The opening scene from Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ is filled
with effective uses of editing, camera angles and sound, all to make the opening
scene captivating and interesting to watch.
Here
is the list of camera angles with their shots, and what they can tell us about
the opening scene to keep it effective.
This
is an Ariel Shot. The opening is rather startling. The scene is described as
“solemn, ominous horns, camera quickly zooming in on, and over, a slim isolated
island in a lake shielded by high, barren canyon walls which are reflected in
the lake.” We know this because it is
above and looking below at the ground; usually filmed with a camera and a
helicopter. There is no sound in this scene apart from the music; which is
spine chillingly eerie. The music goes on throughout the entirety of this scene
and is high pitched wailing like in its form and it really gives you an aspect
of the film, and since the Ariel shot is just of the river and mountain side
you don’t know what is happening or going to happen or where the camera is
taking you.
This shot is a Crossfade; The camera begins to curve to the
right then crossfades to a high aerial shot tracking a lone car traveling a
thin "snake like" road through a
forest, anticipating the high overviews we will later have of the maze at the Overlook Hotel. The curve of the canyon wall and the lake is echoed in the curve of the road as it fades in and the Rorschach of the landscape mirrored in the lake subsides. The sound stays the same, and we still don’t have a clear view of what is happening.
The third scene in the opening is also an Ariel shot. The
camera follows the yellow VW from behind,
placing it in context of the lake and imposing ice-capped mountains. With the
eerie and shimmery music plays with piano strings and shakers with screams.
The final shot is of the hotel, Overlook hotel. This is when
the music dims down and the scene relaxes to an end and after the traumatic
sounds you are treated to one of few sane moments.
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