Alfred Hitchcock was best known for his Thriller movies. One movie he created was Shadow of a Doubt in which is a Thriller. This film has many conventions of a thriller. The film starts of with a people in a ball room dancing in full unison. The music is called the Merry Widow in which starts of as cheerful and joyous. We then see a dissolve of the ball room to an industrial site. Throughout this shot a sound bridge occurs, where the sound carry's on into the next shot. However, the music changes to a deeper sound in which is parallel to the images shown. This shows the difference between the upper class and the under class people.
From the industrial site, another dissolve shot was used to show a rusty old broken car. This shows the type of things people may see in an industrial site. The music used establishes a polluted run down environment in which is still parallel to the images shown. Another dissolve is used to a long shot down a street showing children playing. The music is still parallel showing the wealth of the area.
Each dissolve used is to show where the main character is and the environment he is in. The final dissolve used was to show the character for the first time in the film. The character (Charlie) is laying on the bed, however he looks dead. Charlie is smartly dressed witha cegar in his hand. The room in which he is in is shown in low key lighting to show the distinctive shadows in the room. The only source of light is from the window.
In the scene, the camera moves around to show detail in the room, which signify's the important things to the character in the film such as: money lying on the table and on the floor. This shows that Charlie is wealthy however, because some of the money is on the floor, it shows that he does not care too much about his wealth.
When the lady comes in, Charlie looks calm and worn down. When the lady pulls down the blind, the shadow becomes more distinctive, and the music plays. The music sounds deep and dangerous, which shows that danger is coming. When the blind covers his face, Charlie opens his eyes and comes to life. This shows that he is a dangerous person. Throughout the scene no dialogue is used to establish Charlie's personality, it is all done visually.
When Charlie sits up, he smashes his glass onto the floor. This shows that he is violent and angry as he has just heard what the lady has told him about the two men who came looking for him. The low key lighting also shows that he is violent and angry because of the shadows, as they cover some of his features when he is in the room. When Charlie walks out of the room, the music becomes louder and more dramatic. The music stays the same as he walks towards the two men outside, and becomes softer when he walks past them.
As the two men follow Charlie, they walk in full unison with each other and the music. This shows that they are after Charlie and that they usually get what they want by going through the routine.
High angled shots are used to show where the characters are going. The two men follow Charlie and the high angled shots shows them as they are powerless. As they are shown powerless on the ground, the camera pans to where Charlie is, as he is looking down at the two men. However Charlie is shown in a silhoette. This shows that Charlie is mysterous and and sinister, and he is always one step ahead of his enemies.
A dissolve is used to show where the next character is. The film then takes us to Santa Rosa. This area is shown as very clean, happy, posh, calm and for upper class people. The music here is cheerful and shows that people in Santa Rosa has a better quality of life than where Charlie is.
We then see a straight cut to a girl named Charlie. She is Charlie's niece. The little girl is shown the same as Uncle Charlie. This is called mirror imaging where they are shown to be possitioned the same. However, there is more light in the room. This shows that she is a good person.
Overall, i think that this is a good opeing of a film, because it establishes the characters personality from the beginning, in which helps the audience understand what each character is like. It also used varies dissolve shots in which helps the audience to understand the environment each character is in, to show how they live and how they prefer to live.
In addition, the lighting was used in an excellent way as the lighting showed what kind of personality each character has visually, as sometimes the dialogue may not be clear to the audience.
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