In the beginning scene there are several key features and factors used to establish the characters, setting and enigma, this is achieved by how the camera angles, editing and sound and music are portrayed.
In the very beginning whilst the movie is playing the credits appear showing the main actors in the film. These appear on a black box and are white and this is over a silhouette this already creates this sense of enigma, as the viewers are not able to see whom this silhouette and is already faced with a mysterious character. There is a voice over which in this case is non-diagetic sound again adds to the enigma as the viewer don’t actually see the man talking. With the voice over at the same time as this shot it makes the viewer think more as they don’t know who this silhouette character is and they don’t know who the voice over is, but after watching for several minutes they are able to work it out without actually being told who these mysterious people are. And in actual fact these characters have nothing mysterious or suspicious about them so it was just to start off this enigmatic atmosphere.
There are interesting shots when the group of mysterious men enter the security-ridden building. As the camera is on CCTV cameras so as the men are moving and being watched on TV the actual camera that is filming the film are tracking the TV’s that the men appear on. As this happens there is a type of music played which then lets the audience know that these people are suppose to be Jewish as it was Jewish music that was being played. The reason they done this as the audience don’t actually have any idea what is happening as it just cut straight into all this action. So letting the audience know a little bit about the current situation means they can sort of understand what is happening as the fact it cuts straight into this action again creates enigma as things are moving so fast the audience cant keep up with it. This establishes the setting also as its in some sort of high status building, possibly a bank of some sort. With all this taking place things don’t add up but as the “bank scene” progresses it all starts to fit together and that the Jewish characters where in disguise so they were obviously hiding from someone. So it all starts to make sense after a while.
When it comes to the establishment of characters this is a very important part as it lets the audience know a little bit about each character and the beginning bit before all becomes clear. It all starts when the camera twirls into another scene this is called graphic match and is used a lot in the characters establishing scene, after each character has had an introduction graphic match is used and a compulsory object is the main focus between the shots such as the diamond. The pace of these shots is very fast and each introduction is only a short period of time. With the editing done very slickly the transitions flow much better and much faster. This could suggest that they are very energetic people and like to keep on the go and full of action. This scene has very good music to go along with this, the music is very high paced and I would say is like electro this fits well with the fast editing and seems to be linked very well. Each introduction of the characters begins with some sort of bad boy action followed by a freeze frame then followed by the continuation of the action. This suggests that these characters are very violent and break the rules, possibly in trouble with the police which could link back to the very beginning when it looked like 2 of the main characters where sat in an interviewing room. The freeze frame is very significant as it explains who the character is and gives a small insight on what their personality is like as same shots where showing very angry faces. After the introductions of the characters it went back to a close up shot of the diamond, this shows that here has been a full loop in a story and the diamond shot shows that this is the end of the characters introduction and clearly marks the end and then continues with the story from there.
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