Deconstruction of The Silence of the Lambs Opening Scene
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) is an American thriller/horror film directed by Jonathan Demme, starring Jodie Foster, Scott Glen and Anthony Hopkins. The film is based on Thomas Harris' novel written in 1988.
In the film, a young American FBI trainee called Clarice Starling gets advice from Doctor Lecter, who is in prison, to find a serial killer known as 'Buffalo BIll'.
The opening scene begins with a woman running through dark, misty woods. We then find out that she is doing an assault course, because she is in the FBI. She gets told that a Mr Crawford wants to see her, so she walks through a building and enters some offices where she finds some newspaper articles about a murderer called 'Buffalo Bill'. Mr Crawford sets her a task and the scene ends. Overall, the opening scene is brief and doesn't give much information about Clarice's character or any other important characters in the film. The male-dominant environment makes Clarice stand out against the others, so she seems important.
In the film, a young American FBI trainee called Clarice Starling gets advice from Doctor Lecter, who is in prison, to find a serial killer known as 'Buffalo BIll'.
The opening scene begins with a woman running through dark, misty woods. We then find out that she is doing an assault course, because she is in the FBI. She gets told that a Mr Crawford wants to see her, so she walks through a building and enters some offices where she finds some newspaper articles about a murderer called 'Buffalo Bill'. Mr Crawford sets her a task and the scene ends. Overall, the opening scene is brief and doesn't give much information about Clarice's character or any other important characters in the film. The male-dominant environment makes Clarice stand out against the others, so she seems important.
A high angle establishing shot sets the scene and gives connotations of the genre of the film because the mistiness and dim colours are common in thriller films and create an eerie and creepy atmosphere. Another establishing shot introduces a new setting to the audience, which is a building so it is less isolated than the woods, creating a sense of safety with the audience. A third establishing shot shows more of the building, showing it as an official place where members of the FBI work.
The camera pans across the woods to show the other side, this reveals the whole location to the audience, showing it to be a stereotypical location for a horror film because it is isolated and makes the character look more alone. A medium shot of the main character, Clarice Starling, introduces her to the audience and makes her seem significant, as she is the only character so far, the shot of her establishes her as an important character. There is another medium shot later on which shows Clarice as she's running, she is sweaty which shows she's been running for a long time, implying that she is a strong and fit character. A close up of a man wearing an FBI hat instantly tells the audience that the woman isn't running from anything but instead that she could be doing an assault course for training in the FBI. This subverts the common representation of women in thriller/horror films being weak and dependent on men as she is represented as strong and unglamorous.
There is a tracking shot that follows Clarice as she runs through the woods, intriguing the audience about where she's going. When she enters the building, the camera keeps tracking Clarice as she walks around the building, this explicitly shows the audience that she is the main character in the film because she also walks around as if she is important.
There is a large amount of diegetic sounds in the opening scene, there is the diegetic sound of crows in the background, which creates a sense of fear in the audience, there is also heavy breathing, gun shots, helicopters and leaf noises. The first speech in the scene is when a man calls her while she is running, which is when the audience learns her name. The soundtrack is orchestral and is in a minor key, it is eerie and dramatic which creates a tense and fearful atmosphere, this is enhanced with the repeated bass line in the music, a convention of the horror/thriller genre.
There are men in uniform and the training suggests that they are at an FBI academy, which implies that they and Clarice are training to be in the FBI. The blue sky shown in the scene creates the feeling of a calm atmosphere, this could be hinting that something ominous is going to happen. Guns in the background of an area that Clarice walks through connote violence which could be to foreshadow danger for Clarice.
The text is in black with a white outline, sans serif and very simple. This could be because it is quite an old film and they didn't have the same software as they do now so titles are limited in style. Text appears throughout the opening scene.
Inspiration for our opening scene
In our scene, we want to have a girl running away from a murderer which is quite similar to this opening scene because we wanted to use either woods or a field to film in and I like how the woods in this film are all misty which adds to the isolated effect. It would be hard to recreate that unless we wait for a misty morning to film, which would be impractical and hard to plan for.
I like the use of camera angles as she is running, the tracking shots were good because it allows the audience to see where she's going and the camera could also be the point-of-view shot of the murderer who is chasing after her. I think it would be effective if we use a point of view shot from the killer's point of view in our scene because it intrigues the audience.
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