films I have looked at start slowly with very little happening, and this film starts right in the middle of the action, which I think is effective as well. You are made to engage with the action straight away and all the POV filming makes you try to work out what is happening. I think this could be an effective choice for our film.